A seminal collection of essays edited and introduced by Phillip Zarrilli.
Book cover: Acting (Re)Considered, published by Routledge (2002).
Acting (Re)Considered (1995, 2002) 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 essays – by directors, historians, actor trainers, and actors – bridge the gap between theories and practices of acting, and between East and West. No other book provides such a wealth of primary and secondary sources, bibliographic material, and diversity of approaches. It includes discussions of such key topics as:
• how we think and talk about acting
• acting and emotion
• the actor's psychophysical process
• the body and training
• the actor in performance
• non-Western and cross-cultural paradigms of the body, training, and acting.
Acting (Re)Considered is vital reading for all those interested in performance.
“… changes the parameters of what acting is, or is thought to be …”
Seth Baumrin in Theatre Journal.
“… an exciting cross section of contemporary writing about acting … immensely valuable … and a model of critical acumen.”
James Peck in The Drama Review.
“The book’s cohesiveness comes from Zarrilli’s excellent introduction to each section, which not only provides a thematic structure and excites the reader’s curiosity, but also provides valuable commentary on the collected essays. Offering a bridge between the theoretical and the practical, this book is an important contribution to theatre studies.”
Excerpted from review by Gregg Wilson, Backstage, November 8, 1996:32.
View this title on the Routledge website.