Other library resource(s)
Acting from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Perceptions about screen acting have been remarkably polarized: when people give priority to the now-mythical experiment by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov that is supposed to have shown that editing creates film and other mediated performances, it appears there is no real acting in film; when they reckon with the importance of stars and the star system, it seems clear that understanding films necessarily involves an appreciation of screen performances. In the era before cinema was superseded to some degree by television and digital entertainment, distinctions between acting on stage and acting in film seemed paramount. ...
Extreme actor by Call Number: Streaming videosFollow actor Tony Babcock as goes to the extreme while preparing for his auditions in this reality TV series with heart. Tony gets locked in a cell, trains as a Knight, investigates the paranormal, and more as he meets the real-life people behind the characters. All while answering the question: how extreme can one go to get into a role? Tony gets more than he bargains for at an escape room as steps into the mind of a prisoner.
A short definition for "Acting"
The work of creating a dramatic character by a professional or amateur performer. The term acting is most often used in relation to narrative cinema, where the construction of character is central (see performance). Actors construct characters through their bodies (posture, gesture, and movement augmented by costume, makeup, hairstyle) and voices (tone, accent, delivery). During the making of Sunrise (1927), for example, F.W. Murnau is said to have asked actor George O’Brien to act with his back, indicating the importance of physical typing, posture, and movement to the construction of character. Action, reaction, and interaction between actors are also fundamental elements of any performance (see blocking). The work of the actor tends to be amplified by the close, almost forensic, scrutiny of the film camera, and screen acting is a specific skill that often involves understatement and restraint (see closeup). It is also important to remember that film acting is as much a product of blocking, camera angle, camera movement, costume, lighting, sound design, and special effects, as it is of the work undertaken by the actor’s voice and body; indeed, a key early debate in film studies was whether screen performance or editing are more determinate of a film’s meaning. Acting is considered as central to a film’s mise-en-scene and a major preoccupation for film studies has been the attempt to establish a suitable vocabulary for describing the work of acting as a sign system (see semiotics). ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Acting. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 15 Nov. 2023
In the library's collections
- actingCall number range is PN 2055 through PN 2073 on Baker Stacks 4.
- motion picture actors and actresses united statesYou can include the name of a country to narrow the search.
Introductory reading(s)
Acting (re)considered: a theoretical and practical guide by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780415262996Publication Date: 2nd ed.Acting (Re)Considered is an exceptionally wide-ranging collection of theories on acting, ideas about body and training, and statements about the actor in performance. This second edition includes five new essays and has been fully revised and updated, with discussions by or about major figures who have shaped theories and practices of acting and performance from the late nineteenth century to the present. ...
The art of acting by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 2061 .A36 2000ISBN: 9781557833730Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century's greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.
Beginning acting: the illusion of natural behavior by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 2061 .F4 1987ISBN: 9780130716316
The energetic performer: an integrated approach to acting for stage and screen by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781848190979A new approach to actor training by a senior teacher, this illustrated manual shows how to use the body to produce rich, varied and truthful performances. The approach, rooted in the Michael Chekhov Technique, integrates ancient Qigong knowledge with somatic psychology and western actor training methods to identify the links between physical shape, emotion and feeling in performance. ...
Why acting matters: by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780300195781Does acting matter? David Thomson, one of our most respected and insightful writers on movies and theater, answers this question with intelligence and wit. In this fresh and thought-provoking essay, Thomson tackles this most elusive of subjects, examining the allure of the performing arts for both the artist and the audience member while addressing the paradoxes inherent in acting itself. He reflects on the casting process, on stage versus film acting, and on the cult of celebrity. ...
Selected book title(s)
- Acting without agony: an alternative to the Method by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 2061 .R48 1994ISBN: 9780205151653Most acting books approach acting and directing from the Stanislavsky method which advocates arriving at emotions by "Affective Memory.'' This process asks the actor to use his/her own past experiences and graft them onto the character. Stanislavsky himself later rejected this and said it "led to hysteria.'' Acting Without Agony offers an alternative to the method and teaches another way of arriving at emotions, which is described in detail throughout the text. It further maintains that acting should be fun and not a self-dissecting experience. ...
Devising performance: a critical history by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 2193 .E86 H43 2006ISBN: 9781403906632The book charts the development of collaboratively-created performances from the 1950s to the present day. Companies discussed include the Living Theatre, Open Theatre, Australian Performing Group, People Show, Teatro Campesino, Théâtre de Complicité, Legs on the Wall, Forced Entertainment and Third Angel. Against this background of enormous variety, fundamental questions are posed: "What is devised theatre?"; "Why have theatre-makers chosen to devise performances sincethe 1950s?" and "How has devised performance changed over the last fifty years?"
Games for actors and non-actors by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 2061 .B49413 1992ISBN: 9780415061544A genuinely inspiring handbook packed with games, exercises, methods and techniques from the world-famous author of Theatre of the Oppressed. This first English translation includes new examples and fresh ideas.
The principles of comedy improv: truths, tales, and how to improvise by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781609388850The Principles of Comedy Improv is an authoritative handbook for beginners and experts alike. More than just entertainment, improv's tenets enable you to change every moment of your life. Your guide is Tom Blank, who crystallizes two decades of experience to convey improv in unparalleled scope, depth, and fun.
Selected recent biographies/autobiographies in our collections
Find more recent biographies in our library's collections.
Best actress: the history of Oscar-winning women by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1993.5 .U6 T278 2019ISBN: 9781978808058Ingrid Bergman. Audrey Hepburn. Elizabeth Taylor. Jane Fonda. Meryl Streep. The list of women who have won the coveted and legendary Academy Award for Best Actress is long and varied. Through this illustrious roster we can trace the history of women in Hollywood, from the rise of Mary Pickford in the early 20th century to the #MeToo and Time's Up movements of today, which have galvanized women across the world to speak out for equal pay, respect, power, and opportunity. ...
Did I ever tell you this?: a memoir by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781922791382In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world's most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his career has been a series of unpredictable turns of fortune. ...
Mel Brooks: disobedient Jew by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780300244274Mel Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, is one of the great comic voices of the twentieth century. Having won almost every entertainment award there is, Brooks has straddled the line between outsider and insider, obedient and rebellious, throughout his career, making out-of-bounds comedy the American mainstream. Jeremy Dauber argues that throughout Brooks's extensive body of work--from Your Show of Shows to Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to Spaceballs -- the comedian has seen the most success when he found a balance between his unflagging, subversive, manic energy and the constraints imposed by comedic partners, the Hollywood system, and American cultural mores. ...
My name Is Barbra by Call Number: On order - Check the catalogISBN: 9780525429524Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl on stage and winning the Oscar for that performance on film. ...
Tanaka Kinuyo: nation, stardom and female subjectivity by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781474409698Bringing together a range of Japanese and western scholars, this is the first book in English dedicated to the actress and director Tanaka Kinuyo. Praised as amongst the greatest actors in the history of Japanese cinema, Tanaka's career spanned the industrial development of cinema - from silent to sound, monochrome to colour. Alongside featuring in films by Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse and Kurosawa, Tanaka was also the only Japanese woman filmmaker between 1953 and 1962, and her films tackled distinctly feminine topics such as prostitution and breast cancer. ...- Ugo Tognazzi: ridere è una cosa seria byCall Number: Baker-Berry PN 2688 .T6 R53 2022ISBN: 9791280023117Publication Date: Prima ed.
Unfinished: a memoir by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781984819215In this thoughtful and revealing memoir, readers will accompany one of the world's most recognizable women on her journey of self-discovery. "I have always felt that life is a solitary journey, that we are each on a train, riding through our hours, our days, our years. We get on alone, we leave alone, and the decisions we make as we travel on the train are our responsibility alone." A remarkable life story rooted in two different worlds, Unfinished offers insights into Priyanka Chopra Jonas's childhood in India; her formative teenage years in the United States; and her return to India, where against all odds as a newcomer to the pageant world, she won the national and international beauty competitions that launched her global acting career. ...
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