BUILDING A CHARACTER

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.