ACTING: ONSTAGE AND OFF demonstrates how offstage performance can be effectively adapted for the theatre, as well as how onstage training can be applied toward leading a full life outside the theatre. Barton's humorous and conversational writing style helps students learn all phases of actor training, including scene study, auditioning, observation, and mind, voice and body relaxation techniques. The use of examples from daily life instead of dramatic literature facilitates student understanding and leads to meaningful class discussion based on everyday experiences.

This is a book for the thinking actor, and the finest actors I've known are just that. The best actors bring it all together body, heart, spirit, and mind. This book is for the actor who thinks about craft and influence, who thinks about the relationship of performance to living, who thinks about doing and what that doing means. Acting is a metaphor and it's a mirror, and, so, a theory of acting, if true, shows us to ourselves. Jeff Zinn knows this. He knows it as an actor, director, teacher, and thinker. His theory of everything is simple and revelatory. (from the foreword by Todd London)

Voice: Onstage and Off is a comprehensive guide to the process of building, mastering, and fine-tuning the voice for performance. Every aspect of vocal work is covered, from the initial speech impulse and the creation of sound, right through to refining the final product in different types of performance. This highly adaptable course of study empowers performers of all levels to combine and evolve their onstage and offstage voices. This second edition is extensively illustrated and accompanied by an all-new website, full of audio and text resources, including: extensive teacher guides including sample syllabi, scheduling options, and ways of adapting to varying academic environments and teaching circumstances downloadable forms to help reproduce the book’s exercises in the classroom and for students to engage with their own vocal development outside of lessons audio recordings of all exercises featured in the book examples of Voiceover Demos, including both scripts and audio recordings links to useful web resources, for further study. Four mentors - the voice chef, the voice coach, the voice shrink and the voice doctor - are on hand throughout the book and the website to ensure a holistic approach to voice training. The authors also provide an authoritative survey of US and UK vocal training methods, helping readers to make informed choices about their study.

Author Robert Barton uses the NLP approach to illustrate a range of innovative methods to help the actor and directors, including: reducing performance anxiety enabling clearer communication intensifying character analysis stimulating imaginative rehearsal choices. The author also shows how NLP can be used alongside other basic training systems to improve approaches to rehearsal and performance.

Movement: Onstage and Off is the complete guide for actors to the most effective techniques for developing a fully expressive body. It is a comprehensive compilation of established fundamentals, a handbook for movement centered personal growth and a guide to helping actors and teachers make informed decisions for advanced study. This book includes: fundamental healing/conditioning processes essential techniques required for versatile performance specialized skills various training approaches and ways to frame the actor’s movement training. Using imitation exercises to sharpen awareness, accessible language and adaptable material for solo and group work, the authors aim to empower actors of all levels to unleash their extraordinary potential.

Style for Actors is an award-winning handbook and the definitive guide to roles in historical drama. Anyone who has ever struggled with capes, fans, swords, doublets and crinolines should make this third edition their constant companion. The past is a foreign country, and this outstanding book is concerned with exploring it from the actor's point of view. Specific guides to each major period give readers a clear map to discover a range from Greek, Elizabethan, Restoration and Georgian theatre to more contemporary stylings, including Futurism, Surrealism and Postmodernism. New material in this edition covers Commedia dell'arte and non-Western forms of theatre, theatrical fusion and developments in musicals and Shakespeare. The book’s references, images, resource lists and examples have all been updated to support today's diverse performers. Robert Barton takes great care to present the actor with the roles and genres that will most commonly confront them. Containing a huge resource of nearly 150 exercises, suggestions for scene study and applications not only for theatrical performance but also for stylistic challenges in the reader’s own offstage life, this book is an invaluable resource for students and practitioners of acting and drama.