How do you make your work repeatable without making the performance mechanical?
Being & Doing: A Workbook for Actors, by Eric Morris.
What the book addresses
A workbook linking instrumental preparation, acting craft and the actor's business life through daily assignments and a record of practice.
How to read it
Approach a workbook as a sequence of encounters with your own practice. A completed page does not establish that a skill is available under pressure. Notice what you can repeat, what remains dependent on ideal circumstances and what changes when another actor joins you. Keep the author's assignment distinct from your interpretation of the result.
An original rehearsal investigation
Choose one question for a week of short rehearsals. Record the preparation you actually used, the scene you attempted and one observable result. A note such as 'I heard the interruption and changed tactics' tells you more than 'good work today.' Leave room for surprise and for stopping when repetition has ceased to teach you anything.
Connections and distinctions
No Acting Please introduces the system's concerns. Being & Doing turns continued investigation into a practice record. Irreverent Acting can supply a craft question when your notes reveal that availability alone has not clarified the scene.
Instrumental work and acting craft
Instrumental work develops the actor’s expressive resources; craft applies those resources to the demands of a role. At JBAS, the six craft tools are Sensory Work, Improvisation, Archetype Work, Externals, Imaging and deep Script and Character Analysis, with voice supporting the work throughout. Morris’s work informs the distinction between instrument and craft. Roy Hart voice work and the Stones’ Psychology of Selves contribute further resources for vocal expression, awareness and imaginative exploration.
This is an original JBAS reading guide with an attributed overview and study questions. Read the complete book for the author's developed argument and exercise instructions.
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