The Actor's Illustrated

In an industry where collaboration is a core aspect of production, the best actor is one who understands not only the abilities and limitations of his craft, but understands the operations of the entire framework of which acting is a part. 

An actor who understand how the equipment around him works, and how the others on set or backstage do their jobs, is one who can collaborate more effectively, can make a wider array of creative choices, and is simply more marketable.

Within that, there is a great deal of knowledge about the craft itself that evades most young actors. How to analyze a script, how to choose compelling objectives and playable actions, what an actor should have in her makeup kit, how to scan Shakespeare's verse, etc. 

Many actors read volumes and volumes of acting texts, spend years and thousands of dollars studying acting at the university level, taking classes about all the things related to acting, like costumes, lights, filmmaking, etc, in order to unify all that information in the head to become the consummate actor. 

So why has nobody ever taken all of that information and put it into a single volume? ...Bueller?

This project began when I was studying at UTEP and playing Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew. I felt lost in the plot based structure of the show, and I figured my old tricks weren't helping. I sat down and gathered all of the handouts and notes from of my classes over the years and thought I'd construct a new, common sense method of role preparation based on textual analysis and playable archetypes. I ended up putting in quite a bit more. That project spiraled out of control until I was filling a 3inch binder with glossaries, charts, and lists with everything an actor would ever need to know about anything to do well in this field. 

The the final product will contain the following sections and MORE:

-A brief history of acting for the theatre
-how to read and write play scripts 
-professional hierarchy in the theatre
-acting for the stage
-costuming, makeup for the stage
-lighting world 
-set design
-UIL set design (with cut out models!)
-how to audition/ callbacks
-what to expect in rehearsal

-a brief history of acting for the camera
-professional hierarchy in filmmaking 
-how to read and write screenplays 
-how to work with cameras and microphones 
-how to find your framing
-what to expect in a casting call
-how things work on set

-script analysis/ formalist analysis how-to
-plot structure
-creating a fictional culture to live in
-storytelling
-Joseph Campbell 

-in depth character analysis including a 200 question questionnaire
-in depth exploration of the personality type indicator and how to type your characters.
-Carl Jung character archetypes
-objectives, needs, motivations
-how to play actions, and a thesaurus of several hundred action verbs 

-a history of acting shakespeare
-overview of his works
-how to scan the verse
-how to play Shakespeare's language
-in depth glossary of commonly confused Shakespearean words

-vocal health, physical health
-Alexander technique and other vocal techniques
-yoga for relaxation and focus
-the longest and most comprehensive list of tongue twisters and vocal warm ups that I've ever seen, because I had to make it. 
-diets and routines to lose weight, to gain weight, and to bulk for various roles. 

-bells and whistles will include:
-how to read IPA and how to use it in creating or learning foreign accents and dialects
-how to specify and play physical states like drunk, or cold, or injured, etc that commonly appear in our work.
-how to truthfully play different mental illnesses and disabilities that commonly appear in our work.

As you can see, it's promising to be quite an extensive tome. I've begun my assault on the final draft, illustrating it myself from my iPad with the app Procreate. However, I need money for consultation with professionals whose experience pertains to certain sections (kinesthesiologists, technicians, cinematographers, etc) so that it can be as accurate as possible. I need money for a bigger tablet: an iPad Air is great but it wasn't intended for illustration of this magnitude, the screen is small and frustrating and I don't know how much longer the hardware will last. This project takes ALOT of my time so I'll hope to have a bit of something as I put the coming hours into it. Finally, I'll need money to find the best possible option for publication, or self publication. 
My my target demographic is primarily actors, but this book will serve well for anybody who works with actors, wants to understand them better or work with them more effectively. I've had a few lighting designers excited over the "how to find your light" chart (designers hate it when actors can't find their light) and a few filmmakers really into my framing chart (they hate it when actors don't stay in their frame). It can be used as a giant sparknotes if you're studying for a BFA in acting, or, as I'm illustrating the entire book, it will make a great coffee table piece to go with other illustrated works or art books. 

I am not an acting guru, but I don't have to claim to be one to write this book. Ultimately I am merely a curator of facts, established traditions, and fundamentals that can be learned from a myriad of sources. By consolidating and illustrating these sources, it is my firm belief that this book will contribute heavily to the way acting is taught, and what actors are expected to know in the world. This book can help countless young actors find their footing, countless veterans get in touch with what matters, and actors of all ages will be able to refer to the charts and glossaries in this book again and again throughout their careers. I already do, I can't keep this thing to myself.