A Vintage Original, May 1986- First Edition

          A Practical Handbook For the Actor. Boring. I've heard this before. 

      These are the thoughts I was expressing just a week ago when I picked up this book. I thought it would be the perfect choice for my drama blog project. It looked easy to read; however, I highly doubted it would help my acting skills at all- I mean, you learn by doing, right? Well, when this project was assigned, (one where the student must read a book that has to do with an interesting aspect of theatre, and blog about it), I took a glance at the simple handbook and thought, "why not?"

       I figured I better start reading some of it soon, written by Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previto, and Scott Zigler, it seemed like a nice book- except for the cliché title. Be that as it may, I sat down yesterday and read the beginning, and, let me just clarify one thing, the title definitely does not do this book justice.

       I was very surprised when I saw how well written it was, and pleased when I connected with the authors, feeling as though it had been written just for me. Here is an excerpt:

       "Most acting training is based on shame and guilt. If you have studied acting, you have been asked to do exercises you didn't understand, and when you did them, ... you submitted guiltily to the criticism. You have also been asked to do exercises you did understand, but whose application to the craft of acting escaped you, and you were too ashamed to ask that their usefulness be explained.

       As you did these exercises it seemed that everyone around you understood their purpose but you- so, guiltily, you learned to pretend ...  While keeping up an outward show of perpetual study, you began to believe that no actual, practicable technique of acting existed, and this was the only possible belief supported by the evidence."

       How did they know that? 
        It's true- every word- which is why I am reading this book. There must be a technique behind being a great actor- and I am very determined to find out what it is. I've spent years taking drama classes, yet, I've never been confident in my own abilities- I've always felt like I was missing something, and, hopefully, once I am finished reading this book, all that will change.