{"id":132638,"date":"2017-10-31T09:18:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=132638"},"modified":"2021-07-28T00:12:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T04:12:29","slug":"bookshelf-tour-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=132638","title":{"rendered":"Bookshelf Tour #3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSome of the most well-worn books in my library. <\/p>\n

Real Life Drama: The Group Theatre and America 1931-1940<\/a>\"\"<\/i> is Wendy Smith\u2019s exhaustive history of The Group Theater. I consider it essential reading. It’s an important part of the history of the 20th century. Post about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harold Clurman\u2019s memoir The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties<\/a>\"\"<\/i> details his own memory of that time. Gorgeous. <\/p>\n

Michael Caine’s Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making<\/a>\"\"<\/i> is an outright classic.<\/p>\n

Stella Adler (another Group alum) gave a series of lectures – on Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekhov. Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov<\/a>\"\"<\/i> is a treasure: you get a sense of what it must have been like to be in that room. If you want to learn about script analysis, this is a hell of a place to start. Robert De Niro studied with her and has said that her script analysis class is one of the most important classes he ever took.<\/p>\n

Jack Garfein\u2019s recently published memoir\/acting book Life and Acting: Techniques for the Actor<\/a>\"\"<\/i> is another volume rich with wisdom on actors. Garfein was a member of the Actors Studio, and the first director to be asked to join (he was asked by Lee Strasberg). (You can read more about Garfein in the essay I wrote for the Criterion release of his 1961 film Something Wild<\/i><\/a>. Which you all should see.) As a teacher for decades, Garfein knows what he\u2019s talking about. The book is filled with wonderfully thought-provoking unique acting exercises. Earlier this year, I attended a Master Class he gave at the Actors Studio. A night I\u2019ll never forget. The freedom he creates in a very stressful room … extraordinary! His \u201ctake\u201d on acting is very intuitive, un-academic, with a healthy respect for old-fashioned Playing Make-Believe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the most well-worn books in my library. Real Life Drama: The Group Theatre and America 1931-1940 is Wendy Smith\u2019s exhaustive history of The Group Theater. I consider it essential reading. It’s an important part of the history of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,16],"tags":[2397,644,1458,1336,2478,272,375],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132638"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169848,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132638\/revisions\/169848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}