The Purpose of Playing: Modern Acting Theories in Perspective

by Robert Gordon

The Purpose of Playing provides the first in-depth introduction to modern critical acting, enabling students, teachers, and professionals to comprehend the different aesthetic possibilities available to today’s actors. The book presents a comparative survey of the major approaches to Western acting since the nineteenth century, their historical evolution, and their relationship to one another. Author Robert Gordon explores six categories of acting: realistic approaches to characterization (Stanislavski, Vakhtangov, Strasberg, Chekhov); the actor as a scenographic instrument (Appia, Craig, Meyerhold); improvisation and games (Copeau, Saint-Denis, Laban, Lecoq); political theater (Brecht, Boal); exploration of the self and other (Artaud, Grotowski); and performance as cultural exchange (Brook, Barba). The synthesis of these principal theories of dramatic performance in a single text offers practitioners the knowledge they need to contextualize their own practice within the wider field of performance, while encouraging theorists and scholars to be more sensitive to the material realities of artistic practice.
 
“This analysis of major movements and figures from the early nineteenth century to the present is clear, thorough, and penetrating, and its scope across periods, countries, and styles is impressive.”
            --Xerxes Mehta, University of Maryland-Baltimore County
 
Robert Gordon is Reader in Drama, Goldsmiths College, University of London.

424 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2006

About the author

As Professor of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, Robert Gordon established the first MA in Musical Theatre for writers and producers in Europe. He has worked as a playwright, director, actor and critic and is author of Pinter's Theatre of Power, Stoppard: Text and Performance, The Purpose of Playing, co-author of British Musicals since 1950 and editor of the Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies.

(Source: Amazon)

Reviews

[Jessica López-Barkl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently taught this book in conjunction with a play production class I was doing up at Washington State Penitentiary. We were producing WAITING FOR GODOT and I wanted to test out all of the acting theories against the text for sourcework and blocking trials. Well, I should've read the book before I had the prison buy it, but they never give us enough time. It was one of the few books I found that had every acting technique and theory I'd ever heard of, and some more, so...I thought, we'll just use that. However, it was almost PhD level reading. Every chapter already assumes that you have an amazing knowledge of theater and other languages. It would take me four hours to just prep one chapter...and that's a lot for me. Anyway, I learned a lot about my craft and art form and I'm looking forward to teaching it better next time.