Practical Aesthetics Guide (Part 1)

Practical Aesthetics Acting Classes

Back in the eighties, award winning director and playwright David Mamet teamed up with his old friend, the now famous actor William H Macy, and did something a little bit different.

Mamet and Macy got together with a group of drama students from New York University and held what they described as a “Practical Aesthetics” workshop. So exciting was what they explored, that a book was subsequently published; “A Practical Handbook for The Actor”, and the Atlantic Theatre Company was formed with Practical Aesthetics at its foundation. Atlantic has since become one of the most successful and critically acclaimed theatre companies in New York.

So what’s Practical Aesthetics all about then?

Well, the most important thing to say about it is that it’s a modern and pragmatic approach to actor training. It doesn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater though, since it is founded on the work of key theatre practitioners (such as Stanislavski and Meisner), yet moves dynamically forward.