Acting Without Agony: An Alternative to the Method

Rating:
Summary: This is the best book for actors and actresses in print.
Review: After translating this book into spanish,I have had a very close relationship with don richardson's text. I trust that this book will be as valuable to spanish speaking theater students as it has been to english speaking actors and actresses. I would like to publish the work, and would like to contact mr. richardson.

Rating:
Summary: One of the top two books that I have ever read on Acting.
Review: I had the good fortune to study with Don Richardson when I was living in California. What a treat to find this book recently while I was searching for theatre books on Amazon.com. Don's book is probably one of the top two books that I have ever read on Acting. It is clear, concise, and incredibly helpful for either the beginner or professional actor. I'm an actor, director, and am currently teaching a course on acting and I use Don's book at the top of my list of reference books. Thank you Don, for putting your ideas down on paper for us all

Rating:
Summary: One of the top two books that I have ever read on Acting.
Review: I had the good fortune to study with Don Richardson when I was living in California. What a treat to find this book recently while I was searching for theatre books on Amazon.com. Don's book is probably one of the top two books that I have ever read on Acting. It is clear, concise, and incredibly helpful for either the beginner or professional actor. I'm an actor, director, and am currently teaching a course on acting and I use Don's book at the top of my list of reference books. Thank you Don, for putting your ideas down on paper for us all

Rating:
Summary: Feel like a good cry?
Review: The author claims to have taught to thousands of students the "two most difficult things " in acting: Weeping and Laughing. (not a little sniffle or a chuckle, he's talking sobbing and side-splitting knee slappers) And to have done so quickly and without the lunacy of "Method Agony".

As to his critique of Method, Mr. Richardson is qualified to speak as an insider; he was admitted to the Group Theater by its founder, Harold Clurman, the man responsible for discovering Lee Strassberg.

Richardson recounts a number of anecdotes about Method b.s. which alternate from the unintentionally comic to the pathetic--Nicolas Cage eating live cockroaches, Dustin Hoffman screaming himself hoarse for 5 straight hours, a Canadian student who so wanted to get into the part of the mad emperor Caligula, that he murdered his mother, etc.

Most of the jibes are directed at Lee S. and is well summed up when Richardson recounts Clurman's final thougts on Lee as the 'greatest fakir' in the business.

Be that as it may, Richardson's own theory on acting ain't quite out of R.A.D.A. It's a simplified version of Method minus the countless 'beats' and without the 'agony'.

First , we're told that emotions should precede thoughts (why?) which of course precede actions. By emotions he means any feeling large enough to be 'life-altering' to the character. e.g; anxiety's no good but fear is ok and terror best.

By 'thoughts' he means The Objective, which, according to his definition, is always conscious to the character and should be repeated like a mantra.

Thus an actor playing a novice bank robber should feel fear and think to himself "to get the money, to get the money' and then he should approach the teller's window.

Even if one assumes these premises to be true, we are left with the problem of how to achieve fear, or get on with the dialogue with a mantra in one's head. The second problem is not addressed--or even recognized. As to the first--well , here we get a bit weird.

After putting affective memory down because we are not "Juke boxes into which one can put the right coin and emotions will appear." Richardson appeals to, of all people--Pavlov and his salivating dogs! ( As did Stanislavsky before he abandoned affective memory altogether as whacko).

First of all he writes the word 'fear' on a blackboard and asks his students where in the body they experience this (Hmm a bit more Reichian than Pavlovian but never mind )

Next, assuring us that all emotions are the same , in terms of physiology ( fast heartbeat, sweaty palms) He asks a student who is in superb physical shape to do push ups to exhaustion. He then tells the class the student is in the same state as in a 'large emotion '

All that's needed now is for the student to sit down, catch is breath and relax. Thereupon Richardson will say "action' and the student will (sense memory, you know) get to his feet and be the frightened bank robber, provided he concentrates on the pit of his stomach--or wherever his body feels 'fear' and repeats the 'to get the money' mantra.

No, I'm not oversimplyfying, read the book.

As to sobbing. since all emotions are physiologically indistinguishible, fear could also be used to produce instant weeping. Just think "not to cry, not to cry" (as most people do in life--they fight back tears ) while taking deep breaths, and imagining that each breath increases fear--then become aware of a 'catch' at the back of your throat which he tells us is the 'crying center or trigger' as the pit of the stomach is a 'fear center' for most people.

Soon the entire class will be bawling and sobing like 5 year olds.

Good luck.

Rating:
Summary: Feel like a good cry?
Review: The author claims to have taught to thousands of students the "two most difficult things " in acting: Weeping and Laughing. (not a little sniffle or a chuckle, he's talking sobbing and side-splitting knee slappers) And to have done so quickly and without the lunacy of "Method Agony".

As to his critique of Method, Mr. Richardson is qualified to speak as an insider; he was admitted to the Group Theater by its founder, Harold Clurman, the man responsible for discovering Lee Strassberg.

Richardson recounts a number of anecdotes about Method b.s. which alternate from the unintentionally comic to the pathetic--Nicolas Cage eating live cockroaches, Dustin Hoffman screaming himself hoarse for 5 straight hours, a Canadian student who so wanted to get into the part of the mad emperor Caligula, that he murdered his mother, etc.

Most of the jibes are directed at Lee S. and is well summed up when Richardson recounts Clurman's final thougts on Lee as the 'greatest fakir' in the business.

Be that as it may, Richardson's own theory on acting ain't quite out of R.A.D.A. It's a simplified version of Method minus the countless 'beats' and without the 'agony'.

First , we're told that emotions should precede thoughts (why?) which of course precede actions. By emotions he means any feeling large enough to be 'life-altering' to the character. e.g; anxiety's no good but fear is ok and terror best.

By 'thoughts' he means The Objective, which, according to his definition, is always conscious to the character and should be repeated like a mantra.

Thus an actor playing a novice bank robber should feel fear and think to himself "to get the money, to get the money' and then he should approach the teller's window.

Even if one assumes these premises to be true, we are left with the problem of how to achieve fear, or get on with the dialogue with a mantra in one's head. The second problem is not addressed--or even recognized. As to the first--well , here we get a bit weird.

After putting affective memory down because we are not "Juke boxes into which one can put the right coin and emotions will appear." Richardson appeals to, of all people--Pavlov and his salivating dogs! ( As did Stanislavsky before he abandoned affective memory altogether as whacko).

First of all he writes the word 'fear' on a blackboard and asks his students where in the body they experience this (Hmm a bit more Reichian than Pavlovian but never mind )

Next, assuring us that all emotions are the same , in terms of physiology ( fast heartbeat, sweaty palms) He asks a student who is in superb physical shape to do push ups to exhaustion. He then tells the class the student is in the same state as in a 'large emotion '

All that's needed now is for the student to sit down, catch is breath and relax. Thereupon Richardson will say "action' and the student will (sense memory, you know) get to his feet and be the frightened bank robber, provided he concentrates on the pit of his stomach--or wherever his body feels 'fear' and repeats the 'to get the money' mantra.

No, I'm not oversimplyfying, read the book.

As to sobbing. since all emotions are physiologically indistinguishible, fear could also be used to produce instant weeping. Just think "not to cry, not to cry" (as most people do in life--they fight back tears ) while taking deep breaths, and imagining that each breath increases fear--then become aware of a 'catch' at the back of your throat which he tells us is the 'crying center or trigger' as the pit of the stomach is a 'fear center' for most people.

Soon the entire class will be bawling and sobing like 5 year olds.

Good luck.

Rating:
Summary: It's required reading in my class at Ball State university
Review: The best book I ever read about the art of acting. It's simple and direct. I require it in my classes. Wonderful for directors as well

Rating:
Summary: Very Good. Great premise. Not 100% though.
Review: Ultimately, yes, this is a great book. Well worth reading. His basic premise-that acting doesn't have to be torture to be good is great. He points out the many flaws in the method, which I agree with, especially after studying alot of that nonsense!
He's got a simple and concise way of breaking down scenes and getting to the core of it. All that makes this book outstanding. My only major gripe is, after studying this technique with one of Don's pupils for a few months, I came to find his system for creating emotions downright silly and uneffective. I want to be fair and say that this way MY own exp. Maybe others didn't exp. the same thing but, I thought the system for creating emotions (feeling it in your body and breathing heavily to generate feeling)to just be very gimmicky. It totally felt unnatural and manipulative. I just couldn't get it to work without feeling fake and kind of dumb. It sounded AWESOME in words cause it was so much simpler then method ideolgy (go back to past life exp.)but in practice it never clicked. My conclusion on that is that it's better to learn to really create the circumstances vividly, analyze your script well and then trust your talent and surrender to that-not push and manipulate emotions. That's my personal exp. and perhaps others might have a different exp. although that was from direct application.
Get this book, apply it, there are definately some gems, he makes it simple, maybe TOO simple at times.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise. Not 100% though.
Review: Ultimately, yes, this is an interesing book. What makes it interesting is that it points out a lot of the flaws and pitfalls in 'Method' acting. That was something that I wrestled with for years. All the agony. I'd lost the joy in the process. That part makes this book interesting. However, these techniques, although they sound promising are a bit shallow and overly simplistic at times. I still think this is a worthwhile book. There are bits of it that are very good. I would just say to watch out for when it gets too gimmicky. Now, this is just my own experience, I want to be fair here, maybe others were able to make this work, but I tried his system for supposedly creating emotions and to me that is just a gimmicky way to work. I can't imagine how that could work for anyone. It sounds interesting but after trying it, the techniques given for emotions just fall flat (for me anyway).
The overall problem with this book is that it tries to create too many little 'tricks' at times. I don't think it quite works that way. My personal feeling is that you need to be thorough in your character choices, know the right questions to ask, and eventually trust your talent. BE. Be in the moment, with all the work you've done you then jump in and surrender to your talent. I don't think any little system can do that. I think it's a god given-surrendered kind of thing, not something you try to manipulate. That was at times the problem I had with this book.
Nevertheless, it does have some gems in it. Aside from the system for creating emotions, the rest of the book is very good. It points out the importance of a well chosen objective, he gives you good character questions and explains how to work on different styles. Also, he does find a nice way to simplify things. I did feel I learned some good things from this book.