Transformational Acting
A Step Beyond

Published by Limelight. October, 2002.

Available for purchase directly from Limelight Editions

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Transformational Acting
A Step Beyond

“With this book actors take a step-by-step journey into knowing themselves; they use “self” as the raw material to transform into character.

"For creating, we tap into an active energy and intelligence alive in all of nature. This unifying intelligence and dynamic energy already exists inside each and every one of us. This essence is the source of my new approach.

"In Transformational Acting, the actor is taught to access this essence along with the “Emotional Body” (a new way to generate current emotions without having to rely on histrionics). Strong new acting distinctions are also taught in this technique, such as transforming who You are into That character—actually reinventing yourself as the character. It’s about you, who you are, what you bring to the character, and using what is relevant from within you. This new acting technique takes the actor beyond “Sense Memory” into Transformational Acting."

This book is a determined effort to steer away from the intellectual, theory-based acting instruction to a more creative and viscerally human approach. It moves beyond teaching how to represent a character or various emotions toward living a role with in-the-moment identification and urgency. The goal of Sande Shurin’s transformational acting is to bring both the actor and the character into the same body. To do this requires, first, finding the difference and similarities that divide and link the actor and the role being performed; and, second, imagining the entire life of the character—including what is hidden on the stage or on screen.

Two of the author’s students, both stars in the original cast of the Broadway production of Rent, have commented on the work of Sande Shurin:

“Since I started working with Sande, I think it’s safe to say my work on character and my ability to transform into character have exploded and expanded beyond anything I previously would have imagined.” – Anthony Rapp

“After Rent, I did a film…dove in to music. Then, tweaking my skills, I encountered a class full of enthusiasm…[where] we discovered, uncovered, and tapped into characters as if in a serious playground…falling, being the fool and rejoicing in our own limitations…There is a passion, curiosity and generosity that informs Sande’s work and inspires mine. As a teacher she cuts through the superfluous and guides us to do the same. We create a carefully chosen armature into which we can breathe life through our own truthfulness and spontaneity.” – Daphne Rubin-Vega

And from the wonderful world of television:

“Sande is a wonderful teacher who takes a very complex form of acting, simplifies it and makes it fun again.” – Ty Treadway, star of One Life to Live

“Sande has created a solid, useful technique that helped me immensely as an actor. And now, as a casting director, I consistently see her technique inspiring and shining through her students’ auditions.” – Bob Lambert, associate casting director of All My Children

The Power of the Present
The Power of your “Self”
The Power of Creativity