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Title: No Acting Please by Eric Morris, Joan Hotchkis, Jack Nicholson, Joank Hotchkis ISBN: 0-9629709-3-X Publisher: Ermor Enterprises Pub. Date: April, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Proceed with extreme caution
Comment: I give this book a fairly high rating because all acting technique is personal. An actor's job in receiving training is to simply find the approach that works best for the individual. Method acting simply means to find one's own method. While responses to acting texts, approaches and classes are always subjective, one should always remain open for new ideas.
That said I reject Eric Morris' approach to acting on a personal and professional level.
As every actor knows (or at least should know), his/her job is "to do nothing more than to be believable while telling the best possible story that serves the script" (Bruce Morris). Or as Stanislavski defines acting: "Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances". The root of an actor's technique must always be action. Again with Stanislavski: "while on stage, an actor must always be enacting something". Action verbs are the basis of all acting/storytelling craft. An audience does not pay precious money to watch an actor have an emotional moment, but rather to have the moment themselves.
All the great acting teachers, building upon the work of Stanislavski, have stressed the importance of finding and playing an action as opposed to an emotion. Robert Lewis, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, Michael Checkov and even Lee Strassberg (although he ventured too far into the emotional realm) all taught students to find the appropriate action and embrace that reality as the basis for their storytelling craft. Emotions are the by product of a person engaging in an action and either failing or succeeding in the quest to fulfill that action.
Eric Morris' approach, centers on "Being" exercises. He asks his students to simply get up in front of a group of people and simply "Be". As related in this book, he proceeds to grill them about their day and call them on the carpet for any false emotion as he dredges for some emotional moment. Morris' approach, at least to this reader, comes off as simply another example of acting teacher "power tripping" as well as pseudo-therapy hidden in the guise of acting. This approach simply leads to the teacher holding such power over his/her students as they become obsessed with pleasing the teacher as opposed to truly pleasing the audience.
This approach leads to emotionally crippling an actor. Actor's become obsessed with evaluating their acting on the basis of whether or not they "felt" the scene. If an actor finds they cannot reach the emotion, they immediately fill themselves with a great sense of guilt and personal disgust at their inability to produce an emotion. Acting should ultimately be a freeing experience as well as a fun and celebratory bit of life. Many acting teachers and actors, bowing under the weight of thousands of years of social stigma feel that they must deny the "fun" factor of acting and make it a painful and serious affair.
As any director or acting teacher can attest, when one simply asks an actor to "be" on stage, one will watch an actor squirm, blink and fold inside him/her self. Put an actor on stage and ask him/her to push a giant stone up a mountain, one will watch a fantastic story filled with all the emotional truth an audience could ever hope to find.
The key to acting is not "being" it is in fact "doing". Apparently Morris has a workbook that combines the two concepts. I will certainly read that as well- again the justification for the high rating. I am still learning my craft and I pray I will always continue to do so.
NO ACTING PLEASE is certainly worth reading and worth trying though so that one can form their own opinion. After trying Morris' approach, this review is simply my opinion. Proceed with caution.
Rating: 5
Summary: Eric Morris is a genius
Comment: After reading Eric's brilliant books, I was curious to see what "the man" was like in person. WOW! "No Acting Please" is an incredible primer for actually studying with Eric. Eric brings the principles of "No Acting Please," "Being And Doing" and "Irreverant Acting" to life in his 2-day seminars. I don't care how long you've been acting or how accomplished you think you are - what this man teaches, in writing and in person, cannot even have a value put on it. I'm a regular on a Top 15 drama series, and when I first started studying with Eric about 6 months ago I realized how little I really know. He's taken my acting to new heights, heights I never thought I could reach. He made me excited to be an actor again. You can't put a price on passion. I highly recommend reading Eric's books (get ALL of them) and sitting in on his seminar. Check out his website too.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Must-Have Book/A Must-Avoid Acting Coach
Comment: This one of the best books on acting ever published. It is also one of the only books where you can significantly improve just by reading the thing, "getting" it, and playing around with some of the exercises. Eric stumbled upon something great with his "Being State" stuff. However, I have studied with Eric, and run from Eric, and so have many established actors/celebrities. He is a total narcissist neurotic whose "craft" sucks all pleasure from acting. Personal recommendation: JUST READ HIS BOOK AND DON'T GO NEAR HIM.
And one more thing: Eric's books on imaging and craft and Carl Jung-based theories on acting are all bogus. If you read them you see how more and more self-indulgent and full of it he gets and how these lengthy pop-psychology theories are truly ignorant. Save your money but keep "No Acting Please" as a bible.
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Title: On Method Acting by Edward Dwight ISBN: 0804105227 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 30 July, 1989 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: To the Actor by Michael Chekhov, Mala Powers, Simon Callow ISBN: 0415258766 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Irreverent Acting by Eric Morris ISBN: 0962970921 Publisher: Ermor Enterprises Pub. Date: June, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Being and Doing: A Workbook for Actors by Eric Morris ISBN: 0962970905 Publisher: Ermor Enterprises Pub. Date: February, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen, Haskel Frankel ISBN: 0025473905 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 September, 1973 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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