Never underestimate the power of a great book. Our Backstage Experts sure don’t! As industry professionals spanning various areas of the business, we knew they’d be the perfect group to ask the following question:
What’s one book every actor must have on the shelf?
Here are answers from 15 industry professionals!
(And if you missed the last installment of this column, check out “19 Must-Watch TV Performances” and see how to get your acting questions answered at the bottom of this article!)
Paul Barry, L.A.-based Australian acting teacher It will come as no surprise to anyone I’ve ever taught that Declan Donnellan’s “The Actor and the Target” is the book I’d recommend every actor read. From the outset he posits, “The main cause of an actor’s problems is far simpler than its many effects, just as a bomb is simpler than the havoc it wreaks.” His forensic search for imaginative, emotional, and technical simplicity had me immediately hooked.
Donnellan tackles the actor’s deepest challenges such as, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” “I don’t know what I want,” “I don’t know
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