Most people don’t immediately think of theatre books for their summer reading. Then again, if not taking classes in the art/craft of theatre, most people don’t think about them at all. If you’d like to be one of the exceptions, however, you’re in luck. It’s not too late to spend a lazy day or two slathered in SPF 50 while soaking in both sun and Stanislavski, communing with both nature and No Acting Please
If a full-fledged vacation still beckons, packing in Peter Brook’s The Empty Space
Eager to stock my drama bookshop with titles that would be sure to please, I always appreciated, and often solicited, suggestions from friends, employees and customers. This list is one small way of my paying it forward for all their help and support. As for these books being classics, that word, of course, can be broadly interpreted. My choices here represent a number of the nonfiction titles that earned long-term positions on my store’s shelves, ones that remain — some after numerous editions — in well-stocked Theatre sections today.
Many in this compilation have served as teaching mainstays, though their clout certainly runs deeper than that. Timeless? That’s another tricky term. How about calling them tried-and-true. Or let’s just say that, in this era of publishing, titles staying in print 20 or so years definitely have to have something going on.
Any list of theatre-books-worth-reading could continue indefinitely. As I hope this one will: Feel free to write in with your own favorites. Older, newer — it doesn’t matter. Sharing’s the thing.
Acting:
Playing Shakespeare: An Actor’s Guide
Way of the Actor
Anne Bogart: Viewpoints
Games for Actors and Non-Actors
Theatre of the Oppressed
Acting: The First Six Lessons
The Open Door
A Practical Handbook for the Actor
The Presence of the Actor
On the Technique of Acting
To the Actor
On Method Acting
A Challenge For The Actor
Respect for Acting
Strasberg’s Method As Taught by Lorrie Hull
Sanford Meisner on Acting
The Stanislavski System: The Professional Training of an Actor
Being and Doing: A Workbook for Actors
Irreverent Acting
No Acting Please
Audition
An Actor’s Handbook
[and his trilogy:]
An Actor Prepares
Building A Character
Creating A Role
A Dream of Passion: The Development of the Method
Strasberg at the Actors Studio: Tape-Recorded Sessions
The Way of Acting: The Theatre Writings of Tadashi Suzuki
Directing:
“Directors in Perspective
The Theater and Its Double
Sense of Direction: Some Observations on the Art of Directing
The Director’s Voice: Twenty-One Interviews
The Empty Space
On Directing
Movement/Voice:
Voice and the Actor
A Performer Prepares: A Guide to Song Preparation for Actors, Singers and Dancers
On Singing Onstage
Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice
Freeing the Natural Voice
Speech For the Stage
The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice
Commedia Dell’Arte: An Actor’s Handbook
Speak with Distinction
Improvisation for the Theater
Playwrights/Playwriting:
Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays
Playwriting: Writing Producing and Selling Your Play
The Art Of Dramatic Writing
In Their Own Words: Contemporary American Playwrights
Dramatist’s Toolkit,The: The Craft of the Working Playwright
Dramatists Sourcebook
Production/Stagecraft:
The Backstage Handbook: An Illustrated Almanac of Technical Information
Producing Theatre : A Comprehensive and Legal Business Guide
Theatre Backstage from A to Z
Stage Lighting Handbook
You have missed a huge new addition to this list of classic texts. The American Theatre Reader: Essays and Conversations from American Theatre Magazine is a must have. It was put out by TCG in 2009 and is full of big, bold, and world changing ideas.
I started this list of time-honored titles hoping for the addition of wonderful new ones. Thanks for your input, Lionel. And for reading — this column, this website and, of course, theatre books.