The Politics of American Actor Training

Ellen Margolis is Associate Professor and Chair of Theatre, Pacific University, Oregon. She is an award-winning director and actor, with writings published in Radical Acts anthology, in theatre journals and short play collections. As playwright, she has done productions and workshops with Vital Theatre, Theatre Limina, Portland Center Stage/PlayGroup, and received commissions from the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Mile Square Theatre. She served as Literary Director, International Centre for Women Playwrights, 2002–2004. Lissa Tyler Renaud has been Director of California-based Actors’ Training Project since 1985. Recipient of National Science Foundation and Ford Foundation grants among others, she spent six years overseas as Visiting Professor/Master Teacher of Directing, Theory, Acting, Voice and Ideokinesis. She is a recitalist and award-winning actress, and lectures and publishes widely on the avant-garde and contemporary actor training, in the U.S. and Asia. She serves as co-editor for the International Association of Theatre Critics.

Acknowledgments Introduction, Ellen Margolis and Lissa Tyler Renaud, Part I 1: Stanislavsky and Politics: Active Analysis and the American Legacy of Soviet Oppression, Sharon Marie Carnicke 2: Actor Training Meets Historical Thinking, Jonathan Chambers 3: The Politics of Western Pedagogy in the Theatre of India, Chandradasan 4: Degrees of Choice, Leigh Woods 5: Training Artists or Consumers? Commentary on American Actor Training, Lissa Tyler Renaud 6: Changing Demographics: Where is Diversity in Theatre Programs in Higher Education and National Associations?, Donna B. Aronson 7: The Wild, Wild East: Report on the Politics of American Actor Training Overseas, Lissa Tyler Renaud Part II 8: Beyond Race and Gender: Reframing Diversity in Actor Training Programs, David Eulus Wiles 9: "Typed" for What?, Mary Cutler 10: "They accused me of bein’ a homosexual": Playing Kerry Cook in The Exonerated, Derek S. Mud 11: Identity Politics and the Training of Latino Actors, Micha Espinosa and Antonio Ocampo-Guzman 12: Keeping It Real Without Selling Out: Toward Confronting and Triumphing Over Racially Specific Barriers in American Acting Training, Venus Opal Reese 13: Disability and Access: A Manifesto for Actor Training, Victoria Ann Lewis 14: Arrested or Paralyzed? Reflections on the Erotic Life of an Acting Teacher, Ellen Margolis Notes on Contributors Index