Respect for Acting [Hardcover]

Uta Hagen (Author), David Hyde Pierce (Foreword), Haskel Frankel (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0470228482 | ISBN-13: 978-0470228487 | Edition: 2

Respect for Acting

"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 [taught], and an explanation of the means to the end."
--Publishers Weekly

"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."
--Library Journal

"Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting . . . is a relatively small book. But within it, Miss Hagen tells the young actor about as much as can be conveyed in print of his craft."
--Los Angeles Times

"There are almost no American actors uninfluenced by Uta Hagen."
--Fritz Weaver

"This is a textbook for aspiring actors, but working thespians can profit much by it. Anyone with just a casual interest in the theater should also enjoy its behind-the-scenes flavor."
--King Features Syndicate

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In her introduction to Respect for Acting, actress and teacher Uta Hagen talks about a time when she herself had no respect for the art of acting. "I used to accept opinions such as: 'You're just born to be an actor'; 'Actors don't really know what they're doing on stage'; 'Acting is just instinct--it can't be taught.'" But this attitude of "you got it or you don't" is fundamentally one that denigrates the craft, as she points out. Great actors do not perform effortlessly, or merely through learning the appropriate tricks and cheats to manipulate an audience. Great acting is about the difficult fusion of intellect and action--about sincerely and truthfully connecting to the moment, your fellow actors, and the audience--and Hagen's thoughtful and profound book contains a series of observations and exercises to help an actor do just that. Her prose style is admirably clear and filled with examples from her own lengthy career both as a performer and in the classroom. While her exercises in sense memory and basic objects skirt close to the sort of self-absorption that followers of "the Method" are routinely accused of, they are presented clearly and with a focus on practical results. And in such places as her chapter "Practical Problems," which includes discussions of stage nerves and how to stay fresh in a long run, her straightforward advice is invaluable. --John Longenbaugh --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

"Uta Hagen wanted us never to settle, period, to keep on endlessly exploring, digging deeper, and aiming higher in our scenes, in our plays, in our careers. Respect for Acting is not a long book, and with any luck, it will take you the rest of your life to read it."
—David Hyde Pierce (from the Foreword)

Legendary actress and teacher Uta Hagen knew that an actor's finest work was often achieved for love rather than for money. She lived this philosophy alongside her husband, Herbert Berghof, at HB Studio, their acting school in New York. It was there that they created a workplace and spiritual home for actors such as Robert DeNiro, Jack Lemmon, Anne Bancroft, and Bette Midler.

Respect for Acting is Hagen's blueprint for the actor, her design for "enlightened stage acting." This classic book has helped generations of actors hone their craft, and its advice is as useful now as it was when it was first published. Hagen draws on her own struggle with the techniques of acting as well as her decades of teaching experience to break down the areas in which actors can work and search for realities in themselves that serve the character and the play. This approach helps actors to be specific in their actions in order to communicate an artistic statement. Hagen's instructions and examples also guide the aspiring actor through practical problems such as "How do I talk to the audience?" and "How do I stay fresh in a long run?"

Part One, "The Actor," deals with the actor's concept of him or herself, as well as techniques that set an actor in motion physically, verbally, and emotionally.

Part Two, "The Object Exercises," offers specific and detailed work for the actor, covering a broad range of problems and circumstances, from making an entrance to using the Fourth Wall.

Part Three, "The Play and the Role," covers how to approach the play and identify with the character the actor will undertake. It also shares practical thoughts and answers the questions young actors ask most.

Uta Hagen's influence endures in many of today's most compelling stage and screen performances. Informative and inspiring, Respect for Acting will bring her timeless techniques to actors and audiences for years to come.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470228482
• ISBN-13: 978-0470228487
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater
  • #71 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Television

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

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A BLUEPRINT FOR ACTORS, July 26, 2001

By 

MOVIE MAVEN (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Respect for Acting (Hardcover)

I have had the great pleasure and privilege of seeing Uta Hagen perform in plays by Edward Albee, Donald Margulies and George Bernard Shaw. She is surely one of the finest actors of our time. I have also had the great pleasure and privilege of studying for four years with Uta in the school she helped create with her late husband, Herbert Berghof (the famous HB Studio in New York City). I can assure you that she is one of the finest teachers of our time. It is a very rare actor who can actually communicate as a fine teacher. Uta is one of those very few who do just that.

In this, her first book, she lays out a "blueprint" for actors which, as surely as a blueprint by an architect, can be followed by those actors who are novices or those who have great experience. No, she cannot give you talent, but she can (and does) show you the how and why to use your talent to serve the playwright.

She believes in acting as an Art and this "how-to book" is invested with the love and respect of its title. It can be read and enjoyed and actually used by actors. It can also be read and enjoyed and relished by lovers of fine theatre who do not happen to be actors. It would make a terrific gift for any young actor along with the only books I would rate as its equal: Constantin Stanislavski's "An Actor Prepares" and his "Building A Character." It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must for any theatre enthusiast!, August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Respect for Acting (Hardcover)

Uta Hagen has long been considered one of "our" best. Here she examines what makes a human being "tick" and how an actor can use this to enhance his/her performance. Too many times books on acting tend to be very bland, and uninformative. Or even worse, they tend to take an almost clinical approach to our art, making it impossible to enjoy, and almost equally impossible to learn.

Having read many books on technique, I would consider this one of the best. Unlike Stanislavski's trilogy, which to me is like reading a science textbook, it doesn't bore the reader while trying to teach him, but rather inspires the artist to a greater understanding of his art and himself as an artist. In the book, she challenges us to work to achieve a higher form of theatre, one that works collaboratively, not individually. In summation, all I can say is that, for me, she speaks to my soul.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed Opinions, July 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Respect for Acting (Hardcover)

Uta Hagen has a great writing style, and "Respect for Acting" is clear and easy-to-read. She has many wonderful ideas, and I would definitely recommend this book to aspiring actors.
However, her methods (particularily sense and emotional memory) don't work for everyone. Be sure to also read Meisner, Clurman or Adler for more ideas, and find out what methods work for you.