Respect for Acting: Expanded Version

The classic book on acting, in an attractive updated edition

Since its original publication in 1973, Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting has remained a durable classic and a must-read for all students of acting. As an acting instructor at the Herbert Berghof Studio, Hagen helped to develop the talents of world-class actors like Robert DeNiro, Matthew Broderick, Gene Wilder, Amanda Peet, Austin Pendleton, Whoopi Goldberg, and more. In this book, Hagen offers an indispensable account of the techniques that professionals use to elevate their acting to an art form. This updated edition illuminates Hagen's original text with a new foreword written by Katie Finneran, retaining the David Hyde Pierce foreword, along with added background on HB Studio—one of the original New York performing arts training and practice spaces—and an excerpt from Hagen's autobiography SOURCES.

In working through this book, actors will learn physical, verbal, and emotional practice that empower them to connect their own self-concept to the characters they play. Specific, detailed exercises help actors learn to address a range of problems actors face, like maintaining immediacy and relevance, and developing the dimensions of a role over a long performance run. Respect for Acting is a book for actors and audiences who understand the need for truth in the creative process.

• Discover the acting book that has shaped professional theater performances for decades
• Learn the history and background of Herbert Berghof Studio, one of New York's foremost acting schools
• Practice the craft of acting with concrete exercises and instruction on technique
• Delve into the deep questions that arise when actors truly inhabit the lives of their characters

Actors at all levels of their craft will love this stunning updated version of the essential Respect for Acting.

UTA HAGEN, Tony Award-winning actor and renowned acting teacher, co-founded HB Studio in New York City with her husband, Herbert Berghof, where she trained actors including Al Pacino, Jason Robards, Jack Lemmon, Whoopi Goldberg, and Christine Lahti. On stage she starred in groundbreaking productions with José Ferrer, Paul Robeson, Anthony Quinn, and Marlon Brando. HB Studio is her legacy where new generations of actors come from around the world to study.

HASKEL FRANKEL worked as a journalist and critic for publications including The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post, Saturday Review, The National Observer, Show and Playbill. He wrote and collaborated on many books including Milton Berle: An Autobiography, The Admiral’s Daughter with Victoria Fyodorova and All My Patients Are Under the Bed with Louis J. Camuti.

Foreword by Katie Finneran

Foreword by David Hyde Pierce

Acknowledgments

PART ONE: The Actor

Introduction

1 Concept

2 Identity

3 Substitution

4 Emotional Memory

5 Sense Memory

6 The Five Senses

7 Thinking

8 Walking and Talking

9 Improvisation

10 Reality

PART TWO: The Object Exercises

Introduction

11 The Basic Object Exercise

12 Three Entrances

13 Immediacy

14 The Fourth Wall

15 Endowment

16 Talking to Yourself

17 Outdoors

18 Conditioning Forces

19 History

20 Character Action

PART THREE: The Play and the Role

Introduction

21 First Contact with the Play

22 The Character

23 Circumstances

24 Relationship

25 The Objective

26 The Obstacle

27 The Action

28 The Rehearsal

29 Practical Problems

30 Communication

31 Style

Epilogue

The HB Studio Story

Sources

About Uta Hagen

About Haskel Frankel

Index

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.