Acting One/Acting Two

Preface

ACTING ONE

Introduction

PART I. PREPARATION FOR ACTING

Lesson 1: Preparing to Act

Relaxation / Exercise 1-1 Relaxation / Trust / Exercise 1-2 Spine Lengthening / Exuberance / Exercise 1-3 BAM-POW, Dance, Sing / Discipline / Criticism / A Playful Attitude / Freedom / Preparation

Lesson 2: What Is Acting?

Exercise 2-1 Pledge Your Allegiance to a Flag

PART II. THE ACTOR'S APPROACH

Lesson 3: Goal and Obstacle

Fundamental Principle / Exercise 3-1 Reaching / Exercise 3-2 Reaching for Goals / Exercise 3-3 Overcoming an Obstacle / Self-Consciousness / Exercise 3-4 Doing vs. Being / Projection / Exercise 3-5 Resonating / Exercise 3-6 Resonating (A Continuation) / Exercise 3-7 Goals

Lesson 4: Acting with the 'Other'

The Other / Exercise 4-1 Making Your Partner Smile / Interactive Dynamics / Exercise 4-2 Vulnerability / Exercise 4-3 Discovery / The Character / Tactics / Exercise 4-4 Using Tactics / Exercise 4-5 One Two Three Four Five Six Seven / Monologues / Exercise 4-6 Inventing the Other

Lesson 5: Beginning to Act

Contentless Scene / Exercise 5-1 Contentless Scene I / Intensifiers / Exercise 5-2 Intensifying / Physicalizers / Exercise 5-3 Varying Locale or Action / Exercise 5-4 Contentless Scene II

Lesson 6: Tactics

Punishment and Reward / Playing Tactics / Exercise 6-1 Frighten Your Partner / Exercise 6-2 Building Intensity / Exercise 6-3 Try to Make Your Partner Cry / Exercise 6-4 Movement and Contact / Exercise 6-5 Encourage Your Partner / Alternating Tactics / Exercise 6-6 Mixing Tactics / The Middle Ranges / Exercise 6-7 Eliminating the Extremes

Lesson 7: Expectations

Expecting Victory / Exercise 7-1 Playing Bored / Positive Goals / Exercise 7-2 Enthusiasm / Exercise 7-3 Try the Impossible / Eye Contact / Exercise 7-4 Tactics and Expectations

Lesson 8: GOTE

A Basic Method / "Get Your Character's GOTE" / Exercise 8-1 The GOTEsheet

PART III. THE ACTOR'S TASK

Lesson 9: Preparing a Role

Finding Your Role / Finding Your "Character" / Editing a Scene / Memorization Methods / Cues / Studying the Part / Exercise 9-1 The Gentleman Caller I

Lesson 10: Rehearsing

Rehearsals / Undirected Rehearsals / Rehearsal Alternatives / Exercise 10-1 The Gentleman Caller II

Lesson 11: Staging the Scene

Stage Directions / Creating the Locale / Movement and Stage Business / Interesting Positions / Reaching the Audience / Exercise 11-1 Setting the Stage

Lesson 12: Choices

The Need for Choices / Good Choices / Exercise 12-1 Bold Choices

Lesson 13: Performing

Stage Fright / Classroom Performance / Play for Results--In the Other Character!

Lesson 14: Evaluation and Improvement

Helpful Criticism / Reworking / Exercise 14-1 Scene Presentation

PART IV. THE ACTOR'S INSTRUMENT

Lesson 15: The Actor's Voice

Breathing / Exercise 15-1 Breathing from the Abdomen / Phonation: Making Sounds / Exercise 15-2 Sounding / Resonance / Exercise 15-3 Exploring Resonance / Pitch / Exercise 15-4 Exploring Your Pitch Range / A Stageworthy Voice / Exercise 15-5 Speaking with Resonance

Lesson 16: Stage Speech

Good Diction / Speech Sounds / Exercise 16-1 Vowels / Exercise 16-2 Repeating Syllables / Exercise 16-3 Consonants / Exercise 16-4 Speeches

Lesson 17: Using Your Voice

Liberation / Exercise 17-1 Rude Chants / Exercise 17-2 Rude Cheering / Exercise 17-3 Fancy Talk / Exercise 17-4 Address a Group / Purposefulness / Exercise 17-5 Adding Purpose

Lesson 18: The Actor's Body

Agility / Exercise 18-1 Fast Warm-Up / Alignment / Exercise 18-2 Improving Alignment / Walking / Exercise 18-3 Sixteen Walks / Exercise 18-4 Walk and Talk / Sitting and Standing / Exercise 18-5 Walk, Talk, Sit / Velocity: Accelerating, Decelerating, and Constant / Exercise 18-6 Acceleration/Deceleration / Counterpoise / Exercise 18-7 Contraposto / Exercise 18-8 Contraction/Extension / The Dynamics of Effort / Exercise 18-9 Distinct Movements / Exercise 18-10 To Be or Not to Be / Exercise 18-11 Walking and Kicking

Lesson 19: Voice and Body Integration

Coordination / Exercise 19-1 Commands / Exercise 19-2 Speeches with Business / Exercise 19-3 Physical Punctuation / Exercise 19-4 Physical Rhythms / Exercise 19-5 Verbal Rhythms / Pointing / Exercise 19-6 Pointing / Tempo / Exercise 19-7 Speech/Movement Timing / Actors with Disabilities

Lesson 20: Imagination and Creativity

Imagination / Creativity / Creativity and Imagination / Using Your Fantasies / Exercise 20-1 Cold/Hot / Exercise 20-2 Age Regression/Advancement / Exercise 20-3 Facing an Imagined Death / Exercise 20-4 Facing Love /

Lesson 21: Emotion and Acting Theory

Exercise 21-1 Playing (with) Real Emotion I / Self-Consciousness / Exercise 21-2 Playing (with) Real Emotion II / Conclusion

PART V. THE ACTOR'S TECHNIQUE

Lesson 22: Phrasing

Diction / Open-Mouthed Speaking / Exercise 22-1 A Acting with Your Teeth / Exercise 22-1 B / Exercise 22-1 C / Developing Diction / Exercise 22-2 Repeated Sentences / Exercise 22-3 Shaw Speech / Emphasis / Exercise 22-4 Change of Emphasis / Exercise 22-5 Punctuate with Emphasis / Inflection / Exercise 22-6 Inflections / Phrasing

Lesson 23: Attack

The First Word / Physical Attack / Turn-Taking / Exercise 23-1 Turn-Taking Dialog / Preparing Strong Attacks / Exercise 23-2 Action Cues

Lesson 24: Follow-Through

The Hook / Questions as Questions / Statements as Questions / Exercise 24-1 Making Questions / Statements as Statements / Exercise 24-2 Argument-Enders / Trail-offs

Lesson 25: Line Linkage

Analyzing Dialog / Rising End-Inflections / Falling End-Inflections / Attack Inflections / Pauses / Long Speeches / Exercise 25-1 Line Linking / Exercise 25-2 The Long Speech / Line Linking in Practice

Lesson 26: Scene Structure

Breaking Down a Script / Choosing a Scene to Do in Class / Structural Characteristics / Transitions / Scene Breakdown / Exercise 26-1 Scene Structure in Action

Lesson 27: Building a Scene

Building and Topping / Exercise 27-1 Standard Build I / Exercise 27-2 Standard Build II / Exercise 27-3 Standard Build III / Cutting Back / Getting on Top / Pacing a Build / Complex Builds / Exercise 27-4 I Detest Monday / Exercise 27-5 I Detest January / Exercise 27-6 Come Here / Exercise 27-7 Building Molière

Lesson 28: Creating a Monologue

Going It Alone / The Monologue to Someone Else / The Soliloquy / Playing a Monologue or Soliloquy / Exercise 28-1 Prepare a Monologue /

L'Envoi

ACTING TWO

Introduction

Terminology: Style, Character, and performance / Acting Two's Structure / A Word About Gender /

Part I. Extensions of Yourself

Lesson 1: Style

Exercise 1-1 Baby Talk / Exercise 1-2 Baby Moves /

Lesson 2: Stylized Exchanges

Exercise 2-1 Pig Latin / Exercise 2-2 Speaking in (Foreign) Tongues / Exercise 2-3 Contemporary Greetings / Exercise 2-4 Making Elizabethan Greetings / Exercise 2-5 Ad-Libbing Elizabethan Greetings / Exercise 2-6 Ad-Libbing Elizabethan Insults / Exercise 2-7 Hamlet's Greeting to the Players

Lesson 3: Roses Are Red

Rhyme and Verse / Exercise 3-1 Roses Are Red / Exercise 3-2 Roses Are Redder--Take One / Eye Contact--And Looking Elsewhere / Exercise 3-3 Roses Are Redder--Take Two / Exercise 3-4 Roses Are Redder--Take Three / Thinking Your Character's Thoughts / Exercise 3-5 Roses Are Redder--Take Four / Playing the Play

Lesson 4: Playing God

Exercise 4-1 Playing God / Playing a Character

Lesson 5: Characterization

Exercise 5-1 Reciprocal Characterization: Richard and Hastings / Exercise 5-2 Intrinsic Characterization: Richard and Hastings / Intrinsic Characterizations: Extensions and Stereotypes / Centering / Exercise 5-3 Centering / Character Postures and Walks / Exercise 5-4 Character Walks / Character Voices / Exercise 5-5 Finding Your Voices / Character Descriptions / Exercise 5-6 Playing Out Character Descriptions / Animal Imagery / Exercise 5-7 Animate (Animalize) Your Character / Intrinsic and Reciprocal Characterization / Exercise 5-8 Character Greetings

Lesson 6: More God

Exercise 6-1 A Stanza, by God

Lesson 7: The Battle of the Sexes: Noah and His Wife

Scene 7-1 Noah and His Wife

Lesson 8: Performance: Being Public in Private

Exercise 8-1 A Performative God / Performative Aspects of Dramatic Scenes / Exercise 8-2 Performing Your Greetings and Insults / The Audience in the Theatre / Scene 8-3 The Performative Context: Oedipus and Creon / Exercise 8-4 The Performative Context: Shakespeare / Exercise 8-5 the Performative Context: Chekhov

Part II. The Scenes

Lesson 9: Greek Tragedy

Scene 9-1 Politician vs. Prophet: Oedipus and Teiresias / More Greek Scenes /

Lesson 10: The Commedia

Commedia Styles and Scripts / Commedia Performances / Commedia and Renaissance Ideals / Acting Commedia: Machiavelli's Clizia / Exercise 10-1 Commedia: Direct Address / Commedia Lazzi / Scene 10-1 Nicomaco and Sofronia / Stock Characters / More Commedia Scenes

Lesson 11: Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Theatre

Scene 11-1 The Past Made Vivid: Richard and Ann / Scansion / Verse Variations / Playing the Verse / Rhetoric / Playing and Building the Rhetoric / The Public Environment / Scene 11-2 A Merry War: Beatrice and Benedick / Shakespeare and Commedia / More Elizabethan Scenes

Lesson 12: The Theatre of Molière

Scene 12-1 Physical Comedy / Jourdain and the Philosopher / Molière and Commedia / Costume and Deportment / French Verse / Scene 12-2 Quarreling in Couplets: Alceste and Celimène /

Lesson 13: Restoration Comedy

Exercise 13-1 Restoration Speeches / Scene 13-1 Sexual Banter/

Lesson 14: The Belle Epoque

George Bernard Shaw / Exercise 14-1 Shaw's Political Speeches /

Anton Chekhov / Scene 14-1 Chekhov's Symphony of Feeling

Oscar Wilde / Scene 14-2 Wilde's Comedy of (Male) Manners / Exercise 14-3 Wilde's Comedy of (Female) Manners

Lesson 15: The Hypertheatre

Eugene Ionesco: Theater of the Absurd / Exercise 15-1 Theatre of Absurd: Mr. and Mrs. Martin

Bertolt Brecht: Theater of Distancing / Scene 15-2 Distancing in Szechuan / Verfremdung in Everyday Life

Lesson 16: Contemporary Styles

Clashing Cultures / 16-1 Prior and Harper / Clashing Subcultures / 16-2 Boy Willie and Grace / Clashing Professions / 16-3 Vivian and Jason / Solo performer, Multiple Roles

L'Envoi

A Glossary of Acting Terms

Index

The new, fifth edition of Robert Cohen's Acting One, the text used to teach acting on more campuses than any other, has now been combined for the first time with his Acting Two, (the second edition of his previously-titled Advanced Acting). Together, Acting One/Acting Two provides a comprehensive and fully integrated system of all acting, from the most realistic to the most stylized. Part One (Acting One) covers basic skills such as talking, listening, tactical interplay, physicalizing, building scenes, and making powerful acting choices. Part Two (Acting Two) provides a series of exercises that encourage the student actor's self-extension into radically different styles (historical, literary, fantastical) and characterizations; then coaches the student through scenework in a variety of historical periods (Greek, Commedia, Elizabethan, Molière, Restoration, Belle Epoque), as well as modern hyper-realistic theatrical forms such as the theatres of alienation and the absurd, and exemplary recent dramas by Tony Kushner, Margaret Edson, August Wilson and Doug Wright.