Books
Mike Alfreds

Different Every Night

A top-ranking director sets out his rehearsal techniques in this invaluable handbook for actors and directors.
Different Every Night is the culmination of a lifetime of work in the theatre, the most complete rehearsal methodology in print since Stanislavsky. It offers a vital masterclass for actors and directors, full of sound practical advice and guidance, and is packed with techniques for bringing the text to life and keeping it alive — both in rehearsal and performance.
'Most of what I am as an actress I owe to Mike Alfreds. He gave me the language and the tools I needed for my craft' Pam Ferris, from her Foreword
'If I was allowed to train again to be an actor, but I was only allowed one teacher, it would have to be Mike Alfreds. To me he is a genius when it comes to acting and storytelling' Mark Rylance
'an illuminating and inspiring book… based in rich experience and acute observation of actors at work (and play)… essential reading for actors and directors' Rogues & Vagabonds
571 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2014
Publication year
2014
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Quotes

  • Magdalena Phas quoted3 years ago
    Objectives are strategies. They are the fuel that ignites characters into action. Objectives generate actions. You cannot literally play an objective. Your objectives stimulate you to play actions. (Actions are the only thing an actor can actually play.)
  • Magdalena Phas quoted3 years ago
    I want, I do, I feel. This is the ‘system’ in a nutshell. It is simple, obvious, and it is how we function in life. Any good psychological techniques we apply on stage are conscious recreations of how we function naturally. They create specific, recognisable behaviour in the actor from which the audience is able to recognise, interpret or intuit what is going on within the character. This liberates actors from any need to demonstrate or ‘explain’ their characters.
  • Magdalena Phas quoted3 years ago
    It’s a sort of miracle that productions ever come to fruition, let alone achieve any degree of excellence. You could describe many rehearsal experiences as a group of people who have probably never before worked together, cooped up for far too brief a period in a frequently disagreeable, dark, dirty and noisy space, without a shared language or a shared vision of what they believe theatre to be, in order to create something as profound and complex and as intimate as a performance.

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