Slings & Arrows

I studied acting with Bobby Lewis back in 1978, which was a great experience. This book is the next best thing resurrecting Bobby. Bobby didn't write about his personal life in this book. It is subtitled "The Theatre in My Life" and that's what the book is about. Bobby was small of stature, but was a giant of the American theatre. He was an original member of the innovative Group Theatre of the 30s and then co-founded (with Elia Kazan and Cheryl Crawford) The Actors Studio. He acted and directed on Broadway and in Hollywood (during the "golden years" of both) as well as abroad. He had some big hits as a director (BRIGADOON and THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON, to name two). But perhaps his greatest gift was that of teaching. (He taught Anne Bancroft, Maureen Stapleton and Meryl Streep, among many others.) His lectures on acting that he gave for an invited audience in the 50s were published under the title METHOD OR MADNESS and became perhaps the most influential book on acting for a whole generation. Bobby was great at using stories to make a point and this book is full of them, some of them hilarious, others unsettling. This book covers Bobby's very long career, which lasted more than fifty years. There is the usual parade of celebrities that appears in theatrical memoirs. This one has some great stories about Chaplin, Tallulah, Brando, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, among many others. But the best parts of the book, for me, were those dealing with his philosophy of the theatre and what it ought to be. If you're serious about acting, get Bobby's METHOD OR MADNESS and ADVICE TO THE PLAYERS, too. This book had been on my shelf for about ten years, but I had never gotten around to reading it until now. What took me so long? It was very hard to tear myself away from this book and in a way I'm sorry it's over. Bobby was a great storyteller and I found his book mesmerizing. His was a great theatrical mind and this book is probably best appreciated by people who work in the theatre or seriously desire to do so. If you fall into that category, this book will remind you why you went into the theatre in the first place.