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The Presence of the Actor
The Presence of the Actor
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Author: Joseph Chaikin Publisher: Theatre Communications Group Format: Softcover # of Pages: 162 Pub. Date: 1991 Edition: Reprint ISBN-10: 1559360305 ISBN-13: 9781559360302
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About
the Book:
Illuminating notes on acting
from America's foremost champion of actor-led theatre.
Joseph Chaikin had a
profound effect on the development of modern theatre
as a sought after teacher and through his work with New York's Living Theatre and
Open Theatre Collective and San Francisco's Magic Theatre. His
long career as an actor, director, teacher, and provocateur
was as aesthetically adventurous and influential as any in the annals
of American stage. Beginning in the late 1950s as a leading actor
with the Living Theatre, continuing in his collective-theatre
experience as director of the
influential Open Theatre – to explore further the role of the actor
in creating new work – in the late 1960s and the Winter
Project in the 1970s, and including his ongoing accomplishments as a
solo performer in collaboration with such playwrights as Sam
Shepard and Jean-Claude van Itallie.
Joseph Chaikin was a lifelong teacher of acting and directing who evolved
techniques of performance and play-making that challenge orthodoxy
and encourages us all to re-conceive the possibilities of theatre and
our lives. His text The
Presence of the Actor was first published in 1972 and revised in
1991. He is so articulate about the spiritual dimensions of
performing in public and what it really means to be an actor. Long
considered a classic in the field,
the book is an idiosyncratically organized, conversationally
and highly inviting review of his efforts,
detailing his working methods and revealing the courageous physical,
emotional and technical struggles that went into the creation of some
of the most exciting, controversial and celebrated productions of all
time.
What people say:
"A perceptive collection of
notes on acting, the history of the Open Theater, performance in
everyday life, theatre and society, and Chaikin's highly personal
experience of Brecht and Beckett. The right adjective, if it weren't
so overused, is stimulating." — Village Voice
"Traditional acting in America
has become a blend of that same kind of of synthetic 'feeling' and
sentimentality which characterizes the Fourth of July parade, Muzak,
church services and political campaigns." — Joseph
Chaikin in Presence of the Actor
About the Author:
Joseph Chaikin (1935-2003) was an actor and director who
invigorated the American stage with his experimental Open Theater in
the 1960's and early 1970's. He collaborated with Samuel Beckett and
Sam Shepard and staged works in the Joseph Papp Public Theater, Yale
Repertory, the Manhattan Theater Club, the Mark Taper Forum and many
other theaters. He was the recipient of six OBIE Awards (including
the first-ever for "Lifetime Achievement"), a Drama Desk
Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships and the National Endowment of the
Arts Distinguished Artist Fellowship Award. |
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