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.

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.

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.

Infused with wisdom and a strong dose of humor, Making Hostile Words Harmless offers therapists and their clients a unique collection of effective exercises and bully-busting responses guaranteed to diffuse difficult exchanges. Filled with helpful tools, the book uses the martial art of Aikido, or the 'way of harmony' to teach the 'verbal arts' of confirming, inquiring, understanding, and evoking.

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.

"a work on the art and craft of comedy as important in its own way as works by Stanislavski and Chekhov" – Oxford Theatre Companion In 1939, a young, inexperienced actor wrote to a famous actress of his acquaintance, asking for advice on playing comedy. She responded enthusiastically, and they corresponded variously over the next year. The Craft of Comedy, a record of these exchanges, soon emerged as one of the few classic texts in the field of comedy acting. This major new edition takes a brilliant book and makes it better. Editor Robert Barton has devised extensive supplementary material, including: An introduction to the correspondents, the culture of the time, and the evolution of their book; Summaries, definitions, and exercises and practice scenes for readers wishing to explore Athene Seyler’s invaluable advice; Photographs, additional essays by Seyler, and a guide to easily accessed video clips of her performing. Seyler’s lucid guidance, and Barton’s scrupulous editorship, ensure this legendary work’s rightful status is restored: as one of the great practical guides to the craft of comedy, and an essential resource for actors and students of acting.

People who don’t know theatre may think the only creative artist in the field is the playwright--with actors, directors, and designers mere “interpreters” of the dramatist’s vision. Historically, however, creative mastery and power have passed through different hands. Sometimes, the playwright did the staging. In other periods, leading actors demanded plays be changed to fatten their roles. The late 19th and 20th centuries saw “the rise of the director,” in which director and playwright struggled for creative dominance. But no matter where the balance of power rested, good theatre artists of all kinds have created powerful experiences for their audience. The purpose of this volume is to bridge the interdisciplinary abyss between the study of creativity in theatre/drama and in other fields. Sharing theories, research findings, and pedagogical practices, the authors and I hope to stimulate discussion among creativity and theatre scholar/teachers, as well as multidisciplinary research. Theatre educators know from experience that performance classes enhance student creativity. This volume is the first to bring together perspectives from multiple disciplines on how drama pedagogy facilitates learning creativity. Drawing on current findings in cognitive science, as well as drama teachers’ lived experience, the contributors analyze how acting techniques train the imagination, allow students to explore alternate identities, and discover the confidence to take risks. The goal is to stimulate further multidisciplinary investigation of theatre education and creativity, with the intention of benefitting both fields.