Book excerpt: "Dynamic Acting through Active Analysis is a pragmatic guide for actors to the history and practice of Stanislavsky's last and most innovative approach to performance. Named "Active Analysis" by Maria Knebel, Stanislavsky's most influential protégé, it invites actors to explore the interactive dynamics in scenes by enacting them before memorizing lines. This process of analyzing texts actively taps actors' minds, bodies and spirits simultaneously, thus fostering dynamic acting. In Part 1 of the book, the author introduces the people who sacrificed much to create and keep the technique alive during the darkest era of Soviet repression. In Part 2, actors are offered a series of lessons on the fundamentals of Active Analysis and its applications to classic and contemporary plays. Herself a Russian speaker and a world-leading expert on Active Analysis, Sharon Marie Carnicke draws on memoirs, letters, eyewitness accounts, Knebel's 6 books and other Russian language textbooks to enrich this guide. The first practical guide for today's actors in English to the history and practice of Active Analysis, this much-needed book equips the reader with the artistic flexibility needed to work across a range of dramatic styles and across media"--