What Actors Do

Advice to the Players in Seven Paradoxes and a Manifesto

Mike Alfreds

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English

Nick Hern Books
21 September 2023

Theatre Studies; Acting techniques; Theatre direction & production

'Only what is open and searching is active and alive. You, the actor, must learn to find security in insecurity, certainty in uncertainty, to trust that this will lead to discovery and growth.'

In What Actors Do, revered theatre director Mike Alfreds explores the wellspring of the actor's craft, tracing a pathway to creative freedom through the thickets of competing methodologies and confusing paradoxes that you will face throughout your training and career.

How do you give life to a character that both is and isn't yourself? How can you be childlike and open in your work without becoming childish? How, when you know what's coming next, can you still be spontaneous?

Frank, uncompromising and full of sharply focused insights, this book will help you strip away the inhibitions and habitual thinking that can shackle our imaginations. It will show you how to generate truthful performances by trusting your inner creativity and remaining radically open, responsive and present in every moment.

Mike Alfreds has been directing plays for more than seventy years. In the 1970s he founded Shared Experience, and has since worked for the National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and also extensively abroad. He is hugely respected within the profession, and is the author of two previous books, Different Every Night and Then What Happens?

'If I was allowed to train again to be an actor, but I was only allowed one teacher, it would have to be Mike Alfreds. To me he is a genius when it comes to acting and storytelling' Mark Rylance

By: Mike Alfreds
Imprint: Nick Hern Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm, Spine: 12mm
Weight: 209g
ISBN: 9781839041419
ISBN 10: 1839041412
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 21 September 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Mike Alfreds has been directing plays for more than fifty years. In the 1970s he founded Shared Experience, and has since worked for the National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and also extensively abroad. He is hugely respected within the profession. He is the author of Different Every Night (Nick Hern Books, 2007), Then What Happens? (Nick Hern Books, 2013) and What Actors Do (Nick Hern Books, 2023).

Reviews for What Actors Do: Advice to the Players in Seven Paradoxes and a Manifesto

"""If I was allowed to train again to be an actor, but I was only allowed one teacher, it would have to be Mike Alfreds. To me he is a genius when it comes to acting and storytelling.""--Mark Rylance"