Customer Reviews

Classical Acting

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Morrison's CLASSICAL ACTING is perhaps the only available acting text which clearly delineates the adjustment in acting technique necessary to fulfill the demands of heightened classical text. The chapter entitled "Words, Words, Words" is especially valuable in explaining the socio-political background of classical acting; in addition, it clarifies the verbal agility and listening skills required for this work.
It also explains the value of RHETORICAL ARGUMENT and ORATORY as methods of "convincing" in Shakespeare--and notes with sadness our modernist tendency to replace skilled oral argument with attitude.
An extremely valuable book for actors interested in creating vivid, full-blooded, passionate acting in classical texts.

This is a clearly written, thorough text which kept me totally engrossed from cover to cover. It is full of wise advice and excellent examples. The exercises suggested are imaginative and original. ACCESSIBLE, INFORMATIVE, ENTERTAINING! I believe this is a must for anyone who is serious about theatre, whether as a performer or an audience-member. The author is undoubtedly a very experienced theatre-person as well as a superb writer. As an actor I have learned so much on my first reading and intend to return to this invaluable book again and again. I shall certainly look for more by Malcolm Morrison, I see he has written a book called Clear Speech - can't wait to get it!

Morrison obviously has friends of his in CT writing the reviews for this terrible piece of toilet reading. The exercises are not at all accessible, and even if they were, they are so antiquated, they hardly speak to the modern actor. To say this is an exicting read is a bold-faced lie, since it is so often caught up in enjoying it's own rhetoric, it vears from the point. This may be a useful book for research purposes, or for the novice, but in terms of being a valuable asset to the aspiring professional, look elsewhere. Much better, and more accessible texts have been written by Cohen, Hagen, and Mamet, with far more bearing on the modern American Theatre.