6 x 9. 256 pgs. 25 B&W photographs, 6 line drawings. (1993) Paper 978-0-472-08244-5 $23.95S  Available Add to Cart Search this Book's Content Praise Series Theater: Theory/Text/Performance Subjects History / Literary Studies--Literary Criticism and Theory / Literary Studies--Literature and Science / Theater and Performance

The Player's Passion
Studies in the Science of Acting

Joseph R. Roach

Winner of the Barnard Hewitt Award for Theatre History from the American Society of Theatre Research (ASTR)

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

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Praise for the Book

"The most important study in the English language on the history of Western acting theory."
--Theatre Research International

"Player's Passion is an extraordinary piece of scholarship. It organizes a breathtaking sweep of material. Mr. Roach has assumed that the reality of acting has itself reflected an evolving understanding of the workings of the human organism throughout history. The reader, in fact, gradually begins to see that the theorists and the actors are mutually engaged in the common and ongoing effort of man to understand himself."
--Robert L. Benedetti, University of Colorado

"A major contribution; it is also a cogent examination of central issues on the subject, and it should be studied assiduously by every teacher of acting and by all actors and directors genuinely concerned about acting as an art. The breadth of research is imposing; extensive endnotes and bibliography are excellent. Interpretive discussion reflects broad knowledge and penetrating intellect animated by high vision of both theater and scholarship."
--Choice

"I consider it a modern classic. . . . a work of the finest erudition, without pretense but with a fine sense of learning and with an astonishing vocabulary that communicates complex and often controversial concepts with clarity and total competence."
--Don B. Wilmeth, Brown University