The Actor's Checklist: Creating the Complete Character [Paperback]

Rosary O'Neill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1992 | ISBN-10: 0030731429 | ISBN-13: 978-0030731426

This introduction to acting text provides a step-by-step organizational outline of techniques based in the Stanislavski System and presented in a 1990s context. A separate chapter is devoted to each of 10 basic principles, so the student gets a grounding in one principle before moving onto the next. Question-answer format anticipates student's questions and answers questions students may not articulate or be hesitatant to ask. Progressive exercises carried throughout the text allows students to originate and build upon a character.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rosary O'Neill is the author of twelve plays produced internationally by invitation of the American embassy in Paris, Bonn, Tibilisi, Georgia, Budapest, Hungary, London and Moscow. Her play "Uncle Victor" was chosen Best New American Drama by the Cort Theater, Hollywood, and celebrated in the Chekhov Now Festival in New York. "Blackjack" was selected for Alice's Fourth Floor Best New Play Series. She was founding artistic director at Southern Rep Theater from 1987 to 2002. She has been playwright-in-residence at the Sorbonne University, Paris; Tulane University, New Orleans; Defiance College, Ohio; and the University of Bonn, Germany. She is currently working on novels as well as plays and is a Visiting Professor of Theatre at Cornell University. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt College Pub (March 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0030731429
• ISBN-13: 978-0030731426
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,074,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, excellent, excellent, October 3, 2001

By 

David Malek "David Malek" (Los Angeles, CA - USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Actor's Checklist: Creating the Complete Character (Paperback)

I have read much of the literature on acting in print. If you want one book that spells it all out for you buy this book. If I had a choice of only one book on the subject The Actor's Checklist would be it, and I don't even know nor had I ever heard of the author before.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful in every way but the price tag, September 10, 2001

By 

Bridget Bean, Grove Theatre Acting Studio (LUTZ, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Actor's Checklist: Creating the Complete Character (Paperback)

An excellent workbook for experienced and beginning actors. Much more than a 'checklist', it can be used as a class textbook or a personal aid to creating the complete character. There's nothing new in here, just a very fine compilation of the best methods and techniques, logically arranged, complete with exercises for each section. This is definitely my favorite resource for my own acting work. The only disappointment is the price. I would like to make this the required text book for my adult students, but I feel the cost is too high. $12-$15 would be more appropriate.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book for amateurs and pros, June 26, 2008

By 

M. S. Sanders "sandship" (GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Actor's Checklist (Paperback)

I've been acting and directing in school/college and community theatre for over 30 years. I've taken college courses in directing and acting classes at professional theatres and have read many of the standard books on acting (Stanislavski, Uta Hagen, etc.). The Actor's Checklist is one of the best, most accessible books on the subject that I've read. O'Neill's book is different from a lot of books on acting in that it takes the theory from those standard texts and leads the actor by the hand in applying that theory to their work in the rehearsal process, both at home and onstage. In fact, one of the emphases of the book is that work must be done offstage (i.e., homework) as well as onstage. So many times, especially in community theatre, actors do not do any thinking about their characters, and they certainly don't spend much time or energy working on their parts when away from the theatre. I hope to use much of what I've learned from The Actor's Checklist both when I'm acting and when I'm directing.