The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character

The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character

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  • Author: William Esper
  • Publisher: Anchor
  • ISBN: 0345805690
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 306

William Esper, one of the most celebrated acting teachers of our time, takes us through his step-by-step approach to the central challenge of advanced acting work: creating and playing a character. Esper’s first book, The Actor’s Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor’s Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper’s second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. Esper’s training builds on Sanford Meisner’s legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.


Building a Performance

Building a Performance

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  • Author: John Basil
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
  • ISBN: 153816132X
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 225

Building a Performance provides a clear step-by-step system for actors through all stages of the rehearsal process. It enables actors to make more dynamic choices, craft complex characters with rich behavior, and find engaging and powerful levels of performance.


The Actor's Checklist

The Actor's Checklist

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  • Author: Rosary O'Neill
  • Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Company
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 220

Class-tested for more than 15 years and based on the Constantin Stanislavki method of acting, this introductory text examines Stanislavki's eight principles, presented in an easily understood checklist format. In addition to Stanislavski, this exciting acting guide includes insights by other famous acting teachers, such as Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Michael Chekov, and Stella Adler. This books provides techniques for use in both classroom and production situations.


Creating a Character

Creating a Character

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  • Author: Moni Yakim
  • Publisher: Backstage Books
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 268

"For over 20 years, Moni Yakim has taught his unique blend of physical training and emotional exploration to a generation of American actors that include Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, and Kevin Kline. Now, for the first time, his acting process is available to every actor and theater professional." -- Amazon.com viewed July 20, 2020.


Character Creation

Character Creation

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  • Author: Paul Tomlinson
  • Publisher: Independently Published
  • ISBN: 9781731230140
  • Category :
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 0

Create Larger-than-Life Characters Readers and audiences love larger-than-life characters. Think of Hannibal Lecter, Captain Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Bennet, Holly Golightly or Sherlock Holmes. But how do you create memorable story people like this? 90% of a character, like an iceberg, exists below the surface. But you have to create that submerged content so that the part an audience sees can shine in the sunlight. Or spotlight. Character Creation is not a 'how to write' or 'how to act' book - it is about doing the background work that enables you to bring a character to life. Here you will find three fundamental character personality archetypes - the primary colours of your character palette: the Warrior, the Thinker, and the Carer. And three 'hybrid' personalities that blend those three - the Crusader, the Artist, and the Adventurer. These six types are all you need to understand to create any character - including psychopaths, antiheroes, and rebels. To guide you in creating the three-dimensions of character - the physical, social, and psychological - each of the archetypes are explained in terms of a dozen key features. To help you create heroes and villains there is detail about the dark and light side of each of the types - and why individuals end up on a particular side. To allow you to develop conflict or romance, friendship or feud, there is advice on which personality types attract one another and which ones will fight. And there is a step-by-step framework for a character development arc that you can use to take your 'flawed hero' character towards a happy-ever-after or a tragic ending./p> These tools can be used to improvise a new character from scratch or to explore an existing character and fill in the 'missing pieces' of their background. Character Creation draws on the work of Stanislavski and Laban, combining this with modern theories of human psychology and mental health to provide a detailed and complete framework for creating larger-than-life characters.


Creating Characters A-List Actors Want to Play

Creating Characters A-List Actors Want to Play

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  • Author: Script Magazine Editors
  • Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 1440351171
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 139

There's no better way to sell your script than to attract an A-List star to be a part of your film. But with thousands of scripts in circulation at all times, how can you make yours more appealing to Hollywood's most sought after performers? Creating Characters A-List Actors Want To Play is a collection of articles from Script Magazine that will guide you on your mission to create stand-out, memorable characters. Film industry experts provide advice based on the many scripts they've worked on and read throughout their careers: the good, the bad, and the ugly. These articles explore how to create memorable, developed characters who are relatable, nuanced, and engaging. Characters who have strong points of views, motivations, and inner conflicts. You will learn how film archetypes have morphed into tired stereotypes, and thus how to avoid the same fate for your own characters. You will learn how to employ personality quirks and the unexpected to elevate your characters beyond the confines of tropes. Articles explore the importance of raising the stakes, giving your characters a hard time, and making sure that the audience will empathize with them. You will learn how to utilize the whole cast of your script to show the layers of the protagonist, how to develop great villains, and why you need to take your character to the point of no return. Creating Characters A-List Actors Want To Play also covers writing dimensional female characters, how to utilize the 5 stages of grief and basic psychology, how to write intriguing character descriptions that appeal to actors, and various exercises to help you get to know your characters better. Contributors to this collection include Jeanne Veillette Bowerman (writer of the adaptation of the book Slavery by Another Name), Jerry Flattum (writer of Watertown, South Dakota, and Celestial Age), Heather Hale (writer of Absolute Killers and The Courage to Love), Marilyn Horowitz (professor and writing consultant), Brad Johnson (screenwriter and producer), Jacob Krueger (writer of The Matthew Shepard Story), Daniel Manus (founder of No Bull Script Consulting), Hayley McKenzie (writer of Papadopoulos & Sons, Chakara, and The Watcher Self), Drew Yanno (screenwriter and screenwriting professor), and Brett Wean (writer, actor, and improv instructor). If you're ready to make your characters dimensional enough to catch an Oscar winner's attention, get your copy of Creating Characters A-List Actors Want To Play today!


Building a Character

Building a Character

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  • Author: Constantin Stanislavski
  • Publisher: A&C Black
  • ISBN: 1780935676
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 271

In this follow up to his most famous book, An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski develop his influential 'system' of acting by exploring the imaginative processes at the heart of the actor's craft. Building a Character deals with the physical realisation of character on the stage through such tools as expressions, movement and speech. It is a book in which every theory is inextricably bound up with practice - a perfect handbook to the physical art of acting. The work of Stanislavski has inspired generations of actors and trainers and - available now in the Bloomsbury Revelations series to mark the 150th anniversary of Stanislavski's birth - it remains an essential read for actors and directors at all stages of their careers.


The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit

The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit

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  • Author: Martin Constantine
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
  • ISBN: 1350006483
  • Category : Music
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 393

The complete dramatic toolbox for the opera singer – a step-by-step guide detailing how to create character, from auditions through to rehearsal and performance and formulate a successful career. Drawing upon the innovative approach to the training of young opera singers developed by Martin Constantine, Co-Director of ENO Opera Works, The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit leads the singer through the process of bringing the libretto and score to life in order to create character. It draws on the work of practitioners such as Stanislavski, Lecoq, Laban and Cicely Berry to introduce the singer to the tools needed to create an interior and physical life for character. The book draws on operatic repertoire from Handel through Mozart to Britten to present practical techniques and exercises to help the singer develop their own individual dramatic toolbox. The Opera Singer's Acting Toolkit features interviews with leading conductors, directors, singers and casting agents to offer invaluable insights into the professional operatic world, and advice on how to remain focused on the importance of the work itself.


Long-Form Improv

Long-Form Improv

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  • Author: Ben Hauck
  • Publisher: Simon and Schuster
  • ISBN: 1621532364
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 262

Long-Form Improv deftly teaches the wildly popular form of improvisation that is so foundational to the comedy stylings of many of today’s top actors and thriving comedians. Crammed with innovative ideas for conceptualizing improvised scenework and “finding the game of the scene,” this crisply written manual covers techniques for experienced improvisers, curious actors, and even non-actors. A complete long-form improv resource comprising topics like ideation and character creation, improvising scenes for extended periods of time and enhancing them—and even performing the most famous expression of long-form improv, the half-hour improvised form known as “The Harold”—this astute text is written in a friendly, supportive voice by an experienced improv teacher and professional actor whose own frustration in learning the craft drove an obsession to create a program free of confounding teachings and contradictory concepts. The book’s groundbreaking infusion with drama theory and game theory brings new life to the teachings of the craft, breaking down various aspects of long-form improv into short chapters for swift, step-by-step intake of its vital lessons. Students of acting and long-form improv alike should expect Long-Form Improv to bolster their education and fast-track their course to improv greatness.


The Actor's Art and Craft

The Actor's Art and Craft

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  • Author: William Esper
  • Publisher: Anchor
  • ISBN: 030748114X
  • Category : Performing Arts
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 306

William Esper, one of the leading acting teachers of our time, explains and extends Sanford Meisner's legendary technique, offering a clear, concrete, step-by-step approach to becoming a truly creative actor.Esper worked closely with Meisner for seventeen years and has spent decades developing his famous program for actor's training. The result is a rigorous system of exercises that builds a solid foundation of acting skills from the ground up, and that is flexible enough to be applied to any challenge an actor faces, from soap operas to Shakespeare. Co-writer Damon DiMarco, a former student of Esper's, spent over a year observing his mentor teaching first-year acting students. In this book he recreates that experience for us, allowing us to see how the progression of exercises works in practice. The Actor's Art and Craft vividly demonstrates that good training does not constrain actors' instincts—it frees them to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.