He taught for fifty years at schools such as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Carnegie-Mellon University, The National Theatre School of Canada, the Australian Victorian College of the Arts, and the University of California, Riverside.

He was Chairman of Theatre at York University in Toronto, Head of the Acting Program at the Yale Drama School, and for eight years Dean of Theatre at The California Institute of the Arts. He recently retired as a tenured Full Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Artistic Director of the Nevada Conservatory Theatre.

Benedetti was Company Director of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and has directed at many other regional theatres, including the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, the South Coast and San Diego Repertory Theatres, and Australia’s Melbourne Theatre Company, with multiple productions at the Oregon, Colorado, and Great Lakes Shakespeare festivals. 

As a screenwriter and producer, Benedetti has won three Emmys and a Peabody Award. He has written six books on acting and film production, including The Actor at Work 10^th edition, The Actor in You, 5^th edition (now translated into Danish,) ACTION! Acting for Film and Television and From Concept to Screen (now translated into Chinese.)

In 2005 he received the Lifetime Career Achievement Award from the American Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and in April, 2012, he was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center.

1) Brief Table of Contents

2) Full Table of Contents

1) Full Table of Contents

Part 1: Preparing Yourself   

Chapter 1: Understanding the Actor’s Job  

Chapter 2: Relaxing and Centering  

Chapter 3: Your Voice and Speech

Chapter 4: Working Together

Chapter 5: Exploring the Text

Chapter 6: Actions and Objectives  

Chapter 7: How Scenes Work

Chapter 8: The Foundations of Character

Chapter 9: Personalization

Chapter 10: Early Rehearsals

Chapter 11: Staging and Final Rehearsals

Chapter 12: The Performance and After

Appendix A: The Tradition of the Actor

Appendix B:  Suggested Plays and Anthologies  

Appendix C:  Short Practice Selections from Shakespeare

Glossary of Theater Terminology 

Part 1: Preparing Yourself   

Chapter 1: Understanding the Actor’s Job  

Engagement  

Truthfulness  

Skill  

Usefulness

Dramatic Function 

Finding Your Own Sense of Purpose

Discipline 

Relaxation  

Finding Your Center  

Breathing, Sounding, and Moving From Center 

The Cycle of Energy  

Your Relationship to Gravity  

Phrasing Movement  

Using Your Own Voice

Speech

Voice Production

Articulation

Speech, Character, and Situation

Further Training of Body and Voice

Leading and Following  

Seeing and Hearing  

Example Plays  

Selecting Your Scene

Word Choice              

Rhythm

The Music of Speech

The Given Circumstances

Chapter 6: Actions and Objectives  

Stanislavski’s View of Action  

Internal and External Action: Justification

Action and Emotion

Action and Public Solitude  

Dual Consciousness  

Indicating  

Automatic and Spontaneous Actions

Defining Useful Objectives

Playable Actions

Obstacles and Counter-actions

Subtext

The Through-line and Superobjective

The Shape of a Scene

Crisis  

Units of Action or Beats

Making Connections

Character Traits

Needs and Personalization

Emotion Recall and Substitution

Entering the Character’s Mind

Perception, Arousal, and Attitude

Deliberation and Strategic Choice

The Inner Monologue

The Super-Choice

Autobiography, Diary, and Self-image

Auditions

Preparation and Homework

Early Read-throughs

Getting Up and Off Book

Exploring the Character’s Body

Communication in Rehearsal

You and Your Director

Types of Stages  

Directions on Stage 

The Groundplan and Blocking  

Establishing the Score

Shaping and Pacing the Performance

Costumes, Makeup, and Props

Technical Rehearsals

Dress Rehearsal

Emotion in Performance  

Spontaneity  

Beginning the Performance

The Fear of Failure

Measuring Success

Growth After Opening  

Your Sense of Purpose  

Transformation

Appendix A: The Tradition of the Actor

Appendix B:  Suggested Plays and Anthologies  

Plays  

Play and Scene Anthologies  

Anthologies for Students of Color  

Appendix C:  Short Practice Selections from Shakespeare

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.