A Practical Handbook for the Actor

By: Melissa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathaniel Pollack, Robert Previto, Scott Zigler, David Mamet

Narrated by: Rose Byrne, Chris Bauer, Alison Wright, David Mamet, Max Meyers

For anyone who has ever wanted to take an acting class, "this is the best book on acting written in the last twenty years" (David Mamet, from the Introduction).

This book describes a technique developed and refined by the authors, all of them young actors, in their work with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, actor W. H. Macy, and director Gregory Mosher. A Practical Handbook for the Actor is written for any actor who has ever experienced the frustrations of acting classes that lacked clarity and objectivity, and that failed to provide a dependable set of tools. An actor's job, the authors state, is to "find a way to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances of the play." The ways in which an actor can attain that truth form the substance of this eloquent book.

©2012 Melissa Bruder (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Simple, clear and consise—just what was needed. A deeply interesting and valuable piece of work." —Sidney Lumet

"This terse and lucid handbook might well be for the actor what Strunk and White's The Elements of Style is for the writer." —John Guare

"This book is wonderful. It is clear, direct, and to the point, with none of the hokum that accompanies most books on the theatre, especially about acting. I learned an enormous amount." —Robert Benton

The best acting technique to apply!

It’s amazing how they explain in a detailed and easy manner to start acting ASAP. 100 recommended.

Brief but Practical

As an audiobook it seems almost too brief to be practical for a novice but for veterans it’s a useful guide

Great concise guidance for serious reader

This is a concise guidance for a serious reader. I enjoyed precise advice from the author.

An acting textbook

Great textbook for intro college acting classes. This book introduces concepts and terms that you’ll hear in any (American) acting class.
Professional actors might find it a needed refresher.

Informative

A solid up-to-date perspective on acting for theater. The perspective boils down the actors job to the technical aspects, but lacks a cohesive outline structuring and in-depth examples, which ultimately feels like a meandering outcome. All in all a skeleton structure worth the listen.