The Technique of Acting

By Stella Adler

Book Overview

Take a Master Class from the Woman Who Taught America's Greatest Actors

"Acting is stubborn work, necessitating constant attention and a rigorous schedule. It is not for geniuses. It is for people who work step-by-step. While there is no recipe for acting, it does follow a sequence of principles. The ideas and exercises that follow can work for you and give you the courage to fight for your development and craft. . . . More than anything, it is an actor's job to penetrate the playwright's creations-the subtleties and mysteries that the playwright's ideas contain."

-from Stella Adler's introduction to The Technique of Acting.

As a seminal American acting teacher of the 20th century, Stella Adler shaped the work of such acclaimed actors as Marlon Brando, Selma Hayek, Harvey Keitel, Melanie Griffith, Robert DeNiro, Benicio Del Toro, and Warren Beatty, as well as choreographers Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins, among others. As Brando states in his foreword, "Ms Adler presents us with an analysis of the technique of acting that is incisive, intelligent, and long overdue."

The Technique of Acting is an introduction to Adler's unique approach to acting, addressing such key elements as imagination, circumstances, actions, working with text, and developing a character, and is replete with examples and exercises that concretely build skills. The book finishes with her compelling narrative of how she came to study intensively with Konstantin Stanislavski.

If you love theater and love acting, this work will provide you with invaluable insight and education to both.

This book is also available from Echo Point Books as a hardcover (ISBN 1648374417).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1648374212
• ISBN13: 9781648374210
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media, LLC
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Reference

Good reference book for those wanting to get into acting. Recommended by son's acting coach.

Stella Adler should be in any actor or student actor library

Stella Adler books along with Stanislavsky, Harold Clurman, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, are a few of the must have's for acting students. There are many more good ones for actors and acting students but you can't go wrong with these.

Psychological Acting

This is a very good book for people who want to dedicate their lives to acting. It goes through basic conditions which people have to create for themselves so acting works for them. The field of acting is so tenuous that it takes all the concentration a person has, this book gives guidance to gaining that concentration. I found it to be a valuable tool when studying to become an actor. I recommend novices and professionals alike to read and reread this book becuase it sets things in motion, it gets your brain and your body ready for what you have to confront as an actor. It empahsizes focus, dilligence and above all to know yourself. I honestly can say that this book made a differnce in my approach to acting and I think it will definitely affect other readers and benefit their objectives whether it be in theater or film.