The making of the professional actor
Subtitle: a history, an analysis and a prediction
By: Adrian Cairns ; with a foreword by Jeremy Irons.
Publisher: Peter Owen; U.S. distributor, Dufour Editions
Published: 1996
Place of publication: London; Chester Springs, PA; Chester Spring, PA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
Subjects: Acting -- History.; Actors.
Description: Adrian Cairns, an actor and director himself, has taught several generations of actors at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Jeremy Irons and Daniel Day-Lewis were two of his students. He provides a stimulating analysis of acting styles and training used on the Elizabethan stage, Restoration and 18th-century developments, Victorian acting in the grand manner , and 20th-century initiatives in Russia, Europe, England and the U.S. -- the French avant-garde, the German twenties, the turbulent thirties , the European gurus, and American actors. Cairns concludes with chapters on modern drama and the use of Controlled Environments, Virtual Reality, and Found Spaces. He predicts that ritual and a Renaissance of the Mysterious might be the most likely direction in the evolution of play-acting.
Notes: Includes bibliographical reference (p. 256-279) and index.