Acting One (Paperback)

by Robert Cohen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Used to teach beginning acting on more campuses than any other text, Acting One covers the basic elements of realistic acting in twenty-eight lessons – all based on experiential exercises. The text covers basic skills such as talking, listening, tactical interplay, physicalizing, building scenes, and making good choices.

About the Author
ROBERT COHEN was the founding chair Drama at the University of California at Irvine, where he continues to serve as the department's Claire Trevor Professor of Drama. He has also been a resident acting teacher at the Actors Center in New York, the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the Korean National Arts University, and the national theatre academies of Hungary, Finland, and Estonia. He is an accomplished stage director, scholar, playwright, drama critic, and teacher. A director by training (Doctor of Fine Arts, Yale Drama School), Cohen has staged thirteen professional productions at the Utah and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals, plus well over a hundred productions at Stages Theatre Center (Hollywood), Virginia Museum Theatre (Richmond), Theatre 40 (Beverly Hills), Image Theatre (Boston), Summer Repertory Theatre (Santa Rosa), the Medieval Drama Project (Irvine), the Manhattan Theatre Source, various universities, and several operas, videos and films. In addition to Theatre and Theatre: Brief Edition, he is also the author of many theatre books, including Acting One, Advanced Acting, Acting in Shakespeare, Acting Professionally, Acting Power, More Power to You, Giraudoux: Three Faces of Destiny, Creative Play Direction, and two dramatic anthologies. His essays have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Theatre Forum, Theatre Survey, Modern Drama, Theater der Zeit, Essays in Theatre, On Stage Studies, The Drama Review, Contemporary Literature, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Slavic and East European Performance, Experiment and Innovation, and Dramatic Theory and Criticism. Cohen's play, The Prince, published by Dramatic Publishing Company, has been professionally produced in Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Budapest, and in staged readings in New York and Los Angeles; his dramatic translations (The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Misanthrope, Clizia, Tibi's Law) and opera translations (The Magic Flute, Carmen) have been both produced and published widely. For the past twenty years, Cohen has been the Southern California drama critic for Plays International, reviewing over two hundred plays. In 1999, he received the national Career Achievement award from ATHE - the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 5 edition (January 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0073514160
• ISBN-13: 978-0073514161
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #233,579 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful but overstuffed introductory acting text, November 19, 1999

By	P. Schierhorn "CollegeProf" (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Acting One (Hardcover)

The First Six lessons--goal and obstacle, the other, tactics, expectation, and their summary "GOTE" -- are excellent and concise. Unfortuantely, the book covers a great deal more ground than an introductory class could hope to cover. THe other chapters make good reading, and a student who decides s/he's serious about pursuing acting as a craft would be well served by owning this text. The casual student would be less well served.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent text for both the instructor and student., January 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Acting One (Hardcover)

His concepts of conflict and theatricality are excellent. Goal, Obstacle, Tactic and Expectation (GOTE)lead to a complete understanding of the actor's craft. For the beginner, this concept is absolutly necessary; the young actor now has a deep understanding of what makes an action theatrical and interesting. Through Cohen's work,the actor can understand and apply Stanislvaski's "beats."

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book from an insightful author, June 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Acting One (Hardcover)

I have read through Cohen's "Theatre" and "Acting One" and both are outstanding books on theatre for any actor. It is almost as good as Sidney Lumet's "Making Movies," but without all the fun stories about movie stars. This is one book I actually read for fun, and keep it in my glove compartment when I prepare for auditions. I am glad I am going to the school where this man teaches.