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The Presence of the Actor

Joseph Chaikin

$42.95

Paperback

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English
Theatre Communications Group Inc.,U.S.
13 April 1993
Chaikin, who directed the celebrated Open Theater in the '60s, kindled an emphasis on communal playmaking whose impact is still evident today. This conversational review of his efforts details his methods and reveals the struggles involved in the creation of some of the most exciting theatre of our time.
By:  
Imprint:   Theatre Communications Group Inc.,U.S.
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 202mm,  Width: 134mm,  Spine: 13mm
Weight:   210g
ISBN:   9781559360302
ISBN 10:   1559360305
Pages:   162
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Joesph Chaikin (1935–2003) was an American theatre director, playwright and champion of actor-led theatre.

Reviews for The Presence of the Actor

Although Chaikin, of the radical Open Theater, is spiritual kin to the Living Theater's Becks he has written a vastly different sort of book from Judith Malina's recent journal (The Enormous Despair, p. 379). Whereas hers was responsive to the moment (and consequently a vital record of a period and a group), his exists at a tranquil remove from the strife of theater, politics and his own career. These are the focuses nonetheless of reflections distilled from what has evidently been a long and uncompromising inquiry into the business of acting, the relationship of theater to the rest of our affairs, and ultimately the conditions of living in post-industrial mass society. While he makes his points, plants his suggestions, with the simple, functional clarity (and sometimes the gnomic compression) of a great teacher, he does not seem to be wing for that role. If someone else has said it well, he quotes without elaboration, and he does not assert his own presence in discussions of other actors and theorists. What seems to matter is the idea, which has multiple origins and statements (Brecht, Laing, Goodman, etc.) but accrues something positive here. This may well become a cult book, and not undeservingly. (Kirkus Reviews)


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