Acting In Chicago

Can you really act for a living in Chicago? Reliable, objective information about the acting profession is hard to come by. Maybe you're new to the business and don't know where to start. Maybe you're training to become an actor, but need practical advice to help launch and cultivate your career. Maybe you're a successful theater actor but sense you could boost your acting income. The nature of the industry is to guard secrets and confuse actors who want something from it. This book unlocks those secrets. Written by a Chicago-based career actor, Acting In Chicago: Making A Living Doing Commercials, Voice Overs, TV/Film And More is the first book of its kind. It's focused entirely on the Chicago market and demystifies the question of how to earn a full-time living as an actor. You'll get details on: -The seven ways Chicago actors make money actually acting -How much career actors can earn -Local agents & casting directors -Training to be an actor in Chicago -Headshots and resumes the Chicago way -Auditioning in Chicago -Working in Chicago -The actor's unions -Other sources of income while you start your acting career -And much more! You don't have to be a starving artist. This book goes far beyond the basics and offers insights and information not available anywhere else. It answers an age old question: Is it actually possible to be an actor and pay your bills? And can you do it in Chicago? Whether you're at the beginning of your career or a seasoned professional, this book has answers to the career-related questions you've never asked. Visit www.actinginchicago.com for more!

For anyone who has ever wanted to take an acting class, "this is the best book on acting written in the last twenty years" (David Mamet, from the Introduction). This book describes a technique developed and refined by the authors, all of them young actors, in their work with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet, actor W. H. Macy, and director Gregory Mosher. A Practical Handbook for the Actor is written for any actor who has ever experienced the frustrations of acting classes that lacked clarity and objectivity, and that failed to provide a dependable set of tools. An actor's job, the authors state, is to "find a way to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances of the play." The ways in which an actor can attain that truth form the substance of this eloquent book.

Written by established Chicago actor and teacher Chris Agos, Acting In Chicago demystifies the question of how to earn a full-time living as an actor. Used in university acting programs and recommended by agents and acting coaches, it has become the actor's definitive guide to starting and growing a career in the Midwest's booming entertainment business.

The casting director for Chicago, Pippin, Becket, Gypsy, The Graduate, the Sound of Music and Jesus Christ Superstar tells you how you can find your dream role! Absolutely everything an actor needs to know to get the part is here: What to do that moment before, how to use humour; create mystery; how to develop a distinct style; and how to evaluate the place, the relationships and the competition. In fact, Audition is a necessary guide to dealing with all the "auditions" we face in life. This is the bible on the subject.

"In Unbridled, scholar of religion William Robert uses Peter Shaffer's enigmatic 1973 play Equus, about a boy passionately devoted to horses, to think about and teach religion. For Robert, a play like Equus tangles together text, performance, practice, embodiment, and reception. Studying a play involves us in playing different roles, as ourselves and others, and those roles, as well as the imaginative work they require, are critical to the study of religion. By approaching Equus with the reader, Robert transforms standard approaches to the study of religion, engaging with key themes including ritual, sacrifice, worship, power, desire, violence, and sexuality, as well as major thinkers such as Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, and contemporary theorists such as J. Z. Smith and Judith Butler. As Robert shows, the way themes and theories play out in Equus challenges us to imagine the study of religion anew through open questioning, contrasting perspectives, and alternative modes of interpretation and appreciation"--