Showing titles in Acting & Auditioning

The Actor's Mindset: Acting as a Craft, Discipline, and Business uniquely prepares actors to live full, successful lives as performing artists. While most acting books focus on either the art or the business of entertainment, Archibald looks at the entire picture of what it means to be an actor, focusing on the foundations of both the artist and the entrepreneur to guarantee a complete and fully functioning approach to a career.

Based on the popular workshop of the same name, Audition Psych 101 takes a detailed, unvarnished look at the mental gremlins that can make auditioning stressful. With frankness, humor, and a pro-actor sensibility, professional working actor Michael Kostroff (The Wire, The Deuce, Luke Cage, The Blacklist, Law & Order: SVU, etc.) explodes commonly accepted mythologies and offers a fresh, more logical, and more effective approach to the whole process.

Access Accents bring the highly sought-after voice techniques of top voice coach Penny Dyer to the actor's audio device. They offer a unique opportunity to prepare for auditions at short notice.

What if I told you that your audition didn’t need to be an anxiety-inducing, agonizing, soul-sucking cycle,? You deserve to nail your audition, but you shouldn’t have to suffer for it. In this book, you’ll learn how to fight the battle before the audition with fool-proof preparation tactics. Alleviate your fears and enable yourself to audition with confidence.

Transform your acting performance by mastering the authentic German accent. Whether you're preparing for a role or expanding your skillset, learning how to deliver a natural German-accented English can set you apart in auditions and on set. This immersive audio course guides you step by step, helping you sound confident, precise, and believable—without slipping into stereotypes.

This guide to play reading for students and practitioners of both theater and literature complements, rather than contradicts or repeats, traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. Ball developed his method during his work as Literary Director at the Guthrie Theater, building his guide on the crafts playwrights of every period and style use. The audiobook is full of tools for students and practitioners to use as they investigate plot, character, theme, and the other crucial parts of the superstructure of a play.

This is the ideal way to quickly master the Cockney (British) accent using a combination of approaches from pronunciation and oral posture techniques to dialect development (Cockney rhyming slang) and practice exercises. The course also contains guidance on developing a basic British accent to underpin a Cockney accent if desired dependent on your native accent. This course can help you prepare for a Cockney role or audition on stage or screen.

Of all the voice-over genres, movie-trailer narration is one of the most famous, yet also the most difficult to learn about. If you want to add trailers to your VO tool belt, this is your book. Thompson Howell, narrator of blockbuster movie trailers, shares his insider’s knowledge of this traditionally closed world.

Jeff Corey (1914-2002) made a name for himself in the 1940s as a character actor in films like The Killers (1946). Everything changed in 1951, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Corey refused to name names and was promptly blacklisted, which forced him to walk away from a vibrant livelihood as an actor and embark on a career as one of the industry's most revered acting instructors. In Improvising Out Loud: My Life Teaching Hollywood How to Act, Corey recounts his extraordinary story.

There is no general consensus about how Shakespeare "should" be played. There are no rules. But, while the Bard created superhuman characters and placed them in situations that stretches the imagination to its limits, he also provided his actors with the keys to playing them.

Emmy-winning editor Jordan Goldman, ACE, takes you inside the cutting room and pulls back the curtain on how and why directors, showrunners, and editors decide whether your performance makes it to the screen. He explains the key things actors should do—and shouldn't do—to avoid getting cut out. Topics include what an editor does, how editors evaluate your work, why actors get cut, what you can control, and what you can't control.

How to Develop a Powerful, Clear, and Resonant Speaking Voice is a straight-to-the-point, no-nonsense guide to simple techniques you can employ immediately to improve the quality of your voice. This audiobook, made for men and women, shows how to develop resonance, speak in the proper pitch, and use what’s called diaphragmatic breathing to magnify the power and expressiveness of your voice.

From Tony Blair and David Frost to Aziraphale and Hamlet, Michael Sheen has taken on a host of iconic roles, inhabiting each one with complete conviction. But – whether he’s transforming himself into real figures or bringing fictional ones to life – how does he go about immersing himself in his characters? The answer lies in an obscure Russian theatre technique that has evolved to become a central plank of modern-day acting training.

Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan. When we watch these remarkable actors in a performance, we see only Sophie, Stanley Kowalski, Hannibal Lecter, or Cassie from Promising Young Woman. How are they able to transform our world in this way? How and why do they do what they do? In Acting Naturally, David Thomson sheds light on the actors who have shaped the film industry. He shrewdly analyzes these stars, revealing how a sly smile, an extra-long pause, even a small gesture of the hand can draw in an audience.

Voice Over Domination is a quick, to-the-point listen. The beginning of the audiobook deals with my philosophy and the mind-set needed to win in the voice-over business. This is specifically for the voice-over artist who has a home studio and needs to understand how to start, build, and grow a successful voice-over business. Inside, I discuss what it takes to win, and then I go into some hard-hitting tactics and strategies to get you to where you want to be.

In Behind the Star: A Guide to Mastering the Craft of Stand-In Work and Thriving Beyond the Set, Chad Gregory delivers a lean, gritty love letter to the unsung grinders of Hollywood—the stand-ins who keep the cameras rolling while stars sip coffee. A veteran stand-in for an A-list titan, Gregory doesn’t just lift the veil on this overlooked craft; he rips it down with a mix of raw memoir, practical know-how, and a life philosophy that hits like a well-timed mark.

Whether you're preparing for a role on stage or screen, the ability to speak with a clear and authentic RP accent can be invaluable. But learning the ins and outs of this prestigious accent can be challenging, especially if you're not a native speaker. That's where our course comes in. With expert instruction and clear, concise lessons, we'll guide you through the basics of RP pronunciation and diction, helping you to develop a confident and authentic speaking style.

In 180 easily cross-referenced selections, Master Acting Teacher Peter Frisch embraces the notion that the joy of acting is in the specific work of transformation through imagination and belief. His innovative techniques are complemented by pragmatic answers about auditioning, camera work, casting, training, comedy, etc.

Superbly narrated with extensive sound design, Todd Schick brings over three decades of knowledge and experience in voiceover to the table. Weaving stories of the voiceover industry and its history, Todd reveals the raw truth of the business in what can only be described as an aural sculpture. With the release of The Madness of Voiceover—the first in a series of books—Todd Schick throws down the gauntlet using the power of his voice and pen.

"Foundations of Acting: The Essential Guide to Mastering the Art of Performance" is the first book in the comprehensive series "The Art of Performance." This book serves as an indispensable resource for aspiring actors and seasoned performers alike, offering a detailed exploration of the fundamental elements of acting.