Building A Character

Stanislavski, Constantin; Translated by Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood; Introduction by Joshua Logan

ISBN 10: 0878300120 / ISBN 13: 9780878300129

Published by Theatre Arts Books, New York, 1977

About this Item

8vo. 292 pages. Hardcover with an orange dust jacket. Moderate wear to the jacket, which has some rubbing and some spots of abrasion. Top edge of the text block is dust-stained and foxed. The gutters of the inner hinges are browned. A sound copy with clean text. Stated Fifteenth Printing. Book Club Edition.

Seller Inventory # 049381

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Building A Character
• Publisher: Theatre Arts Books, New York
• Publication Date: 1977
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0878300120
• ISBN 13: 9780878300129
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Book Club Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Theater & Film

About this title

Synopsis

Building a Character is one of the three volumes that make up Stanislavski’s The Acting Trilogy.

An Actor Prepares explores the inner preparation an actor must undergo in order to explore a role to the full. In this volume, Sir John Gielgud said, this great director “found time to explain a thousand things that have always troubled actors and fascinated students.”

Building a Character discusses the external techniques of acting: the use of the body, movement, diction, singing, expression, and control.

Creating a Role describes the preparation that precedes actual performance, with extensive discussions of Gogol’s The Inspector General and Shakespeare’s Othello. Sir Paul Scofield called Creating a Role “immeasurably important” for the actor.

These three volumes belong on any actor’s short shelf of essential books.

About the Author

Constantin Stanislavski (1863-1938), arguably the most influential director in the history of the theater, was the founder of the renowned Moscow Art Theater. A pioneer of psychological realism and improvisation on the stage, he devoted his life to developing the performance techniques now emulated throughout the world.