HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY READING LIST

FOR ACTING STUDENTS

Stanislavksi, MY LIFE IN ART

All modern acting techniques come from Stanislavski.  This is the story of how he struggled to create his famous acting method, and his life as an actor and director.

Harold Clurman, THE FERVENT YEARS

One of the greatest of the American directors tells the story of the Group Theatre, the most important American Repertory company.  This group gave rise to the most important founding directors, playwrights, acting teachers and actors of modern American theater, including Clifford Odets (playwright), Harold Clurman (director), Lee Strasberg (director, later founder of The Actors Studio and Method Acting), Stella Adler (along with Strasberg, became on of the most prominent American acting teachers) and Sanford Meisner (became the most systematic of the American acting teachers).

Eva LaGalliene, THE MYSTIC IN THE THEATER

Biography of perhaps the greatest actor that ever lived, the great Eleonora Duse, whose acting was the direct expression of her soul.  This book reveals the spiritual principles behind great acting and great creative expression as no other book does.