About the Book:
The classic book on acting. Respect for Acting helped generations of actors hone their craft, and its advice is as useful now as it was in 1973, when it was first published.
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; together they turned a handful of scruffy old buildings into a workplace and spiritual home for actors.
Respect for Acting is Hagen's blueprint for the actor, her design for enlightened stage acting. Among Hagen's distinguished students were Robert DeNiro, Jack Lemmon, Anne Bancroft, Fritz Weaver, Bette Midler, Geraldine Page and Steve McQueen. This book will continue to bring Hagen's techniques to actors and theater-lovers alike.
What people say:
"Uta Hagen wanted us to never 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 forward
"This fascinating and detailed book about acting is Miss Hagen's credo, the accumulated wisdom of her year's 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 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
"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 from it. Anyone with a casual interest in the theater should also enjoy its behind-the-scene flavor." — King Features Syndicate
About the Authors:
Uta Hagen was the recipient of innumerable honors and awards during her long career, including the prestigious National Medal for the Arts in 2003. She died in 2004 at the age of 84.
Haskel Frankel was the drama critic of the National Observer.