In 1889, Webster Edgerly published Lessons in Acting, a peculiarly misguided attempt at a training manual for would-be actors.
Alfred Armstrong has produced this new edition, which has the benefit of being much shorter and funnier. It still won't teach you how to act, though.
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By Don Meliton
Mar 5, 2011
A much welcome new edition of the indispensable Lessons in Acting, whose long and undeserved time out of print has deprived so many actors of the recent generations of a sold foundation on which to build their art. Aspiring actors and experienced professionals alike will find in this richly illustrated book all the necessary indications on entering and leaving the stage, on kissing and dying, on the placing of the legs and much much more. By way of an example: Who can call himself an actor who has not mastered the expression of the great dramatic passions? Lessons in Acting provides exact and detailed indications of all sixteen of them, so the conscientious student of drama will never be at a loss. In his concise and masterly way Shaftesbury explains: "In GRIEF, the face is clouded, the brows raised, the lids drooping, the eyes melting, the thumb inward, the voice tremulous and dark, pitch rather high. In RAGE, the features form radii, the outside corners of the brows raising,... More > the inside lowering; the corners of the mouth being down; the eyes roll wildly; the mouth foams; the shoulders are high; the arms are rigid; the fingers spread and crooked. The voice is fiercely tremulous and guttural." And so on. This short extract should be enough to show the extraordinary quality of Lessons in Acting. Much recognition is due to Alfred Armstrong for the careful edition of this important text. His comments, discreet and pertinent, enrich it further.< Less
Recommended reading for anyone with a sense of humour, not just budding thespians. An engagingly eccentric primer from the age of melodrama, a preposterous catalogue of theatrical business with po-faced illustrations to match. All perfectly accompanied by Mr Armstrong’s 'sarcastic' commentary which gently deflates the pompous tone of the original. Highly interesting actor learning fun, really entertaining drivel.
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