Acting: The First Six Lessons: Documents from the American Laboratory Theatre

A key text for drama students today. These dramatic dialogues between the teacher and 'The Creature' ' an idealistic student - explore the 'craft' of acting according to one of the godfathers of method acting. The book also features Boleslavsky's lectures to The Creative Theatre and American Laboratory Theatre, as well as 'Acting with Maria Ouspenskaya', four short essays on the work of Ouspenskaya, his colleague and fellow actor trainer. This new edition is edited with a new introduction and bibliography by Rhonda Blair, author of The Actor, Image, and Action.

Richard Boleslavsky (1889-1937) (born Ryszard Boleslawski) was a Polish actor and director. He was a member of the Moscow Art Theatre and director of its First Studio. He emigrated to New York in the 1920s and was the first teacher of the Stanislavski system of acting in the West. He went on to produce plays on Broadway and was a leading Hollywood director in the 1930s. Rhonda Blair is Professor of Theatre at Southern Methodist University, USA. She is a leading voice on the applications of cognitive science on the acting process and the author of the Actor, image, and Action: Acting and Cognitive Neuroscience. She is currently the President of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR).