Issue #0

Building a Character

Plot

Building a Character is one of the three volumes that make up Stanislavski¿s The Acting Trilogy. An Actor Prepares explores the inner preparation an actor must undergo in order to explore a role to the full. In this volume, Sir John Gielgud said, this great director ¿found time to explain a thousand things that have always troubled actors and fascinated students.¿ Building a Character discusses the external techniques of acting: the use of the body, movement, diction, singing, expression, and control. Creating a Role describes the preparation that precedes actual performance, with extensive discussions of Gogol¿s The Inspector General and Shakespeare¿s Othello. Sir Paul Scofield called Creating a Role ¿immeasurably important¿ for the actor. These three volumes belong on any actor¿s short shelf of essential books.