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Acting Characters
By Paul Elsam
A&C Black, £9.99
Dateline: 11th February, 2007
The blurb says, "Acting Characters is an introductory book
for students and aspiring actors to help demystify the process of acting"
and its subtitle is 20 simple steps from rehearsal to performance.
Both are an accurate summary of this book.
Beginning with a consideration of the skills necessary for being an
actor, Elsam moves on to cover planning, the body, the voice, speech
and inner life, giving practical advice and basic exercises along the
way. Each section is broken down into what he calles Tools. Each Tool
is explained, solo and partner exercises are given along with, for most
of them, a short scene from a play (usually Chekhov's Three Sisters)
which exemplifies the use of the Tool being dealt with.
In the Voice section, for instance, he deals with Adjusting
Loudness, Adjusting Inflection, Adjusting Note and
Adjusting Tone. The advice given is fairly basic but that's what
the book's audience needs. Indeed, because of its basic nature, the
book can also function as a kind of aide-memoir for trained,
experienced actors, as it can help illuminate the process of preparing
to play a part in those moments - which we all experience at some stage
- when the actor feels bogged down and getting nowhere. At under a tenner
it is a useful book for any actor to have in his/her library. For the
aspiring actor, setting out on his/her training, it is a very valuable
preparation for the rigours of drama school training.
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