Acting Realism

Theory and Practice from Garrick to Meisner and Beyond

By: Stephen Bayly

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eBook | 13 November 2025

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If you are struggling to decipher your Boal from your Brecht, your Meisner from your Marowitz, or your Adler from your Artaud, this is the book for you.

Who are the great teachers and theorists of dramatic art?
What methods are associated with which practitioners?
How does their work connect to one another?
When was 'realism' as a concept born?
How did David Garrick's ideas about acting impact those of Stanislavski, Grotowski and Brecht?
What were the foundational ideas of Joan Littlewood?

All of these questions and many, many more are answered in this book, which offers a refreshingly accessible survey of the major acting teachers from the early 1700s up to the present day.

It looks at what their major influences were, where their ideas came from and their legacy.

Structured by practitioner and arranged in chronological order, this much-needed book brings together the foundational acting theories that have shaped the arts scene for centuries.