This revolutionary book is more than just a dry theoretical study of acting techniques. Against a background of Apartheid South Africa it tells the story - both humorous and moving - of how teacher/director Brian Astbury - founder of South Africa's legendary Space Theatre - and hundreds of actors and acting students both in production and at Britain's top drama schools developed a set of exercises over two decades to help actors overcome problems not addressed in other methods. These teach how to be 'in the moment'; to gain access to the inexhaustible storehouse of the imagination; to access, integrate and properly use the emotions of the character; to overcome difficulties with learning lines; to recreate performance without conscious thought. "A unique figure in British theatre. Provocative, controversial, doggedly inspiring. He has been the pivotal teacher, enabler and mentor for me and countless others.Rufus Norris, Director of the National Theatre; "An idiosyncratic, challenging and practical guide to the craft of acting, crammed with anecdotes and humorous insights" Richard E. Grant, Actor/director/writer (Withnail and I, The Player, Wah-Wah and many others) "A truly inspirational teacher" Julie Hesmondhalgh, Actor (Hayley, Coronation Street); "I cannot recommend it highly enough" Stephen Moyer, Actor (True Blood, NY-LON, Prince Valiant, the RSC) "A conversational (almost chatty) love story, a tale of a theatre company's struggle against Apartheid, an irreverent look at life" Alexander Siddig, Actor/director (Deep Space Nine, Syriana, Un Perdu, 24, Primeval, Hannibal) "Brian Astbury was, without a doubt, the biggest influence on me. His teachings are still what I go to in trouble" Jason Flemyng, Actor (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Quatermass Experiment, Drum, the RSC)
Brian Astbury founded and ran South Africa's first non-racial theatre/arts venue, The Space, in the 70's, where he commissioned internationally famous plays like Sizwe Banzi is dead, The Island and Statements after an arrest under the Immorality Act from playwrights like Athol Fugard, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Geraldine Aron and Fatima Dike, South Africa's first black woman playwright. Many of the 'graduates' of The Space have gone on to become mainstays of the post-Apartheid South African theatre, TV and film scene. At The Space he began his career as a director. In the 80's he moved to London when his wife, South Africa's greatest actress, Yvonne Bryceland, joined the National Theatre Company. Here he began to teach - first at LAMDA, then, in the 90's at Mountview, where he was Head of Acting, Directing and Musical Theatre Courses. In 2003 he moved to E15 where he set up the Contemporary Theatre Practice course to teach actors, directors and writers the arts of survival through production of their own material. Later he headed the MA in Professional Theatre for Writers and Directors, before retiring in 2008. Over the years Astbury has formulated the techniques for training actors, writers and directors described in Trusting the Actor in collaboration with students and professional actors. Many of these techniques have their basis in the use of energy and emotion to free the practitioner's imagination, allowing actors to understand and be able to access the mysterious state known as 'being in the moment'. He has also developed methods of accessing and freeing the imagination of writers through the use of mind-mapping and image-streaming. He has done workshops on these techniques at the Young Vic, the National Theatre Studio, the London Playwrights Collective among others.
