I have been reading up recently on acting. I decided a long while ago that one of the biggest things I could do to take charge of my career is to educate myself the best I possibly could on the art form and part of that has been reading all of the books I can get my hands on that have to do with the art. I recently finished reading a book that I thought gave one of the best insights into the experience of an actor. A student of Konstantin Stanislavski “wrote” this book. This book may be familiar to you; the name is “An Actor’s Work.” And it is all about how the actors trained by Stanislavski learned how to prepare for a role.
     This book is one of the most detailed outlined of an actor’s method of preparation that I have ever read. I put the word “wrote” in quotations earlier because the student who wrote it was actually just taking very detailed notes throughout the class. It was incomprehensible how this student could have taken such exact notes. There is so much that these students learned in this class that I am in awe Stanislavski taught any other class than this one. He takes his students from the beginning of being an actor, all the way through the adventure of becoming an entire different person.
     If you want to learn more about what REAL method acting is, then you should absolutely read this book. It is one of the more insightful books I have ever read on the subject. Everything that I got out of this book affected my acting ability for the better, and I ended up walking away with some very valuable lessons about building a character! I would highly suggest this book to anyone looking to learn more about being an actor and creating a world for your character.
     Just as a reminder, when it comes to learning about your acting technique, it is important that you figure out what works for you personally. It doesn’t matter what other people say is great, or what they tell you works, if it doesn’t work for you, then it is important that you do not use the piece of advice!