Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus

Additional Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus Information

Actors need actions. Actors cannot ‘act’ adjectives, they need verbs. Verbs are an aim to achieve, an action to perform.

‘Actions’ are active verbs. ‘I tempt you.’ ‘You taunt me.’ In order to perform an action truthfully--and therefore convincingly-- an actor needs to find exactly the right action to suit that particular situation and that particular line. That is where this book comes in….

ACTIONS is a thesaurus of active verbs that the actor can use to refine performance until s/he hits exactly the right one to help make the action come alive. ACTIONS: The Actors’ Thesaurus by Marina Caldarone & Maggie Lloyd-Williams has gathered together the (formerly) dogged-eared photocopied lists of action verbs from greenrooms and rehearsal rooms and put them together in this pocket-sized thesaurus. All with a view to helping actors get to the heart of meaning and to a great performance. This thesaurus of action words is indispensable in developing mood, line readings, and acting choices for each and every line.

What Customers Say About Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus:

For any actor, this book will be useful. I rate it a 10 out of 10. For example, it gives tons of options for beating out a script. I highly recommend it.

the list goes on. This book was suggested by my current Acting coach on the first day of class. Then I realized my current coach is a genius and that this book is invaluable to all actors. If it didn't work the first time you need to try something else like coerce, taunt, trick, tease, jab, lure. I've only had it about a month or so & have merely cracked the surface so I know I'll be using it a very long time. I ordered it & I use it all the time.

And each word (like Manipulate) has a list of other verbs that might suit your action better. After one week I hadn't gotten it because I know tons of action verbs and I had written my own little booklet about them years ago in college so I had the info & thought I was fine. And it's really well organized so you can search by categories or alphabetically. Actions plus a dictionary are two books all actors should carry with them every day. You might think that you want to manipulate someone in your scene, but you can't keep using manipulate on every line. I'm so thrilled this book exists.

Well worth the price no matter what you pay for it.

I teach the Hodge method in directing, and this book makes verbing possible for the students. It simplifies the choices, but not so much as to limit them. I also use it for my actors; if someone is too bland, I will hand them a book, bookmark some appropriate sections, and have them do some variants through verbs. I love it, and so do the students.

I picked up this book to help me with my acting and I have to say it has helped. It gives me quick access to actions that I can use with my paperwork. If I don't know quite what I am looking for I can look up the type of action I am looking for and go from there. Not bad for a few bucks.

I did purchase a pocket size thesaurus to use with it, since on several occasions this book did not contain the exact word I was looking for. "Actions" is the perfect size to carry around, and I've found it invaluable in preparing for auditions as well as fleshing out a role. I've played four widely different roles since acquiring this book, and consider the hours I've spent looking for that perfect "aha." word well worthwhile. The juice in this book is in the concept of characterizing a theatrical beat in one action word. Since theater is visual, it is critical for an actor to physically demonstrate the inner workings of the character, and this book is a great jumping off point. I'm making much more confident acting choices, and I think my characters are more assured, clearly defined and authentic. Highly recommended.