From Library Journal
Those of us who did not learn to hit a baseball from Ted Williams or Charley Lau can console ourselves with the legacy of their instructional mastery on film and in books. Similarly, actors who were not students of Nikos Psacharopoulos, eminent acting teacher and artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival from 1956 until his death in 1989, are indebted to actress and chronicler Hackett for first compiling The Actor's Chekhov (LJ 4/1/93), which explored Psacharopoulos's lifelong work on Chekhov's plays. Her new book is a series of critiques transcribed from audiotapes of classes between 1986 and 1988. Arranged in six sections, each followed by a director's commentary, the text is concerned primarily with the scene work Psacharopoulos emphasized in every class. It provides "a series of acting lessons drawn from critiques of scene work that attempts to give, in overview and specifics, the essential elements that Nikos believed made for great acting." Enthusiastically recommended for advanced theater collections.ABarry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TXCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
What makes for great acting? Nikos Psacharopoulos answers the question here, as he leads his students "toward mastery" on a journey not for the faint of heart. In a dynamic series of classes at Yale and NYU, running the gamut from beginners' anguish to advanced actors' triumph, Nikos tests his charges' talent, intellect, and courage. Again and Again he shows why he was a great teacher, a pioneering artistic director at Williamstown, and an inspiration to hundreds of major careers in the American theater. With wit and anger, persuasion and bottomless energy, Nikos instills in his students the conviction that the aesthetic qualities behind great acting are as teachable as the most basic technical tools. Backed up by moving and perceptive comments from some of his closest associates, he proves that one can definitely aim for great acting...and, in some cases, achieve it. With commentaries by: Gregory Boyd, Steve Lawson, Lynne Meadow, Bonnie Monte, Tom Moore, Austin Pendleton, David Schweizer, and Joanne Woodward.

About the Author
Ms. Hackett has played roles on and off Broadway, at many of the country's leading regional theaters, and in television and film. A graduate of NYU and student of Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, she also spent four seasons as a member of Williamstown Theatre Festivals non-Equity company, and returned over the years as a member of the Equity company for several productions. She is the author of The Actors Chekhov, which chronicles Nikos' work on the plays of Anton Chekhov.

SYNOPSIS

In Toward Mastery, Jean Hackett gives us Psacharopoulos' iconoclastic and vibrant take on the world's great playwrights, such as Brecht, Shaw, Williams and Strindberg, as well as comment son scenes from contemporary plays such as "Les Liasons Dangereuses," "A Taste of Honey" and "Look Back in Anger."

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal