There are 106 Attitudes depicted in Lessons in Acting. Number 27 is “Fright”.
This picture was created at roughly the same date as Edvard Munch’s The Scream. Edgerly’s version has far greater artistry of course because it shows the correct position of the feet.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 44 Rules of Stage Conduct in Lessons in Acting. Rule number 26 is “Single Arm Embracing”.
RULE 26—Single Arm Embracing. This is employed where one person embraces the other. The arm farthest from the audience should be used to encircle the other person, and may be placed over the shoulder, or about the waist. The milder embraces require the arm to encircle the waist; the more affectionate embraces the neck and waist.
One might wonder how how even the most affectionate embrace encompasses simultaneously both the neck and waist of the other party. Is it actor or boa constrictor that Edgerly has in mind?
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 106 Attitudes depicted in Lessons in Acting. Number 26 is “Fear”.
In this illustration we see delineated the very embodiment of fear. One of the few flaws in Jamie Lee Curtis’s otherwise impeccable performance in the film Halloween is that she only makes a few half-hearted attempts to execute this attitude and falls short every time. If she had spent the last reel of the picture running about with her arms in the correct pose as shown above, the result would have been astonishing.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 44 Rules of Stage Conduct in Lessons in Acting. Rule number 25 is “Full Arm Embracing”.
RULE 25—Full Arm Embracing. Two persons coming together in the full arm embrace should each raise the right arm and lower the left. This prevents awkward accidents.
This may be the most valuable lesson in the entire corpus of actor education. Anyone who sincerely aspires to a professional stage career should have it by heart. Without it, the portrayal of any form of embrace is fraught with tremendous peril.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 106 Attitudes depicted in Lessons in Acting. Number 25 is “Excitement”.
Having studied this illustration, when you next hear someone described as “the most exciting actor of his generation”, you’ll understand that what is meant is he displays complete artistry in the raising of his shoulders and hands. There are those that would have you believe that acting is about emotional truth, or some such nonsense, but those who have the wit to follow Lessons in Acting will have none of that.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 44 Rules of Stage Conduct in Lessons in Acting. Rule number 24 is “Death in a Chair”.
RULE 24—Death in a Chair. In dying in a chair the best effect is produced by throwing the head straight backward, the face being upward, then allowing the head to settle into an oblique-backward position, in opposition to the inclination of the torso.
Edgerly has much to say on the subject of dying on stage, which he seems to consider the highest part of the craft. He goes so far as to say that he “declared many years ago that he would never write a book on Acting until he had witnessed ten actual deaths”, a statement that perfectly exemplifies the peculiar mixture of bullshit and non sequitur that is his stock in trade.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 106 Attitudes depicted in Lessons in Acting. Number 24 is “Astonishment”.
Nicolas Cage is said to have learned everything he knows about acting from the pictures contained in this book, and it is hoped that he will star as Webster Edgerly when, as is surely inevitable, it is turned into a film.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 44 Rules of Stage Conduct in Lessons in Acting. Rule number 23 is “Falling in Chair”.
RULE 23—Falling in Chair. Never fall, unsupported, directly backward into a chair. It is awkward and unsafe. The fall should either be sideways or oblique-backward. In either case the hand should always touch the back of the chair first. This partially supports the body and steadies the chair.
Celebrated daredevil star Jackie Chan tried many painful times before he was able to perform a fall into a chair without following the wise safety guidance contained in this rule. Some hilarious out-takes of his performance can be found on Youtube, probably.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 106 Attitudes depicted in Lessons in Acting. Number 23 is “Amazement”.
A danger with mastery of this spectacular attitude is that when having experienced the reaction of an audience to its power the novice actor may be tempted to overuse it. While it is not technically incorrect to repeatedly assume this position, the remainder of the cast may look upon your doing so as a shameless attempt at upstaging. Vanessa Redgrave, having quite innocently expressed her amazement several times in this manner in an early appearance in The Cherry Orchard, is credited with starting the vogue for treating this play as a comedy.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
There are 44 Rules of Stage Conduct in Lessons in Acting. Rule number 22 is “Walking to Place”.
RULE 22— Walking to Place. Take a position and look at the place on the stage to which you wish to walk; then shut the eyes and walk so exactly as to be able to reach the place in a given number of steps.
Some have questioned the need to shut the eyes while obeying this rule. “Come on”, they say, “no one shuts their eyes while walking in real life, why should we do so on stage?”.
Theatre is not real life, of course, and by following Edgerly’s methods you are guaranteed to ensure the audience never confuses the two. If anyone watching the stage ever forgets they are watching a performance, they are liable to become excessively absorbed in the drama. This is a catastrophe which the Edgerly-trained actor is most highly skilled at averting.
Every day I post a new Attitude or Rule of Stage Conduct on this blog. Get the book for more thespian weirdness. An ideal birthday gift for the slightly dazed.
