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Real actors. Real life. Behind the scenes.
Without the glitz and glamour
 If you want to know what it's like to be an actor--from an
actor's point of view--read Standing Naked in the Wings: Anecdotes from
Canadian Actors by Lynda Mason Green & Tedde Moore (published by Oxford University
Press).
Standing Naked in the Wings is a first person glimpse into the world of actors as experienced by
Canadian performers. In their own words, more than two hundred actors share shocking, funny,
terrifying, sometimes poignant stories of adventures, mishaps, gaffs, disasters and moments of joy
they have known in the course of their working lives on and off 'stage'.
This collection of almost 600 stories begins with tales of 'The Audition', and continues through
early performing experiences of some of our most familiar faces, names such as Wayne and Shuster,
William Shatner, Christopher Plummer, Robert Goulet and Martin Short among many.
It chronicles life on tour from Russia to the Ozarks to above the Arctic circle. It elucidates the
trials of props, sets and wardrobe that refuse to function as intended, the agonies of surviving the
unexpected whether it be a four legged cast member going into labour, an actor who has somehow
forgotten an entrance, a sudden on-stage bout with very real food poisoning or the sometimes
startling, often hilarious contributions from members of the audience.
On Broadway, Len Cariou narrowly avoids being crushed by a huge mechanical set. At Stratford,
William Hutt's 'Polonius' dies an untraditional death when Christopher Plummer as 'Hamlet' struggles
in vain to draw his sword form its scabbard. During a production of 'Othello', an actor catches
fire. Timothy Findley, as a young actor, must make a ten foot leap through the dark and NOT land on
Sir Alec Guiness who stands alone, at centre stage lit only by a single spotlight. Saul Rubinek and
Maury Chaykin provide terrifying comic relief on a window washing scaffold high up the CN Tower.
Actors talk about their working experiences and encounters with legends and stars such as Bernard
Shaw, Tyrone Guthrie, Lon Chaney, Charles Laughton, Lee Marvin, Sandy Dennis, John Candy, Paul
Newman and Joanne Woodward, Gilda Radner and John Belushi, Angela Lansbury, Lauren Bacall, Henry
Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Sir John Gielgud, Julie Andrews, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor,
Barbra Streisand, Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh among others.
There are introductions to royalty and other luminaries and more than one brush with a presence that
can only be described as 'supernatural'. Standing Naked in the Wings is an affectionate celebration
of the Canadian acting community. It is a delightfully entertaining read for anyone who has ever
enjoyed the theatre, movies, radio or television, and perhaps wondered what it really means to live
'an actor's life'.
Order soft cover copies of Standing Naked in the Wings online:
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