Acting and How to Survive It: Everything you wanted to know about acting but were too afraid to ask.

Now enlarged and expanded for 2021, 'Acting and How to Survive it' embraces all aspects of technique, and takes in surviving and thriving in this most challenging and alluring of vocations. Tailored to the New Zealand and Australian actor, Peter Feeney has written an indispensable guide for both the beginner and mid-career actor. In our second edition you'll find not just the nuts and bolts of technique, but insights into the head game, winning psychology, and living an artistic life of resilience and integrity. Here is any actors' one-stop shop, a book destined to become a must-have for Drama Schools and classes throughout Australasia - and the world.

‘Acting and How to Survive’ it is exactly what Kiwi actors need as they try to make their way in Show Business. I am going to recommend that all actors, anywhere, read it. Peter is a very fine actor and teacher, and over 20 years teaching acting he’s developed his own approach to things. It comes from somebody who is a very experienced practitioner, who is also also a terrific writer. Jam packed with all sorts of good advice – stories, anecdotes, tips – it’s got everything. After you’ve read it you’ve got no excuses in understanding what a demanding and challenging business it is to work in, but you will also come out feeling inspired and full of enthusiasm for the craft of acting. The way Peter attacks things is incredibly useful …there’s an enormous amount of common sense and useful suggestions in the book. I think it’s one of the most important books written about acting, anywhere."
Review by Peter Hambleton, Actor, on Radio NZ National, Nine to Noon

Peter Feeney's professional acting career began in 1994 after an Honours degree in Politics and History from Melbourne University, graduate study in Moscow and a Drama Diploma from Auckland University. Since then his square jaw has been a familiar screen presence, on both sides of the Tasman, in Australian, Kiwi, US and UK TV and film roles.On the other side of the camera, Feeney has been a casting director (including for the TV series The Amazing Extraordinary Friends, in which he also acted). Since 2001 he has taught acting; from 2004 at his boutique acting school in Auckland, Actors Lab Studio. Feeney has also turned his hand to theatre acting and directing. His New Zealand adaptation of Australian play Milo's Wake was a hit for its Auckland andnationwide seasons in 2005 and 2006. His one-man show A Night with Beau Tyler (an adaptation of his Memphis Meltdown persona that ran in a series of television commercials) toured New Zealand in 2008 and 2009. Peter is currently writing and developing various projects, including a television adaptation of his acclaimed coming of age novel Blind Bitter Happiness.Peter is represented by Kathryn Rawlings in New Zealand.He lives with his wife and three children in Castor Bay, Auckland, New Zealand.