Actor Speaks, The, Vol. 52

The book is based on a series of unique oral histories and interviews with actors who love the stage first and foremost. Editor Joan Jeffri focuses on the experience of actors in their training and career development, and on their relationships to society, culture, and institutions. Although names like Alan Alda are recognizable from other media, these actors all grew up being nourished by the stage. Their stories show that theatre is everywhere in this country--not only on Broadway, but also in churches, in schools, in regions, and in towns. These interviews and a thorough introduction provide a history of the American theatre for almost a century--the Yiddish theatre, the WPA, the start of regional theatre, off- and off-off-Broadway, and the Great White Way--through the voices of those who lived it.

This is an interview book with a methodology, focusing on the experience of actors in their training and career development, through a series of unique narrative histories.

JOAN JEFFRI is Director of the Research Center for Arts and Culture, which she founded in 1985, at Columbia University; Director of Columbia's Master's Degree Program in Arts Administration at Teachers College; and former Executive Editor of the Journal of Arts Management and Law.