Act Before You Think

Tristan Bancks discusses practical aesthetics, a method of acting devised by playwright and screenwriter David Mamet and William H. Macy. The method is a movement away from the predominating Stanislavski/Strabergian (Method) approach. The article argues that with audiences demanding more realism in perfomances, practical aesthetics can assist actors to be present and to truly listen, resulting in more truthful performances discovered in the moment.