What is 'talent'? How do I know if my acting is 'moment-­to-­moment'? Do you know your 'secondary action' and employ your 'sense memory'?

The idioms of acting can both delight and frustrate. While enthusiastic theatregoers and aspiring actors may be attracted to studio slang, theorists and practitioners of the craft will argue fiercely over the derivation, meaning and use of professional language terms, while academics dispute the very philosophical basis of key acting concepts, such as 'authenticity' and 'truth'. This book is for all these communities of interest and provides a practical and reliable evidence-based account of the most significant ideas about acting in circulation today.

A meta-analytical and unique account, this is the first book in the field to use digital computational methodologies to produce a comprehensive, word and sentiment analysis of keytexts. John Matthews' expertise and accessible style renders the massive dataset underpinning the research endlessly accessible and provides many surprises.

Organized in digestible sections and pithy 'keyword' sub­headings, this book, alongside its companion volume, Training Actors, makes a large and complex topic easily referenceable and eminently readable. It reveals the politics and ideologies at play in both dominant and niche acting schools, indicating how ideas and practices have developed over time as well as where acting theory and practice is heading.