Tyrone Guthrie — Tyrone Guthrie

Dust jacket notes: "'Acting as a calling somewhere between factory-work and prostitution is in demand as never before. Acting as a serious profession is in grave danger of extinction,' writes Tyrone Guthrie. His book, written mainly for young actors and for amateurs, teachers, and students of acting, argues the case for a serious professional approach to theatre - which he believes to be its only hope of survival. After establishing that good acting is as much a matter of technique as of imagination or intuition and can therefore, at least to some extent, be taught, the author analyzes the relation between student and teacher as well as methods of teaching, coming down heavily on those professors of 'Dramah' who would ignore the fact that plays were written to be performed. His frank and illuminating discussions about stagecraft, about technique, make-up, movement, vocal training; his perceptive advice on how to approach a dramatic role, including an appraisal of the real value of improvisation; his comments about straight and character acting and about the legitimate theatre as opposed to mass media - these and all other important aspects of the subject are reviewed with much intelligence, wit, and sympathy. Admired and respected throughout the world for his own immense contribution to the theatre, Tyrone Guthrie is a director of lifelong experience. He has had the opportunity to work with actors in many parts of the world and in many kinds of plays, and under exceedingly varied conditions: from Grand Opera at Sadler's Wells, and Covent Garden in London and at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, to repertory theatre in the Midwest and one-night stands with a 'fit-up' in the north of Scotland. He was for many years connected with the Old Vic, and was artistic director of the Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, Ontario, and of the theatre in Minneapolis which bears his name."