The Actor in You enhances the reader’s appreciation of the art of acting by helping them realize that they already possess, in principle, the following skills: the ability to play a role, the ability to fulfill the sense of drama and to structure dramatic scenes, and the capacity to express emotion. Without losing its simplicity, directness, and enjoyable writing style, this revised and enlarged edition has benefited from helpful suggestions by teachers who have used it successfully in the classroom. Drawing exercises and examples from readers’ everyday lives and from well-known films and television programs, Benedetti succeeds in deducing dramatic principles from those experiences and then applying them to everyday life for artistic purpose.

Table of Contents:
Each Part and Chapter concludes with “Summary.”   Preface.   I. UNDERSTANDING ACTING.   Why Study Acting?   1. What Does an Actor Do?             Acting in Everyday Life             The Tradition of the Actor             Getting into the Tradition   2. Action in Life and in Performance.             Action in Everyday Life             Action and Drama             Believability in Life and in Performance   3. Internal and External Action.             Interactions   4. Understanding Emotion and Character.             Emotion             Character and the Magic If             The Actor in You   5. The Actor’s State of Mind.             Dual Consciousness             Indicating   II. PREPARING YOURSELF TO ACT.             The Creative State   6. Relaxation and Centering.             Relaxation             Finding Center   7. Breathing, Sound, and Moving from Center.             Your Relationship to Gravity             The Cycle of Energy   8. Creating Together.             Creating a Scene   III. PREPARING TO REHEARSE: ANALYZING THE SCRIPT.             Discipline             The Purpose of Analysis             Sample Scenes             A Scene of Your Own   9. Dramatic Function.             Supporting Characters and Individual Scenes             Function and Recognition Traits   10. Play and Scene Structure.             Finding the Crisis             Units and Levels of Action   11. The Given Circumstances.             Who             Where             When             What   IV. REHEARSAL.             Getting and Giving Notes   12. Personalization.             Emotional Recall and Substitution   13. Inner Action.             The Stimulus             Automatic and Spontaneous Actions             Choice             The Inner Monologue   14. Actions and Objectives.             Defining Useful Objectives             Playable Actions             Direct and Indirect Action: Subtext             Not Doing             Obstacles and Counter-Actions   15. Scenario, Score, Through-Line, and Superobjective.             The Score             Through-Line and Superobjective             Personalizing the Superobjective   16. Final Rehearsals and Performance.             Blocking             Shaping and Pacing             Spontaneity             Emotion in Performance             Evaluating Your Work   Afterword: Your Sense of Purpose.   Appendix A: Sample Scenes.             Scene 1: From The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams             Scene 2: From A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry             Scene 3: From Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez             Scene 4: From Cheers by Tom Reeder   Appendix B: Suggested Plays and Anthologies.             Plays             Play Anthologies             Anthologies for Students of Color   Glossary.   Index.