About the Book:

Good for auditions, analyzing scripts, and generally learning to express internal thought for an audience, this book helps you boil down what your goals and character's goals are. Acting means to do. Actors need actions. They cannot act moods. They need to be doing something with every line. They need verbs. They need an aim to achieve, and an action selected to help them achieve that aim. In the lexicon of acting tools, the word "actions" can have different meanings. For some practitioners, the word is interchangeable with "objectives." In some contexts, "actions" refers to physical activities. A well-organized thesaurus, Actions helps you put a physical manifestation to an intention in a way that's useful for actors and directors alike.

Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus is a no-nonsense book that every actor and director must also have in rehearsals. Long a secret of the acting community are those random lists of action words (in very dog-eared photocopy format) that circulate through rehearsal rooms. Actioning is a widely used rehearsal and performance technique: this thesaurus of active verbs pulls these vital action-words together and makes them available in an organized and comprehensive format, with which the actor can refine the action-word until s/he hits exactly the right one to help make the action come alive.

Actions are active verbs. "I tempt you." "You taunt me." In order to perform a line truthfully – and thus convincingly – the actor needs to find exactly the right action to suit that particular situation and that particular line. That is where the book Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus comes to the rescue. Thousands of action words are alphabetized and categorized to help you find what you are doing in every beat. This book will help you play specific actions and get away from making general choices. So many acting technique books get lost in the wordiness of describing acting. This handy, pocket-sized thesaurus is direct. When you're in need of a quick word in order to make sense of a scene, this book is a lifesaver.

What people say:

"If you want to act, or act better, Actions will take you a long way on the journey to excellence." — Terry Johnson, award winning playwright and director

About the Authors:

Marina Caldarone is a freelance theatre and radio drama director who has also been actively involved in actor training in Britain's leading drama schools for the last twenty-five years.

Maggie Lloyd-Williams is an actor. She has performed at the National Theatre, Soho Theatre, Tricyle and Shakespeare's Globe, amongst other places. She has also appeared in several TV series.