Toward Mastery: An Acting Class With Nikos Psacharopoulos (Career Development Series)
Those of us who did not learn to hit a baseball from Ted Williams or Charley Lau can console ourselves with the legacy of their instructional mastery on film and in books. Similarly, actors who were not students of Nikos Psacharopoulos, eminent acting teacher and artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival from 1956 until his death in 1989, are indebted to actress and chronicler Hackett for first compiling The Actor's Chekhov (LJ 4/1/93), which explored Psacharopoulos's lifelong work on Chekhov's plays. Her new book is a series of critiques transcribed from audiotapes of classes between 1986 and 1988. Arranged in six sections, each followed by a director's commentary, the text is concerned primarily with the scene work Psacharopoulos emphasized in every class. It provides "a series of acting lessons drawn from critiques of scene work that attempts to give, in overview and specifics, the essential elements that Nikos believed made for great acting." Enthusiastically recommended for advanced theater collections.ABarry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TXCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.