Screen Acting Skills

Whether you are a young actor seeking to land your first screen role or a workshop leader looking for relevant exercises that won’t involve vast technical support, this book belongs on your shelf. Many screen actors begin their careers lacking the appropriate pre-shoot preparation and knowledge of studio protocols. This book helps actors new to screen performance to be fully prepared artistically – and technically. Screen Acting Skills augments existing theoretical and academic studies by offering practical, focused exercises that can be explored in low-tech workshop situations.

Written in an accessible, jargon-free and often humorous style, Screen Acting Skills enables creativity on the workshop floor, allowing young – and older! – actors to access their own talent, and to hone their skills. This book offers students and tutors a straightforward approach to acting for the screen and how to prepare for studio work.

The book is published alongside online videos of workshops with screen acting students.

Author Biography

Roger Wooster has worked in theatre, radio and television during his career. He went on to work in FE and HE teaching a wide range of performing arts modules including screen and radio acting. During his career he has had the opportunity to observe the different styles of Mike Leigh and Ken Russell at work. He has given papers at many international conferences and has been widely published in a range of academic journals. His Contemporary Theatre in Education was published in 2006 and in 2016 a major study of educational theatre, Theatre in Education in Britain, was published by Methuen Drama.

Paul Conway (PGCE, Diploma in Speech and Drama, Brendan Smith Theatre Academy, Dublin) has spent his career working in film, television, stage and radio as an actor, director, devisor and published playwright. As a young actor he worked on the TV series Inside and was writer-director of The Last Shout for Sahara Films. He has also worked for directors such as Ken Loach, Ken Russell, Desmond Davis and Gerald Stembridge. Since moving into academia he has specialised in teaching screen performance. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the Film and Television School based at the University of South Wales, Cardiff.