Applause Books Proudly Announces the Publication of WILL POWER: How To Act Shakespeare in 21 Days by John Basil and Stephanie Gunning

Books are in stores now, and I am so proud of what John Basil and I have accomplished. John is an amazing acting coach and classical director who has run American Globe Theatre, an off-off-Broadway theatre company near Times Square in NY City's theatre district, for 16 years. The company serves 10,000 students every year, and gives a home to 200 emerging theatre professionals. He and his wife, the talented actress Liz Keefe, do this without getting much financial reward. They do it from love. I know that this book is a breakthrough for John, because finally the entire world will get to see what he has spent a lifetime developing: a way of rehearsing Shakespeare drawn from hidden clues in the original, handwritten First Folio texts.

Will Power: How to Act Shakespeare in 21 Days is the book I wish I'd had as an acting student. It's a book that parents should have their teens read, and high school English teachers should assign to their students along with plays like Romeo & Juliet.

Here's the Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Your 21-Day Journey with Will

THE SHAKESPEARE REHEARSAL
Phase 1 ~ Map Reading:
Secrets of Your Script Unfolded

Day 1 Revealing Your Repetitions
Day 2 Cracking the Capitalization Code
Day 3 Verse or Prose?
Day 4 Picking Out Punctuation
Day 5 Revving Up Your Verbs
Day 6 Amiable Adjectives, Saucy Similes, and
Merry Metaphors
Day 7 O! Thy Status Is Showing
Day 8 Your Secret Formula for Persuasive Rhetoric

Phase 2 ~ Scouting the Landscape:
Going on Instinct, Getting Off Book

Day 9 Script Rotations
Day 10 To Memorize, Physicalize
Day 11 Now, Go Ahead and Look It Up
Day 12 Draft Your Newspaper Headlines

Phase 3 ~ Charting Your Course:
Moments of Variety and Nuance

Day 13 Playing with the Pace
Day 14 Finding Your Focus
Day 15 Surely, You Jest
Day 16 Art Thou Parent, Child, or Adult?
Day 17 Greeks Bearing Gifts

Phase 4 ~ Staking Your Claim:
Stanislavski’s Approach

Day 18 Your Given Circumstances
Day 19 Five Basic Human Needs
Day 20 Your Doings
Day 21 Presto, PASTO!

SHAKESPEARE IN ACTION
On Day 22 . . .

Recommended Reading
Index
About the Authors

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Starred Library Journal Review for Will Power: How To Act Shakespeare in 21 Days

This morning I received a phone call from Michael Messina, my editor at Applause Books, saying that Will Power, the book I cowrote with John Basil on how to rehearse and act Shakespeare, is being given a starred review in the September 15, 2006 issue of Library Journal. This is a real coup for the book, because librarians truly respect the recommendations for what new books to acquire to round out their collections. (I know that for a fact because my super-smart sister Claire is a professional librarian.) A review like this translates into sales.

As I congratulated John when we connected later, I said, "It really is a thrill to walk into a library and see your book on a shelf, and to think of a huge number of people checking it out over the years to come. Once a book is in the library, it takes on a life of its own." John is excited because it's his first book being released (compared to my 14th) and so far we've been blessed.

Here is the body of the review:

*Basil, John with Stephanie Gunning. Will Power: How To Act Shakespeare in 21 Days. Applause. Oct. 2006. c.368p. illus. index. ISBN 1-55783-666-3. pap.$17.95. THEATER

Little is stranger to many actors than William Shakespeare. In his first book, actor, director, producer, and teacher Basil (cofounder, American Globe Theatre) offers a three-week course that demystifies the English playwright and prepares actors to play Shakespearean roles with confidence. Dividing his course into four phases, Basil uses Phase 1 (days one-eight) to teach the discovery and exploitation of such Shakespearean acting clues as capitalization, punctuation, parts of speech, and repetition. Phase 2 (days nine-12) advises actors to put aside scripts and investigate a text's emotional depths by physicalizing lines, defining unfamiliar words, and more. In Phase 3 (days 13-17), actors learn to add subtlety by varying pace, focus, and delivery; identify a character's psychological roles; and use humor. Phase 4 (days 18-21) applies Stanislavskian, or "method," techniques by teaching actors how to establish a character's circumstances and motivations. Day 22 sums up and reinforces. While assuming knowledge of basic acting techniques, Basil is reassuring and enthusiastic, and his practical instructions should benefit both students and working actors. An outstanding addition to a crowded field and an essential purchase for both academic and public theater collections.

--M.C. Duhig, Carnegie Lib. ofPittsburgh

John and I are almost ready to launch a special book website (www.willpowerthebook.com) that will incoporate FREE downloadable PDF giveaways for actors (tips on warming up, auditioning, and so forth) and for English teachers (lesson plans, classroom games, historical information, and much more). The finished book itself will be in local bookstores by the end of September 2006 and we'll be proudly promoting it in different venues across the country.

If you know any high school drama club participants or high school English teachers, please let them know about the book. And tell your friends who are emerging actors, too. Thank you, thank you.

Announcing the Launch of My New Audio Program Partner With Your Publisher: How Not To Feel @#%*!ed When Your Book Comes Out

Well, my first solo product has finally arrived (Partner With Your Publisher) and I'm very excited to put my name on it! I created this two-hour long audio program to teach authors and want-to-be-authors what happens inside the publishing company when your manuscripts are in the process of being transformed into books, and to make you aware of the key moments and actions that need to be taken to get the most out of the book publishing experience.

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