Actors on acting: the theories, techniques, and practices of the world's great actors, told in their own words

Introduction

Greece. The artists of Dionysus ; Plato ; Aristotle ; Plutarch ; Aulus Gellius ; Julius Pollux

Rome. Actors, slaves, and orators ; Cicero ; Quintilian ; Lucian

The Middle Ages. The anonymous actor ; Anon., 9th century ; Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester ; Anon., 12th century ; Anon., 15th century

Italy. The Commedia Dell' Arte ; Leone Di Somi ; Pietro Maria Cecchini ; Nicolo Barbieri ; Andrea Perrucci ; Evaristo Gherardi ; Luigi Riccoboni

Spain. The golden age ; Lope De Rueda ; Alonzo Lopez Pinciano ; Agustin De Rojas ; Two contemporary accounts

England. The Elizabethan actor ; William Shakespeare ; Ben Jonson ; Anon. c. 1602 ; Thomas Heywood ; John Webster ; Anon., c. 1633 ; Richard Burbage

England. The great names ; Thomas Betterton ; Colley Cibber ; Anthony Aston ; Aaron Hill ; Charles Macklin ; John Hill ; David Garrick ; Catherine Clive ; Sarah Kemble Siddons

France. Tradition and revolt ; Anon., c. 1610 ; Moliere ; Michel Baron ; Denis Diderot ; Hyppolite Clairon ; Marie-Françoise Dumesnil ; Dumesnil, Clairon and others ; François Joseph Talma ; François Delsarte ; Benoit Constant Coquelin ; Sarah Bernhardt ; André Antoine ; Jacques Copeau ; Charles Dullin ; Antonin Artaud ; Louis Jouvet ; Jean-Louis Barrault

Germany. From Hamburg dramaturgy to epic theatre ; Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ; Friedrich Ludwig Schroeder ; August Wilhelm Iffland ; Eduard Devrient ; George II, Duke of Saxe Meiningen ; Otto Brahm ; Max Reinhardt ; Paul Kornfeld ; Erwin Piscator ; Bertolt Brecht ; Helene Weigel ; Therese Giehse ; Angelika Hurwicz

England and Ireland. The heritage of actors ; Edmund Kean ; William Charles Macready ; Fanny Kemble ; George Henry Lewes ; Henry Irving ; Ellen Terry ; William Archer ; George Bernard Shaw ; Gordon Craig ; William Butler Yeats ; William Fay ; Harley Granville-Barker ; John Gielgud ; Michael Redgrave ; Laurence Olivier ; Paul Scofield ; Peter Brook ; Charles Marowitz

Italy. Stars and the Commedia tradition ; Adelaide Ristori ; Ernesto Rossi ; Tommaso Salvini ; Ermete Zacconi ; Eleonora Duse ; Eduardo De Filippo ; Vittorio Gassman

The Soviet Union and Poland. The Moscow Art Theatre and its tradition ; Michael S. Shchepkin ; Konstantin S. Stanislavsky ; Vladimir I. Nemirovich-Danchenko ; Vsevolod Meyerhold ; Igor Ilinsky ; Eugene Vakhtangov ; Richard Boleslavsky ; Michael Chekhov ; Vasili O. Toporkov ; Jerzy Grotowski

America. Native players and innovators ; Edwin Forest ; Dion Boucicault ; Joseph Jefferson ; Edwin Booth ; William Hooker Gillette ; Richard Mansfield ; Edward Hugh Sothern ; Julia Marlowe ; David Belasco ; Minnie Maddern Fiske ; Otis Skinner ; Alla Nazimova ; John Barrymore ; Laurette Taylor ; Walter Huston ; Stella Adler ; Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne ; Morris Carnovsky ; Lee Strasberg ; Robert Lewis ; Geraldine Page ; Viola Spolin ; Michael Kirby ; Julian Beck and Judith Malina ; Joseph Chaikin.

Greece

Rome

The Middle Ages

Italy

Spain

England

England [Part 2]

France

Germany

England and Ireland

Italy [Part 2]

THe Soviet Union and Poland

America.