To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting
About this ebook
“To the Actor is by far the best book that I have read on the subject of acting. Actors, directors, writers and critics will be grateful for it. It should prove enlightening to theatergoers who wish to deepen their appreciation for fine acting and thus help to invigorate the theatrical art.”—Gregory Peck
“I think without a doubt every creative person in the theater will want to have it as a constant reference book, outside of its being, in my opinion, absorbing and entertaining reading.”—Yul Brynner (from the Preface)
“One of the most remarkable and practical books on the technique of acting I have ever read....Enthusiastically recommended to all theatre collections of whatever size.”—Library Journal
About the author
MICHAEL CHEKHOV (29 August 1891 - 30 September 1955) was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner. His acting technique has been used by actors such as Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, and Yul Brynner. Although mainly a stage actor, he made a few notable appearances on film, perhaps most memorably as the Freudian analyst in Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound (1945), for which he received his only Academy Award.
Born in St. Petersburg, Chekhov was a member of the Moscow Art Theatre, of which Konstantin Stanislavsky was the director. In 1914 Chekhov helped found the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre, which became the Second Moscow Art Theatre. He worked for many years on the Continent and in England, acting, teaching and directing, and moved to America just before World War II, where he continued his acting, teaching and touring.
He died in California in 1955.
YUL BRYNNER (July 11, 1920 - October 10, 1985) was a Russian-born Swiss-American film and stage actor. He was best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut of Siam in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards and an Academy Award for the film version. He played the role 4,625 times on stage. He also starred as Rameses II in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster The Ten Commandments, and played General Bounine in the 1956 film Anastasia, and the gunman Chris Adams in The Magnificent Seven.
He died of lung cancer in 1985 at the age of 65.
