Working on the Inside: The Spiritual Life Through the Eyes of Actors

by Retta Blaney

Book Overview

Stage and screen actors form unique relationships with their audiences. Through their work, they challenge, teach, and inspire us by shedding light in all corners of life and connecting with us through our senses and emotions. Working on the Inside goes backstage into the inner lives of respected actors like Liam Neeson, Vanessa Williams, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Herrmann, Kristin Chenoweth and many others to reveal the deep spirituality each one relies on in their lives and work. The result is a book like no other that draws ten key elements of the universal spiritual life from the perspective of actors whose work it is to tap into the essence of life, tell stories, and reveal life's truths.

Retta Blaney, an award-winning journalist now specializing in theatre and religion, was inspired to write this book by the spiritual wisdom actors conveyed in their interviews with her over the years. She dared to ask actors questions few ever do--How does your spirituality influence your life and work? How do you pray? What do you pray for? How do you stay centered in a career with so much uncertainty? And they answered her, readily sharing experiences of faith, being in the moment, listening, silence, prayer, self-knowledge, community, hospitality, ritual and transformation. The result is a book that takes readers into the private thoughts of some of their favorite actors for inspiring tips on how they, too, can begin working on the inside.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0742533190
• ISBN13: 9780742533196
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Sheed & Ward
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A fascinating and welcome discussion

There's no other book like this, and you'd think there would be, given that theater and religion are so linked in their histories. The discussion of actors' spiritual lives is not given in general terms but is quite specific. The author interviews actors from many different traditions, and she brings in ministers to provide welcome overview and comment. The writing is clear as a bell, reflecting the author's journalism background and her astute questioning. Actors really are spiritual, and their sporadically rewarding lives require faith, and not just faith they'll get the part, but faith that their own journeys are moving on the right road. No one can tell you this; it's why a spiritual life needs cultivating, and the actors interviewed here are all different, and they are all generous in sharing their insights. My church book group loved it. The accounts -- including those by Liam Neeson, Vanessa Williams, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Herrmann, and the effervescent Kristin Chenoweth are enormously interesting. I think this is an avenue that is so fruitful, and I wish Ms. Blaney would write another - perhaps with not so famous actors, or actors just starting out. "Names" sell books, though, so perhaps they could be mixed into the brew. Anyway,I hope for more! Mary Sheeran

The Muti-Dimensional Spiritual Collage

Blaney's text is an important collage of the actor's spiritual awwareness of the theatre as spiritual journey. There is a textual exploration that goes far beyond the histrionic technique and provides an ongoing and progressive investigation of the layered spiritual communication occurring from creator to performer to audience. Dr. John V. Roche

nice book

I really don't think there is anthing like this book out there- on the spiritual lives of performers. It includes Christian, Jew and few in between. A thoughtful and fun book.