Book Review: A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting
A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting
Daniel Dresner
London: Methuen Drama, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-1350039438
Daniel Dresner sets out to offer the student of film acting valuable support both as a fledgling artist and as a person in his book A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting. I can report that he succeeds. A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting will sit on my shelf just before that classic film acting text Acting in Film by Michael Cain. The same kind of friendly, direct, experienced (though not jaded), voice speaks to you from reliably, safely, and solidly in your corner in both books.
A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting reaches out further to the actor who is also beginning acting as an art form entirely. It is an effective approach, especially for the kind of student who needs a theatre library the most: the beginning student of any age. For current university students craving “adulting” advice, A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting will prove useful. It is worth a listen at any age.
This is because, taken as a whole, A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting is an excellent guide to truly important fundamental life skills. Life skills such as identifying your values, understanding what fulfillment means to you, how to avoid Imposter Syndrome, how to avoid perfectionism, are grouped with “knowing yourself,” which most film people would call “knowing your type” in the first part. It is wisely gathered under the banner of, “What Is Holding You Back?”
These subjects are treated carefully and well, and then backed up with plenty of exercises. They are also reinforced with links to brief, pithy learning videos created with The Actors Centre. You can read about the work, do the exercise yourself, and watch Daniel Dresner work with students on the same material. This all adds up to an excellent resource for developing confidence in oneself and in the work. It also makes it easy to see why Daniel Dresner is considered a top private acting coach and teacher.
The second part, “Moving Forward” links self-knowledge and confidence-building work to artistic principles. Part Three, “As You Are Moving Towards Someone Else,” refers to the “someone else” of the character, helping guide the student’s developing self-knowledge, confidence, and artistic principles into the basics of the acting craft. Part Four, “Tools To Live Someone Else’s Life” lays out the basics of practical and proven acting techniques.
If the budding screen actor relying on your library wants more after working through A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting, you can easily steer them to the litany of honored works on acting technique. What those familiar tomes will not have is the important addition of Daniel Dresner’s approachable, useful, and relatable advice on connecting it all to living a good artistic life well.
And that’s the thing that will have them checking out A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting over and over.
Christopher Carter Sanderson
Downtown Writers Center