Working with Actors

Working with Actors provides the key to unlocking the honest, dynamic performance every actor has within them. It offers a well-articulated formulation of the Meisner Technique easy for directors and actors to use within a working context. Through setting out an accessible training programme for practitioners working across stage and screen, this book establishes a clear-cut route to building a three-dimensional character in an organic, non-intellectual fashion, based squarely on the character's objectives. Few books in this field venture out of the training studio, while in this book - alongside offering an intense and concentrated Meisner training programme - the focus is more on the 'pay-off': the collaborative act of developing the role and how that plays out in rehearsal and performance. Beyond that, the books uniquely offers: > a new modality for script reading, analysis and rehearsal through which the character is born in relation to other characters; > a prioritisation of the key skills for coming alive in the moment - listening and putting one's attention wholly on the other character/actor; > a historical perspective on how Meisner's methods have evolved and why they provide the basis of truthful acting; > for directors, a format for analysis of the complete work based on Stanislavskian principles; > for actors, complementary methods, such as Uta Hagen's 'endowment', to enhance the 'reality of doing'

Stephen Bayly is a respected director and producer with film credits including Coming Up Roses (1986), Just Ask for Diamond (1986), Richard III (1995) and Mrs Dalloway (1997). He was Director of the National Film and Television School UK from 1998 - 2003. He alternates his teaching at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in Cuba with travelling extensively to give workshops in other countries, under the auspices of Directing Arts (www.directingarts.com).

CONTENTS PART ONE: TECHNIQUE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. SIMPLE TECHNIQUE PERFECTLY 3. FEAR 4. WORKING 'WITH' 5. ACTING IS DOING 6. LISTENING 7. BEYOND LANGUAGE 8. THE PINCH AND THE OUCH 9. IMAGINARY CIRCUMSTANCES 10.WHO'S THAT KNOCKING? 11.MAD SAD GLAD 12.NO SUCH THING AS A MONOLOGUE 13.TAKING IT PERSONALLY 14.IT'S JUST AN ILLUSION 15.IN SEARCH OF THE CHARACTER 16.A DIRECTOR PREPARES 17.MAPPING OUT REHEARSALS 18.TAKING SIDES 19.LAUNCHING THE CANOE 20.THE NITTY-GRITTY 21.APPLYING THE 'AS-IF' 22.DIGGING DEEPER 23.STRIVING FOR THE SUMMIT 24.THE REAL WORLD PART TWO: PERSPECTIVES 25.WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? 26.PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS 27.BITS NOT BEATS 28.INDICATING 29.LIQUIFIED TROUBLE 30.CAST THE ACTOR NOT THE CHARACTER 31.UNBLOCKING THE WRITER 32.EVERYONE CAN ACT 33.FAKING IT 34.THE CASE AGAINST ACTIONING 35.SUBTEXT 36.SILENCE IS GOLDEN 37.CLIPS 38.MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE 39.THE CASE FOR REALISM GLOSSARY INDEX