Barry Paris, author of the biography of Louise Brooks, has just had a new book released in softcover. It is titled
Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights (Vintage), and it's a look at the work of Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee.
Stella Adler was one of the most influential acting teachers of all time. Her generations of students include Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Anthony Quinn, Diana Ross, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, and Mark Ruffalo, among others.
According to the publisher, "This long-awaited companion to her book on the master European playwrights brings to life America’s most revered playwrights, whom she knew, loved, and worked with. Brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, Adler’s lectures on the giants of twentieth-century theater feature her indispensable insights into such classic plays as
Long Day’s Journey into Night,
The Skin of Our Teeth,
A Streetcar Named Desire,
Come Back, Little Sheba,
The Glass Menagerie, and
Death of a Salesman, while shedding new light on such lesser known gems as Tennessee Williams’s
The Lady of Larkspur Lotion and Arthur Miller’s
After the Fall. Illuminating, revelatory, inspiring—this is Stella Adler at her electrifying best."
Barry Paris is the author of biographies of not only Louise Brooks, but also Greta Garbo and Audrey Hepburn, as well as the editor of
Stella Adler on Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekov. His new book looks well worth checking out.
“An essential text . . . Adler worked to bring a greater understanding of the human condition to the American stage.” —
The New Yorker
“Intoxicating
. . . Paris has done a magnificent job. . . Every sentence is a
treasure. . . . For actors and actresses this rich material is
essential. For those interested in the American theater, it is a must.
For cultured people everywhere, this book belongs in their personal
canon. . . . It is about so much more than simply bringing to life the
work of major artists; it is really the expression of a way of life, and
of looking at art as something larger than life." — Peter Bogdanovich,
The New York Times Book Review
“[The book is] about so much more than simply bringing to life the work
of major artists; it is really the expression of a way of life, and of
looking at art as something larger than life. . . . Stella had a
marvelous way of mixing erudition with down-to-earth realities, show
business know-how with a few Yiddishisms, all combined with a vivid
sense of what she called a theater of ‘heightened reality’. . . . This
book brings her voice back quite viscerally. It’s Stella talking, taking
you on her particular roller-coaster ride through the playwrights and
their characters.” — Peter Bogdanovich,
The New York Times Book Review