Great Acting

With clarity and insight, Richard Brestoff introduces the great acting teachers, explaining their techniques and how they are applied today. Beginning with Quintilian and Delsarte, he guides us to the present with an inside look at what is currently being taught in the major acting schools and private acting studios; The Actors Studio, Yale University, NYU, Juilliard and many more are visited. The Great Acting Teachers and Their Methods will help you understand the most important ideas about acting, where they originated and how they are used in training programs today.

Have you ever had that sinking feeling that your career’s going nowhere and that if you could only find half the confidence your colleagues seem to have, you could find the success and fulfillment you crave? This clear yet empathetic guide will show you the path towards increasing your confidence at work, arm yourself with the tools you need no matter what chaos is unraveling around you.

Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan. When we watch these remarkable actors in a performance, we see only Sophie, Stanley Kowalski, Hannibal Lecter, or Cassie from Promising Young Woman. How are they able to transform our world in this way? How and why do they do what they do? In Acting Naturally, David Thomson sheds light on the actors who have shaped the film industry. He shrewdly analyzes these stars, revealing how a sly smile, an extra-long pause, even a small gesture of the hand can draw in an audience.

The poster-child victim of a dysfunctional family from Beech Grove, Indiana, Steve McQueen experienced an unsettled early life with a rebellious and alcoholic mother. McQueen channeled his difficult childhood into a masterful career on screen portraying tough, self-sufficient characters in such iconic films as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, Bullitt, and Papillon.

Talia Rose suffered from what her aunts called The Family Curse. Kleine-Levin Syndrome—or more commonly, Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. But it was nowhere near as glamorous as the fairytale name suggested. Sleeping up to twenty hours a day for weeks, sometimes months, on end. Having no memory of anything during that time. No friends. No chance of a boyfriend. KLS was her own version of a living nightmare. Talia wouldn’t even be able to hold down a job if not for the family theater. And she’d once loved everything about it—acting, dancing, singing—everything. After The Family Curse ...