Acting Up

by David Hare

After writing a monologue on the subject of Israel and Palestine, David Hare forced himself to make his debut on the professional stage at the age of fifty-one. When his success at London's austere Royal Court theatre led to an invitation to appear in New York at a somewhat flashier Broadway venue, Hare was transformed from a shadowy playwright into an actor alone on the stage every night for ninety minutes.

Hare's hilarious diary of his experience on both sides of the Atlantic tells of his difficulties in coming to terms with his frightening change of career, but also grapples with more serious questions about what the difference is between acting and performance, and whether anyone can learn to do either.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 1999

About the author

Sir David Hare (born 5 June 1947) is an English playwright, screenwriter and theatre and film director. Most notable for his stage work, Hare has also enjoyed great success with films, receiving two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing The Hours in 2002, based on the novel written by Michael Cunningham, and The Reader in 2008, based on the novel of the same name written by Bernhard Schlink.

On West End, he had his greatest success with the plays Plenty, which he adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep in 1985, Racing Demon (1990), Skylight (1997), and Amy's View (1998). The four plays ran on Broadway in 1982–83, 1996, 1998 and 1999 respectively, earning Hare three Tony Award nominations for Best Play for the first three and two Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Other notable projects on stage include A Map of the World, Pravda, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War and The Vertical Hour. He wrote screenplays for the film Wetherby and the BBC drama Page Eight (2011).

As of 2013, Hare has received two Academy Award nominations, three Golden Globe Award nominations, three Tony Award nominations and has won a BAFTA Award, a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and two Laurence Olivier Awards. He has also been awarded several critics' awards such as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and received the Golden Bear in 1985. He was knighted in 1998.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ha...

Reviews

[Michael Burge · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about performing, written not by an actor, but by a playwright, this extended diary by David Hare is essential reading for anyone who wants to have anything to do with the theatre.

Laying bare the graft of nightly performances, the harsh truth of live shows and the toll taken on voice, ego and relationships, Hare provides much more than a glimpse into the theatre - he tears the curtain apart and shows you what it is like in an actor's world.

He also explores the creative process of putting a production together, particularly the way a play is an organic entity, never completed, never definitive, always growing.

His descriptions of audience behaviour are hilarious and will make you a better audience member for the rest of your life!

[Joshlynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a lot of reasons, this diary is more interesting than the text of the play whose production it chronicles (the good, but dated Via Dolorosa). It can get a little self-centered at times, but it is a diary after all. It takes balls to publish this stuff. A fascinating and completely worthwhile look into the creative process of one of my favorite artists.