The Technique of Acting by F. Cowles Strickland (review)

1958 BOOK REvIEws 65 and plays would also be welcome. Undoubtedly. given the support it merits, the specific purposes aDd features of the volume will be brought to a format which will make it an indispensable handbook for every member of the international theatre community. ROBERT D. HORN THE TECHNIQUE OF ACTING, by F. Cowles Strickland, McGraw-Hill, 306 pp. Price $5.95. This book is an explanation and exposition of techniques employed in the craft of acting. It takes up such subjects as movement, phrasing, timing, motivation, pace, style, the design of a role. The organization is sensible, the suggestions are nearly always acceptable without question, the choice of play scenes for study is excellent because the plays Sfe either familiar or are easily obtainable. The book, however, is difficult to evaluate. The most puzzling question is: For whom is the book written? If it is for the beginning student actor, the author too frequently doesn't say what technique to use or how to perfonn it; he is too gen~ era!. If it is for the more experienced actor, much of the materia! will appear very naive and many of the generalizations will be obvious because the actor knows from experience (or from his natural stage sense) that a vocal pause or a piece of action is desirable in this situation or that. If it is for the director, he surely possesses sufficient experience and imagination to kpow dozens of the simple fundamentals which are included. For either the beginning actor or director there lU'e also sins of omission; for example, there are numerous references to the Stanislavsky system but it is never clearly explained. There are many helpful observations:""It should be obvious ... that the test of the abilities of an actor should not rest with the possession of a voice of any particular quality, but rather with the use he makes of it:' "There are many occasions when the actor will wish to use movement to focus the attention of the audience on himseH just before he speaks,oo "The audience will pay more attention to what he" is doing than to who he is," Some statements and observations are too general for the average amateur actor: "Only when an actor reveals and conceals emotion can he be said to have restraint," (The author does not suggest how the actor can both reveal and conceal emotion to gain this restraint.) "The actor would do well to select the technical device best suited to the lines before be works out the techniques to be used for the rest of the scene." (Eve" ryone will agree; but does the actor know enough to make this selection of techniques and work them out?) Other affirmations raise questions: "It is easy for the student actor to discover which techniques combine naturally, since such combinations are as natural to the actor as a person as they are to the character that the actor is attempting to play," (Is this true? If so, why spend so much time studying these matters?) Occasionally something is not clear and Deeds elaboration: 'The student of technique should constantly remember that there is DO special merit in playing any one scene in any particular way, but there is great merit in being able to play any scene in many ways." The book has the curious effect of suggesting a doctor's dissertation in which much fundamental, obvious and general material has been meticulously analyzed and in detail. To whom the material is directed is Dot always apparent, How the actor is going to profit from a study of it is not always clear, The author possibly may take comfort in the fact that many others have attempted to Write books on acting and the great majority have not met with any better success. ALLEN CRAFI"ON ...