Click on any title to order now at Amazon.com

 

True and False:
Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor

by David Mamet

Mamet’s provocative and inspirational book on the job, craft, art, and life of the actor.

 

A Practical Handbook for the Actor

by Melissa Bruder, Lee Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Ned Pollack, Robert Previto, Scott Zigler

6 students from our 1984 summer Vermont workshop with Mamet and Macy were assigned to write this book and it remains very popular. It explains the ideas behind Practical Aesthetics in a very simple and clear format.

 

How to be a Working Actor, 5th Edition:
The Insider's Guide to Finding Jobs in Theater, Film, & Television

by Mari Lyn Henry and Lynne Rogers

An excellent “Bible of the Biz” by two experienced ladies who love actors.

 

Acting As a Business, Third Edition: Strategies for Success

by Brian O’Neil

An invaluable, highly practical book on all aspects of being a professional actor, written by a former agent and manager, and current teacher and coach.

 

The War of Art:
Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

by Steven Pressfield

Exactly what the title says. I love returning to this book. It tells you how to define, understand, and defeat your own resistance to being a creative professional.

 

The Sedona Method

by Hale Dwoskin

The Sedona method is a simple, elegant system for recognizing and releasing anything that is not working in your life, and for living positively toward your goals. After working with many systems I have found it to be a beautiful way to get unstuck—from issues of life and of show business—and to reconnect and refocus on what is most meaningful. Highly recommended.

 

Sink Reflections

by Marla Cilley (a.k.a. The Flylady)

Wonderful, practical and inspirational reading about living and managing your creative and daily life, especially about perfectionism and self-sabotage. Her principles and insights have been a godsend to my own creative work, and I continually hear from actors and other friends who are having wonderful results with them as well. I recommend her (free) site in every class I teach. (See Why Flylady is great for actors on this site).

 

Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting

by Lynn Grabhorn

This book completely changed the way I think. You may or may not subscribe to everything she says, but you will probably be astounded, as I was, at how many daily thoughts are habitually negative until you turn them around.

 

The Easy Way to Stop Smoking

by Allen Carr

INCREDIBLE! Was recommended to me by friends who had quit successfully after they read it. I was able to very easily quit after 20 years of trying to, and after more than three years, I continue to have absolutely no desire to smoke again.

 

Body Clutter

by Marla Cilley & Leanne Ely

In a business where a healthy approach to appearance and body image is essential to your happiness and success, this book promotes vitality, self acceptance, and most importantly, listening to your body.

 

DVDs: click on any title to order now at Amazon.com

 

Broadway - The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There

Years ago, filmmaker Rick McKay interviewed the remaining legends of Broadway’s Golden age - this is both a history class and a set of acting lessons - guaranteed inspiration!

 

Moon over Broadway

This D.A. Pennebaker documentary follows the play “Moon Over Buffalo,” starring Carol Burnett and Philip Bosco, through the start of rehearsals to the New York opening. It is about the wonderful and horrible factors that can go into putting up a commercial show, and is an eye opener about the ways that financial and creative interests can collide. After you see it once, be sure to watch it again with the commentary.

 

The Five Obstructions

I am not normally a huge Lars Von Trier fan, but I found this movie to be incredibly inspiring and fascinating about the creative process.

 

M for Mississippi

Two self-proclaimed blues fanatics, Jeff Konkel and Roger Stolle, took a week-long road trip across Mississippi. The DVD explores the thriving underbelly of a dying American art form by showing real-deal blues performances in juke joints, house parties and living rooms. Amazing.