NYTimes.com: WHEN Esther Freud set to work on her seventh book, “Lucky Break” — a comic, wrenching tale of a decade and a half in the lives of three British drama students — she thought she ought to read some other novels on the art and business of acting. But she couldn’t find any.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Esther Freud’s ‘Lucky Break’ Explores the Actor’s Life
NYTimes.com: WHEN Esther Freud set to work on her seventh book, “Lucky Break” — a comic, wrenching tale of a decade and a half in the lives of three British drama students — she thought she ought to read some other novels on the art and business of acting. But she couldn’t find any.
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5 comments:
It is true that I have never read any novel along the lines of this one. I am very curious about this and would love to pick it up some day and read it! I feel that because the author was once herself a struggling artist the novel will be fairly accurate and much more interesting than other contrived novels along the same lines. Its so great to hear another case of someone who, although they may not have achieved their acting dream, loves what they do and still stay connected to the wonderful world of theatre.
I have found while doing research that there are a lot less books about aspects of our jobs than one would think. There are tons of books about one aspect or school of thought but as soon as you look up something else there is nothing. I don't know if this is because there are so many things about our business that once you learn they become normal and the idea that others don't know about them is foreign or if it could be that people think a book about "that" already exists. Anyway you frame it there are definitely some gapping holes in the documentation/exploration of the world of theatre that educated professionals could and should fill.
I'm glad that such a book is being published to provide more insight into the actual craft and day to day of being an actor. There also seem to be a lot of parallels between Drama Arts and the acting department here. It's interesting that the accepted philosophy for teaching acting seems to be "break them down to build them back up." It seems like a very psychologically abrasive process. It's good that she is delving into this world and exposing it, because I think that sometimes it's easy to think that the acting world is kind of silly, and maybe less difficult than the production side when we see them going into class trying to be "giraffe enough" or the color yellow. A lot of us have these sort of stereotypes against actors, I think, and it's good to break those down.
I'm really glad that Lucky Break is being published in the U.S. As the article says, there are so many books that involve actors as a stereotype, but how many show that they're still people too?
I'd like to see more books like this--"exposing" careers and helping all of us to understand what other careers are actually like for other people.
Ester has a point: there really aren't that many novels out there featuring an actor/actress at the center of the story. And I understand why the perception of actors might inhibit more stories to be written about them in fiction. But there are plenty of wonderful parts of drama school and the arduous process of auditioning that provide great sources of conflict and, to put it nicely, UNIQUE relationships that make for great novels. So bravo Ester! I'll be sure to read your book.
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