Basic Acting: The Modular Process - Softcover

Epstein, Harrop; Harrop, John D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0205183387 ISBN 13: 9780205183388

Publisher: Pearson, 1995

Synopsis

• Basic Acting: The Modular Process not only introduces students to the exciting world of acting in a step-by-step and practical way, but also prepares students with the theme of the 21st Century: the "new multiculturalism." Epstein and Harrop have developed a systematic method of teaching acting which is "action-based." This pragmatic and flexible acting approach has been embraced by gay, African American, and feminist theatre.

Written by two noted actors, directors, and teachers, Basic Acting: The Modular Process is a prequel to Acting with Style, Second Edition, 1990, Allyn & Bacon. As a beginning text, the process is clear and very specific in theory and application. The authors have created a “MAP” or a series of interchangeable modules of action which has shaped the careers of such diverse actors as Harry Hamlin, Denzel Washington, Anna Deavere Smith, and Annette Bening. This text interrelates all that has been taught in the 20th century and focuses it on the 21st century ― from Stanislavski, Brecht, and Spolin to Grotowski and Artaud. It also includes improvisation from Keith Johnstone; "theories of creativity" from Edward De Bono; physicalized psychology from Rudolf Laban; psychological reality from Stanislavski; and game theory from Viola Spolin. Epstein and Harrop ask students to prepare for the demands of the new multicultural dramaturgy of the 21st century by using this new methodology known as the Modular Acting Process.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Theater requires an acting process that is geared to the multicultured dimensionality of the post-modern world and the demands it makes upon the actor. This is what the Modular Acting Process does. Its distinctive feature is that it responds to the variegated nature of life today, and to the increasingly accepted idea that the human being does not have one unique and distinct self, but acts with different masks in different situations.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pearson
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0205183387
• ISBN 13: 9780205183388
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304