Customer Reviews

The Actor as Storyteller: An Introduction to Acting

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4 star:		(1)
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As he promises Miller delivers an "articulation of craft that is simple, direct, immediate and broadly applicable." What he doesn't state is just how refreshing and relieving it is to finally have a clear and practical textbook on acting. Miller punctures the mystique surrounding actors and what they do and how they do it. He reaffirms that acting is indeed a craft with a learnable set of skills. Acting then becomes possible for anyone willing to devote the time and effort into mastering its skills. Good acting is no longer the domain of an elite few who magically possess talent. The biggest obstacle I find facing my students is not a lack of talent but a confusion about and an unwillingness to pursue mastery of the skills of craft. I find most textbooks on acting either too theoretical or confusing in their attempts to articulate craft. By clearly defining the skills and suggesting practical exercises to master them, Miller has given the student some solid footing for their journey toward mastery. Another strength of Miller's book is its enpowerment of the actor. Too often the model I see in production is the actor who comes to rehearsal and waits for the director to tell her what to do and how to do it. This totally undermines the potential strength of the collaborative process. Miller's dictum that it is the actor's responsibility to help tell the story in the most potent way possible re-establishes the potential strength of the collaborative relationship. Actors can then offer the director several choices for a moment or a scene. This enriches the production and makes the actor's job much more exciting and creative. Students will appreciate Miller's detailed guidance on audtioning and rehearsing.Again he offers very clear and practical models for these processes. His closing chapters on the "business" are honest and wise. I am using THE ACTOR AS STORYTELLER as a required text in all my acting classes. It combines good solid acting values and techniques and presents them with a simplicity and clarity that will heighten the skill of any actor who practices them. I highly recommend this text.

This is a quite marvelous new acting text that provides a wealth of exercises meant to focus the acting task squarely on the actor's intellect. Miller defines good acting as being believable and telling the best possible story (hence the title). His focus is on the actor taking circumstances and situations into account and then rendering acting choices that will be interesting and compelling. This is a liberating approach, in that it gives beginning students a bench mark from which to evaluate thier work. As a devotee of Robert Cohen's Acting One for many years, I am impressed how this book takes that bare bones approach (Goal, Obstacle, Tactic, Expectation) and really expands upon it. Students are not just responsible for determining goal, but they must tell a story as well. This places an enormous responsiblity on the actor (some HS teachers might think too much), but it is eminantly workable and pragmatic within the context of scene and character work. To his credit, Miller is taking his technique on the road. He is currently holding workshops, sponsored by the Educational Theater Association, where he spends a weekend with interested High School acting teachers actually working on the exercises in the book. Having just attended the one in Atlanta this past September, I can say that what may seem too simple on the page, comes to vibrant life in the workshop. I highly recommend it to HS teachers. Since the workshop I have been able to meld the best of Cohen, with many of the exercises that Miller provides. My students have never been more engaged and challenged with the acting process. Even if you don't adopt the book for your classroom, this is a must read for every HS acting teacher (and college profs would do well by it, as well). It also includes valuable information about the audition process and how to succeed as a professional actor.

This book is a "must read" for working actors, drama teachers and students. This book explains acting's essence; all else is mere technique!

The book is very helpful and effectively introduces you to the craft of acting while sharing vital information about the actors job. I now have a new appreciation for theater that I didn't have before. The books chapters are short, but they are to the point. Filled with a lot of information and exercises, this book really captures the craft effectively.