Mamet: The Remainder

Basically, for the last 10 or so pages of this book, Mamet reiterates what he said in the rest of the book: your insecurities benefit you onstage, your imagination is better to use than your belief, technique is not a good thing. Also, he discusses how the great acting instructors of old (Stanislavski, etc.) used to be just like us before they came upon their fame. This book was a good one, but I felt that Mamet just said the same things over and over and over again. He just said the same things in different ways all the time. I did find a lot of nice quotes throughout the book, too. I enjoyed it for the most part.

Mamet: Performance & Character and The Villain & The Hero

Performance & Character: Mamet does not seem to like large acting. I may or may not agree with this. I think that big acting can be really fun to watch and to perform. However, it may not have its place in a lot of plays. Shakespeare, for instance, should be performed big, I think. I think that Mamet is very harsh about performance. He does not think that actors should do anything to help the audience better understand the play. But, in this day and age, I feel this is necessary more often than not. Mamet would be perfectly happy with boring, cold readings of plays. I am not content with that in any way.

The Villain & The Hero: What I got out of this very short chapter was that the actor does not need to add anything else while portraying the hero or villain; the words in the script are enough for this. Yeah, okay...

Mamet: Habit and The Designated Hitter

Habit: I enjoyed this chapter, because Mamet talks about the need to leave personal issues on the street and theatrical issues inside the theatre. This can help to make for a better performance. Mamet also talks about how there is no character onstage; it is you, "Everything you are. Nothing can be hidden." This is both terribly frightening and oddly reassurring to me. I feel comfortable onstage.

The Designated Hitter: This chapter really confused me. I'm not even sure what I just read...I think that Mamet talked about how the profession of acting is a respectable one; to be compared with things that have their place in society, such as nurses, teachers, etc. But again, I'm not really sure. There were just a lot of words and I did not understand most of them.

Mamet: Concentration and Talent

Concerntration: "Acting has nothing to do with the ability to concenrate. It has to do with the ability to imagine." I kind of like this saying, actually. I've jumped onto the imagination board in this book. I think it's a far healthier way to act; to imagine things as opposed to actually believing them.

Talent: "A concern with one's talent is like a concern with one's height -- it is an attempt to appropriate prerogatives which the gods have already exercised." I agree with this. I think that each person has specific talents that they are born with; these skils can be bettered, but they cannot be created. I think that Mamet suggesting that actors learn skills in voice, dance and script does not particularly mean that the actor needs to go to school. They may need lessons on these things, but that could easily occur during rehearsals.

Mamet: Action and Guilt

Action: This chapter talks about how the action is what holds the play together. The action is the commitment to achieving a single goal. In order to create an effective action, it must be fun. People only do imaginary things that are fun to them; therefore, it makes the most sense for actors to use their imagination to create fun actions in a play.

Guilt: This chapter talks about the guilt involved in theatre and it confused me; I was lost most of the time. What I think I got out of it was that an actor should not shy away from their self-doubt while acting, because it helps to create truth in the moment; it helps to create a character.

Mamet: The Rehearsal Process, The Play and The Scene and Emotions

The Rehearsal Process: Once again, Mamet thinks that the rehearsal process used by most actors is incredibly too long. He thinks that rehearsals need only be used for the actors to learn their blocking and their actions. I kind of agree with him, but I personally need to rehearse to learn my lines efficiently.

The Play and The Scene: Mamet thinks that an actor should pay attention to each scene separately, as opposed to the play as a whole. This kind of makes sense to me; it's almost like "living in the moment". Which is good for the believability of a performance...a character should not know what is going to happen next and if an actor focuses on scene to scene, this would help.

Emotions: In this chapter, Mamet talks about how actors can learn how to act, but the learning and teaching must happen on the stage. This is a good point; I can sit in a classroom for hours being told how to act, I can read for hours about acting, but it will do me no good if I cannot get out there and experience it for myself. This is where I find a fault in Mamet's teachings. This goes back to how he thinks plays are better read than performed; but if an actor needs to perform in order to learn...how does this make sense?

Mamet: Helping The Play and Acceptance

Helping The Play: "Most plays are better read than performed" WHAT!? That doesn't make sense! Plays are written for the purpose of being performed, therefore they would seemingly be at best once performed. I didn't really like or understand Shakespeare until I performed it finally. Now, I'm in love with it. I may be stupid, but I think that plays that are merely read are boring...there's little life to them. But I am a visual and hands-on learner; maybe that is where Mamet and I differ.

Acceptance: this chapter talks about how Mamet hates how actors are told to "believe" what they are acting; Mamet thinks that imagination in the key. I agree with this. This also goes along with one of Stanislavski's followers, Stella Adler. Adler is all about big performance and loads of imagination. I feel that imagination is healthier than belief; particularly while acting.