True and False (Paperback)

David Mamet

ISBN 10: 0571192610 / ISBN 13: 9780571192618

Published by Faber & Faber, London, 1998

About this Item

Paperback. David Mamet, the prize-winning playwright, director and teacher, has written a blunt, irreverent and unsparingly honest guide to acting. True and False leaves no acting tenet untouched, overturns conventional opinion, and tells aspiring actors what they really need to know: How to judge the role and approach the part How to work with the playwright The right way to undertake auditions and rehearsals How to think about the scene The proper approach to agents; and the business side of acting in general Mamet is unmistakably clear about why he think actors should not be taken in by the highly touted notions that have become commonplace in most acting schools and courses. True and False confronts some of the profession's sacred cows and offers and invaluable guide to acting today. Overturns conventional opinion and tells aspiring actors what they need to know. He leaves no acting tenet untouched: How to judge the role, approach the part, work with the playwright; the right way to undertake auditions and the proper approach to agents and the business in general. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780571192618

Bibliographic Details

• Title: True and False (Paperback)
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, London
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571192610
• ISBN 13: 9780571192618
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

A guide to the acting profession by a leading American playwright. He advises aspiring actors on topics such as judging a role, approaching the part, working with the playwright, undertaking auditions, and the relationship with agents and the business in general.

Review

To hell with Stanislavsky. To hell with the Method. "The actor is onstage to communicate the play to the audience," says David Mamet. "That is the beginning and the end of his and her job. To do so the actor needs a strong voice, superb diction, a supple, well-proportioned body and a rudimentary understanding of the play." Anything else--"becoming" one's part, "feeling" the character's emotions--devalues the practice of a noble craft and is useless to the play. "The 'work' you do 'on the script' will make no difference," he cautions. "That work has already been done by a person with a different job title than yours. That person is the author."

But True and False does not confine itself to the work done on the actual stage. Its brief essays contain sound advice on how an actor might apply himself or herself to the life of the actor: the proper consideration due the audition process, the selection of parts that one accepts, and so on. Mamet delivers these kernels of wisdom in the taut, no-nonsense prose for which he is justifiably famous, and, ultimately, his core principles are applicable beyond the theater. "Speak up, speak clearly, open yourself out, relax your body, find a simple objective," he instructs. "Practice in these goals is practice in respect for the audience, and without respect for the audience, there is no respect for the theater; there is only self-absorption." Substitute "others" for "the audience" and "life" for "the theater," and could any Taoist say it better? --Ron Hogan