Approaches to acting : past and present /

Meyer-Dinkgrafe describes and analyzes acting methods through historical contexts of both Western (Europe and the US) and non-Western (India, Japan, China, and Islamic countries) theater and performance traditions. Clearly intended as a survey, the book provides little new information. Topics include "Stanislavsky and His Legacy: Realism and Naturalism from Psychotechnique to Physical Actions" and "Developments in Anti-Realism" (German expressionism, Bauhaus, futurism, dada and surrealism, Brecht, Artaud, and Grotowski). The author tends to assume the reader's experience in order to make his points, thus weakening the value of this study, and he relies too much on secondary sources. The sections on theater criticism and the future of acting are brief and limited in scope, primarily drawing on the author's accounts of his experience and future workshop plans in the field. Readers interested in basic and in-depth research on the history and developments in acting will be better served with such works as Oscar Brockett and Robert Findlay's Century of Innovation (CH, Jun'73; 2nd ed., 1991); Twentieth Century Actor Training, ed. by Alison Hodge (CH, Sep'00); Patrice Pavis's Theatre at the Crossroads of Culture (CH, Oct'92); and standard works like Marvin Carlson's Theories of the Theatre (CH, Mar'85; exp. ed., 1993) and Brockett's History of the Theatre (1968; 8th ed., 1999). Not recommended. E. C. Ramirez St. Philip's College