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Acknowledgments
- University of Michigan Press
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing this book has been quite a journey, which started when my son, David, told me that I “should write that down.” This was in Holland, where I spent most of my professional life as a director, acting teacher, and writer. From the moment I started writing I was surrounded by friends, colleagues, and wise counselors, whom I wish to acknowledge, especially my dear friend Rudy Engelander, who helped me to edit the ‹rst drafts of the book; Ben Hurkmans, who supported me with a stipend from the Dutch Performing Arts Council; and publisher Marlies Oele of International Theatre & Film Books who, in 2002, made the Dutch publication possible. By that time I was teaching an acting workshop for Kevin Kuhlke’s International Theater Wing (ITW) of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (the Summer School Program in Amsterdam), and started teaching in Michael Cadden’s Theater Program at Princeton University. The contact with the students of these excellent schools made it clear to me that my book would be welcomed in the United States. I decided to translate it into English, and I asked Stephen Wangh, my friend and colleague from Tisch, to be my co-translator. It was again Ben Hurkmans of the Dutch Performing Arts Council who supported the idea and provided me with a grant. Translating is editing, and I can’t say how grateful I am to Steve for initiating a unique discussion—we called it “a walk on the beach,” although we mainly talked through email—about the content of the book: de‹nitions needed to be re‹ned, notions about acting and acting styles needed to be clari‹ed, cultural gaps needed to be bridged. We acting teachers, theater professionals in general, rarely have such an opportunity to talk at length and in depth about the principal issues of what we love the most: the theater, its form and its content, how to tackle the questions it poses, and how to teach it. In this process the book gradually underwent a transformation. My own development also expanded: the book was no longer an end point but became in many respects a new exploration, which helped me further in my teaching and directing. I am forever grateful to the many acting and directing students, professional actors, stage designers , and composers I had the honor to work with, in Holland as well as in the United States, in Germany, and in Japan: I learned from them, as much as I hope they learned from me. When the translation was ‹nished after several years of steadily interrupted work, I was delighted that the University of Michigan Press decided to publish the book. Editor LeAnn Fields has helped me enormously , by encouraging me to make the necessary rearrangements to make the book meet the standards of the Press. Again the book underwent a transformation. The result is an almost entirely new book. I am very grateful for LeAnn’s diligence, her professionalism, and patience. I also want to thank the editorial staff, especially Marcia LaBrenz, for the excellent work they have done to make this book happen. Writing a book is one thing, but producing one is quite a different ballgame. I have always seen my work as a director and a teacher as an exploration , a practical research as in a laboratory: you might have an idea about how the performance should be, but you don’t know what you don’t know—and that’s what you want to discover. Creating theater and teaching actors is a process, of which the ‹nal result cannot (and, as I strongly believe, should not) be known beforehand. I wish to thank the drama schools, the theaters, the ensembles, and the producers I have worked with in all these years, for giving me the space to set up my workshops and performances as exploratory projects. The literal English translation of the title of the Dutch book does not cover its meaning entirely. But the English title Stephen Wangh and I came up with, Acting in Real Time, does. It refers to the presence of the actor as himself, performing in the “here and now” of the theater. The term also represents the new acting convention, which has been develxiv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS [3.133.139.169] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 19:15 GMT) oped by Dutch actors and directors from 1970 onwards. I had the honor to be one of them, and today this form is applied...