The Intent to Live : Achieving Your True Potential as an Actor

Rating:
Summary: A great tool for playwrights, too
Review: As is obvious from the testimonials given by well-known actors -- on this Amazon screen (above), and on the back cover and introductory pages of the book -- Larry Moss has no shortage of fans. However, I think it's important to note that this book has value for anyone working in theater and film, not just actors.

As a playwright, I think it's critical that we writers seek to understand how actors and other professionals do their work. Theater (and film) is a collaborative medium, requiring the talents of many people in order to fully realize the potential of a story. By gaining a better knowledge of how writers, directors and designers use their skills to bring a play to life (on the "back end," if you will), I can write plays (on the "front end") that interest, inspire and challenge them -- and, as a result, have a stronger effect on audiences. There's nothing worse for a writer than writing something, in isolation, that we think is the greatest thing since tuna casserole, only to have it completely incomprehensible -- or worse, uninteresting -- to actors, directors and, as a result, audiences.

In this search for information, Moss's book is one of the few that I've discovered that offers insights into the actor's process in clear, reasonable language, that makes the necessary connections between the actor's work and the writer's text. I have no doubt, after reading this book, that I will be that much more effective as a playwright, better able to create a solid foundation for those who choose to bring my work to life.

Rating:
Summary: A True Visionary
Review: Larry Moss has a unique gift to help actors enlarge the vision of their craft and the purpose of their professional development. Larry is on a mission to help cleanse the toxic emotions and personal wounds that incapacitate and keep actors from developing their true potential. This is a book every actor should keep by their bedside and slowly mediate on key passages that speak a freeing message to them. This book is also for those who love great theatre and film acting. It will help them appreciate the enormous sacrifices actors make to honor the writer and create moving art that enables us to see the depths of the wonder, the beauty, and the dark fragility that mark our human condition.

Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE!!
Review: The Intent to live is an illuminating book on the craft of acting. Mr. Moss gift for writting down his approach to acting is nothing less than inspiring. He has put down on paper what many others have tried, but failed in some respect. Larry Moss expresses his thoughts on the craft of acting with simplicity,clarity,humor,truth,humanity,and passion. I highlly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this most humane craft, and art.
I believe this book is one of the most insightful,and inspiring books on acting ever written.
Thank you Larry Moss.