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Acting: Library Resources

A Subject Guide for the School of Acting

Databases

Multimedia

E-books

Use the Course Reserves page on the Library website to search for required textbooks.

Magazines

Websites

Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world's preeminent movie related organization, comprised of 7,000+ accomplished men and women working in cinema.

Actors' Equity Association

Actors' Equity Association (“Equity"), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 50,000 Actors and Stage Managers. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors' Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions.

American Film Institute

The American Film Institute is America's promise to preserve the heritage of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers. As a nonprofit educational arts organization, AFI provides leadership in film and television and is dedicated to initiatives that engage the past, the present and the future of the moving image arts.

Casting Society of America

The Casting Society of America (CSA) was created in February of 1982 with the intent of establishing a recognized standard of professionalism in the casting field and providing its members with a support organization to further their goals and protect their common interests.

Screen Actors Guild & American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world.

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Recommended Books

Acting with Passion

"Acting With Passion draws heavily on the world of mind-body psychology, primarily the work of Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen. Their theories - that the release of chronic muscular tension can be accompanied by the release of emotions - offer actors the keys to emotional ease on stage. Through a series of physical exercises, actors learn to access feelings through the body rather than the mind"--Publisher summary.

Acting Power

"This revised edition (re)considers, in the context of today's field: questions such as 'should actors act from the inside or the outside?' and 'should the actor live the role or present the role?'; contemporary research into communication theory, cybernetics, and cognitive science; illuminating and witty exercises for solo study and classroom use, and a through-line of useful references to classic plays; and observations about the actor's art by more than 75 distinguished professional actors and directors"

Playing Shakespeare

"Generations of actors joining the RSC have benefited from John Barton's teaching" Trevor Nunn "One of the sanest, wisest and most practical volumes I have ever read about Shakespeare" Michael Billington John Barton is Advisory Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company and has directed some of the greatest Shakespeare productions of our time. His book, Playing Shakespeare, is a transcript of his televised workshops with some of our finest Shakespearean actors: Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Ben Kingsley, Patrick Stewart and David Suchet. "What the programmes and published text reveal, is the method and principal approach of acting Shakespeare which has been fundamental to the Royal Shakespeare Company since it was formed" Trevor Nunn.