A Challenge For The Actor [Hardcover]

Uta Hagen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 1991

Theoretically, the actor ought to be more sound in mind and body than other people, since he learns to understand the psychological problems of human beings when putting his own passions, his loves, fears, and rages to work in the service of the characters he plays. He will learn to face himself, to hide nothing from himself -- and to do so takes an insatiable curiosity about the human condition.

from the Prologue

Uta Hagen, one of the world's most renowned stage actresses, has also taught acting for more than forty years at the HB Studio in New York. Her first book, Respect for Acting, published in 1973, is still in print and has sold more than 150,000 copies. In her new book, A Challenge for the Actor, she greatly expands her thinking about acting in a work that brings the full flowering of her artistry, both as an actor and as a teacher. She raises the issue of the actor's goals and examines the specifics of the actor's techniques. She goes on to consider the actor's relationship to the physical and psychological senses. There is a brilliantly conceived section on the animation of the body and mind, of listening and talking, and the concept of expectation.

But perhaps the most useful sections in this book are the exercises that Uta Hagen has created and elaborated to help the actor learn his craft. The exercises deal with developing the actor's physical destination in a role; making changes in the self serviceable in the creation of a character; recreating physical sensations; bringing the outdoors on stage; finding occupation while waiting; talking to oneself and the audience; and employing historical imagination.

The scope and range of Uta Hagen here is extraordinary. Her years of acting and teaching have made her as finely seasoned an artist as the theatre has produced.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This volume completes Hagen's earlier classic, Respect for Acting (Macmillan, 1973). The beliefs, professionalism, and standards of training and performance that make Respect required reading for all actors are explored in this acting textbook that represents a lifetime of performance and teaching. Unlike the more academic texts, Hagen's study reflects exercises, insights, and techniques that have been taught and practiced in acting studios and on stages for many years. Readers should not be put off by Hagen's slightly archaic diction and habit of italicizing or boldfacing for emphasis. The heart of this book burns with commitment to an artistic ideal that, if it were a model for every actor, would improve American theater at all levels. Bravo. Recommended.
- Thomas E. Luddy, Salem State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Publishers Weekly This fascinating and detailed book about acting is Miss Hagen's credo, the accumulated wisdom of her years spent in intimate communion with her art. It is at once the voicing of her exacting standards for herself and those she teaches, and an explanation of the means to the end. For those unable to avail themselves of her personal tutelage, her book is the best substitute.

Brooks Atkinson Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting is not only pitched on a high artistic level but also full of homely, practical information by a superb craftswoman. An illuminating discussion of the standards and techniques of enlightened stage acting.

Library Journal Hagen adds to the large corpus of titles on acting with vivid dicta drawn from experience, skill, and a sense of personal and professional worth, Her principal asset in this treatment is her truly significant imagination. Her "object exercises" display a wealth of detail with which to stimulate the student preparing a scene for presentation.

Harold Clurman Respect for Acting is a simple, lucid, and sympathetic statement of actors problems in the theatre and basic tenets for their training wrought from the personal experience of a fine actress and teacher of acting.

Fritz Weaver Uta Hagen is our greatest living actor; she is, moreover, interested and mystified by the presence of talent and its workings; her third gift is a passion to communicate the mysteries of the craft to which she has given her life. There are almost no American actors uninfluenced by her.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons; 10th Impression edition (August 21, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684190400
• ISBN-13: 978-0684190402
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater

More About the Author

Uta Hagen was born in Germany in 1919 and made her Broadway debut in 1938 as Nina in the Lunt-Fontanne production of The Sea Gull. Among some of the twenty or more Broadway productions in which she has starred are: Othello, Key Largo, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Country Girl, Saint Joan, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Recently she starred in the Twentieth-Century Fox film The Other. Even during her playing engagements she has never stopped teaching at the HB Studio. Geraldine Page, Fritz Weaver, Jason Robards, Jack Lemmon, Steve McQueen are only a few of the many fine actors she has helped to send on their way. She has also performed and directed at the HB Playwright's Foundation in numerous productions. Miss Hagen has been ably assisted in the writing of this book by Haskel Frankel, drama critic of The National Observer.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Like a Second Edition, December 5, 1997

By 

Michael D. (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Challenge For The Actor (Hardcover)

Although the synopsis found above suggests this book is entirely new, looking at it as a second edition to her first acting book, RESPECT FOR ACTING, is probably more accurate. It is still full of the tangible practice techniques an actor needs, but it has been updated with additional sections her previous book didn't include. RESPECT FOR ACTING was separated into three parts: One-The Actor; Two-The Object Exercises; and Three-The Play and the Role. In A CHALLENGE FOR THE ACTOR there are four parts: One-The Actor; Two-The Human Techniques; Three-The Exercises; and Four-The Role. Hagen doesn't simply rehash what she wrote in her first book; she's refined her techniques and expanded them. The two of her books used in conjunction might be the only reference books an actor needs on the craft of acting. First rate writing from one of the most revered and respected actresses to ever take the stage.

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More like an updated edition, yes, February 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Challenge For The Actor (Hardcover)

My own acting teacher, who has herself been a student of Ms. Hagen's, has suggested that Ms. Hagen actually prefers that students of acting refer to this book rather than her previous one ('Respect for Acting'), because in it, not only does she expand on the ideas presented in the earlier work, but she also actually revises some of the ideas she presented in the first book.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great follow up to Respect for Acting, August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Challenge For The Actor (Hardcover)

After having read Respect for Acting, I had discovered that Ms Hagen had written another book. Immediately I went out and bought it. While I found it every bit as fascinating as the first I must say a lot of it is repeats from the first book. Even some of the wording is the same. That said, it is still a wonderful read. her ideas are more concise, her craft more honed, and her expansion well worth the cover price. I especially liked the first chapter where she discusses The Actor's World. Here she goes into a bit of history we all would be better off to know, and she tells a little more about herself. When she talks about the McCarthy hearings, and in particular her radio speecah afterwards, I was moved to tears. Her words on Edwin Booth have sparked my interest in him and the "Golden Era of the Actor." Uta has done it again. Now if only I could meet her.