1. Is Acting You? -

Have you always wanted to act?
Do you daydream?
Do you have a vivid imagination?
When you were a child, did you like to make believe?
When you are happy, are you very happy?
When you are angry, do you get very angry?
When a theatrical performance is funny, do you laugh easily?
When it is sad, do you choke up?

2. Stardust - Some surprises, a few shocks and many important self-discoveries are in store for you.

By the time you've mastered the material in this book you'll know your old self better, and you'll meet a new self that will develop as you go along.

You will be more effective.
You will project new power.
You will have a stronger personality.
You will gain poise.
You will acquire authority.
You will broaden your horizons.

3. Foot in the Door - First impressions are lasting impressions.

In show business, the first impression can sometimes be the last impression. Producers, directors and casting directors are busy people. The deciding factor in giving an unknown (or even an experienced actor whose opportunities have been limited) a chance to read for a part is often based on first impressions.

4. First Beachhead - Many people work a long time, perhaps an average of six years is typical, in order to secure the first beachhead on the island of success.

Some actors, and it happens all too often, mistake that first beachhead for the island. They think they've clinched the career itself when all they've really got is a foothold on it: a foothold on the first rung of a very tall ladder.

There are many beachheads to be taken, many rungs to the ladder. Each new role that can be made to serve as a springboard to the next, and better, role is a beachhead.

5. Faith & Understanding - Underlying every art is a science. The science underlying an actor's art is the mechanical system of a soundly organized technique for transmitting emotions, words, actions and ideas to an audience.

Technique is simply another word for KNOW-HOW or CRAFTSMANSHIP. There is a know-how, or technique, for everything—from flying a jet airplane to taking out an appendix, from upholstering a chair to enacting a scene in a play.

6. Your Business - This book is for actors in all phases of the entertainment industry.

Their problems are my business.

I must keep in step with scientific advancement in lighting, acoustics, sound systems, cameras and film.

I must keep an eagle eye on changes of "style" in acting—as demanded by the public.

I must continually try to keep myself aware of where jobs for actors are most plentiful. Then—I must help the actor to learn the know-how to get, and hold, these jobs.

7. Mirror Up - At this point you feel ready for something concrete to work on. You're all set to stand up in your room and start practicing something. Anything.

So I'll tell you how to practice standing.

You've been standing since you were thirteen months old? I wonder. But even so, stand in front of a long mirror and look at yourself in profile.

8. Smooth & Svelte - Were your midriff muscles sore during the first few days of suspension on the posture hook? Did the muscles in the back of your legs get a bit stiff? Good! That's because you've been giving them a real workout It proves you've practiced. Your new posture started as a mind picture, came into being through your physical apparatus, and by now it should begin to fit you like a glove. But don't expect to be absolutely comfortable with it at first, especially if you've been careless about posture in the past.

9. Air Power - In a manner of speaking you have, naturally, been breathing all your life. But the chances are you haven't been breathing naturally for a long time.

With your good posture, stand in front of a mirror. Put one hand on your chest, and the other hand on the upper part of your abdomen.

Take a big, deep breath.

Did your chest swell up with that breath? Did you get small around the waist? If so, you need some reminders about correct, natural breathing.

10. Mental Image - There was a time when actors were taught to pose in a particular way to depict grief, arch an eyebrow to portray doubt, and shift the weight from here to there to express haughtiness. That sort of thing has no place in the technique of today's enlightened actor.

The emotional scale is not played by moving from one specific pose to another.

11. What, Why, How - Actors like to work on what they call "something solid": something they can "get their teeth into."

Student actors, in particular, are primarily concerned with things they can immediately experience physically. Most of their early questions begin with the word "what" rather than "why." They're looking for action.

12. Timing - There are two times people move: when they're talking—and when they're not talking.

Notice the two general patterns.

When people move during a pause (while they're not talking), the movement does not overlap either the end of their last spoken phrase or the beginning of their next spoken phrase. Usually they pause to take a breath. Sometimes to emphasize their words.

When people move during a spoken phrase, they generally start moving on the first syllable of the phrase and stop moving on the last syllable.

13. Timing Law - No book on acting is complete without calling on Shakespeare. We're going to use an excerpt from Portia's trial scene in The Merchant of Venice—as an exercise.

Memorize the following quotation. Get it letter-perfect so you can rattle it off automatically. Don't try to act it.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

14. Timing Law 2 - Every day on motion-picture sound stages, in television studios and the theater, you have changes thrown at you. When you're cast in a production, you're given a final script, but this does not insure you against changes. During the actual production, scripts are constantly being revised. You may receive revisions at the last minute.

Here your training and experience show up. You must wipe out what you've memorized and use the law of substitution— quickly, accurately and automatically.

15. Co-Ordination - Co-ordination is a beautiful thing to see. Co-ordination is form in rhythmic motion.

To experience it, we will simultaneously co-ordinate three units of motion into one multiple unit of motion—a body phrase in which each individual part begins and ends at precisely the same time.

Sit comfortably—hands on knees.

16. Alchemy - It is your job, as an actor, to interweave a character's personality with your own. You must be so intimate with the character that you can consciously supply it with its own subconscious.

In order to attain this relationship, a CONSCIOUS-subconscious technique can be vital to the actor.

You—have—a—very—meager—introduction.

If, in real life, you are told a few things about a complete stranger whom you are going to meet—

17. Close-Up - Turn your aware-beam on the close-up. Your close-up.

We're all familiar with the poker face and the overactive face. A poker face is all right for playing poker and an overactive face is fine for the life-of-the-party. But neither is much help to the actor. A poker face transmits nothing at all, and an overactive face soon becomes a meaningless blur.

18. The Truth - Remember the following words from Chapter 10:

Your subconscious is a vast, natural reservoir of creativeness, inspiration and emotional power.

Imagination releases the creativeness, inspiration and emotional power of that reservoir.

To prepare your imagination in the mechanics of tapping your emotional reservoir, you are going to get a series of emotional flexibility and control exercises.

19. Body And Voice - Over the past few weeks you've flexed your mental muscles and had a good physical workout You've explored the resources of the mind for tools of acting. You are able to make your body serve you expressively. You can apply the mechanics of timing through proper use of mind and body.

You've accomplished a lot

20. Talk English - Scientific improvement in the acoustics of legitimate theaters, and the development of electronic sound systems in film and television, have made it possible for audiences to hear the performer more clearly than ever before.

In motion pictures and television, the actor's speech can now be directed intimately to each one in an audience.

21. Who, What, When - Did you ever have a friend ask: "What was that again?" as you finished telling him something?

Then you repeated exactly what you had said—this time stressing certain key words for emphasis, and giving them a special connotation to bring out a particular significance beyond their literal and obvious meaning.

22. Double Talk - "Double-track" is a phrase we borrow from motion-picture terminology.

In making a motion-picture film, the speech can be recorded on one track, the background music and sound effects, in juxtaposition, on another. They are run simultaneously and blended into a single unified track. This is mechanical double-track. The actor uses mental double-track.

23. Atomic Drive - An actor must keep his mind and body vital and alert He has no time for boredom. A bored person is a tired one, and a tired person is dull and unexciting. An actor must be an exciting personality.

All normal people have within them an almost unlimited supply of energy, dammed up and choked off by mental and emotional barriers—most of which they are not even aware of. Whether you realize it or not, the energy is there—more of it than you know what to do with.

24. Torchbearers - Hamlet said: "... we end the heartache, and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to ..."

It has always been the function of the actor to be the emotional physician, who gives solace, encouragement and freedom of feeling to people who need it—when they need it.

This has been the challenge of the actor since the beginning of time. He is the torchbearer of a great tradition; a fearless trail blazer into an expanding frontier.

THE END