Understanding how dramatists use language is the foundation of sound text analysis.
Of course, Stanislavksi's AN ACTOR'S WORK and Uta Hagen's RESPECT FOR ACTING and A CHALLENGE FOR THE ACTOR are three acting books I think every actor should own, but here I'm referring specifically to reference books.
Shakespeare, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson and other legendary American playwrights all had their own way of using the English language to get their ideas across.
Each had a literary style, a unique voice that infuses their work. Each one of them employed words, tone, rhythm, imagery and meaning in a different way.
An actor who cannot get to the heart of how a playwright uses language will always just be skating on the surface of things.
I would say 80% of actors who have auditioned for me over many decades of casting could not be able answer a couple of simple questions about a sentence or phrase in a monologue: was that punctuation in the text you just spoke a period, a comma, a colon or a semi-colon or an ellipse?
Most would answer: "I'm not sure."
My answer to that is: "Then I'm not sure if you are an actor I want to work with. Thanks for coming in." (To be fair, I usually said the first part to just myself.)
Text analysis goes far beyond memorizing a character's lines. It involves digging down to truly understand WHY your character uses language the way they do. How much of their language is cultural? Environmental? Background? Experience? Purposeful affectation? Unconscious mimickry? What does how they use language tell you about them and their world?
The three reference books I believe every actor should own are: a good dictionary, a good usage dictionary and a good thesaurus.
The thesaurus is a fine tool because the writer choose a particular word INSTEAD of a synonym for it. Why?
A good usage dictionary let's you see how the word is typically used, and how it may infer other meanings in different contexts. This is particulary important with Shakespeare.
A good dictionary not only gives you a true definition of the word, but some like the Oxford English Dictionary show you how the word's definitions and usages have changed over time.
So, next time you are browsing a used bookstore, go to the reference section and take a look. The books I'm recommending are usually available for very cheap, because we live in an age where ignorance, avoidance and disregard of language arts are for some reason accepted as the norm.
However, you are an actor and your stock and trade are words. Don't go to work without first sharpening your tools.
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