The Player's Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting

by Joseph Roach

Explores the historical and cultural evolution of the theoretical language of the stage

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Criticism

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Brian Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the very best books ever written about the art and craft (and yes, the science) of acting. This groundbreaking study traces the evolution of acting theory and technique from the sixteenth century to the time of Stanislavski and details how practitioners and philosophers talked about how actors portrayed passion and emotion on stage. This may sound potentially dry, but it's not. It's utterly fascinating and illuminating. It covers the philosophy of the humors in the Renaissance, man as beautiful machine in the Enlightenment, the duality of rationality and spontaneous emotion in the 19th century, particularly the groundbreaking work on acting proposed by French philosophe Denis Diderot, arriving finally at their culmination with Stanislavski to begin the 20th century. Along the way are evocative passages on acting in practice as well as insight into how an actor produces emotion both in themselves and in their audience whole performing onstage.

Any student of acting or of acting history or of performance history will find this a vital inclusion to their dramatic library. Essential.

[Michael Meeuwis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that makes me smarter every time I reread it. The basic idea to treat paradigms of acting as responding to scientific paradigms is one of those "obvious but then no-one else thought of it first" ideas; but the book itself is endlessly learned, digressive, and interesting. This time around, I maybe found the last sections, on contemporary theater, to be less strong than what comes before it; the book's real heart is in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, which is a fine place to be.

[kyle]

I loved this book. A fascinating exploration of the connections between scientific understanding of emotion and expression and acting theory for several hundred years. Wicked smart.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that tells the story of theatre through the history of Acting and Acting Theory. It is clear, easy to read and comprehend.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful and thorough grounding in scientific and theatrical paradigms of the past.