Jesse Feiler

About Herbert Berghof

Founder of HB Studio along with Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof was a major star at Berlin, Vienna, Paris and Zurich from 1927 to 1939 when, after the Anschluss, he migrated to the United States. He starred on Broadway in many plays including Oklahoma! (original production), In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center 1969), The Andersonville Trial (Broadway 1960 directed by José Ferrer) as well as Tovarich with Uta Hagen (1952).

 

As director, he began in Vienna with Kleinkunstbühnen cabaret in 1938. On Broadway he directed the first American production of Waiting for Godot with Bert Lahr and E. G. Marshall, Charlotte with Uta Hagen and Charles Nelson Reilly, Poor Murderer with Maria Schell and Laurence Luckenbill as well as plays at Vancouver, Cambridge Massachusetts and SUNY Purchase (NY) along with many plays at HB Playwrights Foundation Theater and HB Studio.

 

His movies include Cleopatra, Those Lips, Those Eyes and Harry and Tonto. His TV appearances range from Inspector Maigret (1940) to Target (1985).

 

About the Book (table of contents is subject to change before publication)

 

Part I, "Directed by Herbert Berghof" is based on Herbert's workbooks and correspondence for a number of the plays he directed.

 

Part II, "Herbert's Playwriting Class" is based on the four years Jesse Feiler spent in the class. As part of the class, his first full-length play opened the HB PlaywrightsFoundation Theater.

 

Part III, "Teaching Acting," is based on Herbert's acting classes in New York. Details of classes from 1940, 1944 and 1960 show the evolution of Herbert's thoughts on acting and theater in general.

 

Part IV, "Directing the Play" is based on notes from Herbert's directing classes at Columbia University in 1959-1960.

 

 

Jesse Feiler studied playwriting with Herbert Berghof at HB Studio. His short plays were part of the initial Evenings of Scenes at HB Playwrights Foundation and his first full-length play opened the HB Playwrights Foundation theater. He worked on development of the HB Playwrights Foundation with Herbert and Uta and later served as artistic director.

 

Since then he has served as trustee of the Uta Hagen trust and has served on a number of nonprofit boards. He has written technical books as well as The Nonprofit Risk Book with Gail B. Nayowith.

Free sample available now

An important contribution to the discussion about risk in the nonprofit sector, The Nonprofit Risk Book, co-authored by Jesse Feiler and Gail B. Nayowith introduces the concept of "Enterprise Risk Management", an approach that looks at organizational risk and searches for patterns that need a broad approach to identification and mitigation."

 

REVIEWS
 

The book offers practical advice to persons responsible for the health of their organizations.

Longtime veterans of the sector can only hope that this book finds its way to the syllabi of those who teach future nonprofit leaders and to board and staff leaders throughout the sector who will distribute it to their boards and use the information made available to avoid events similar to those that inspired the authors to write this book.

—Richard Mittenthal, President and CEO, TCC Group

 

This book offers solid guidance on where risks lie and how to leverage structures, policies, processes, transparency, and other tools to reduce liabilities inherent in the work. It's a must read for anyone seeking to protect and strengthen their nonprofit.

—Allison Sesso, Executive Director, Human Services Council of New York

 

The Nonprofit Risk Book is a "must read" for every leader in the field. By not only destigmatizing risk by helping readers to appreciate its presence and potential in every organization, but also equipping them with the tools to identify and effectively address risk, Feiler and Nayowith are helping nonprofits to materially and sustainably change for the better.

 

—Jennifer Jones Austin, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, FPWA

The classic book on acting, in an attractive updated edition. Jesse edited the expanded material.

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Since its original publication in 1973, Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting has remained a durable classic and a must-read for all students of acting. As an acting instructor at the Herbert Berghof Studio, Hagen helped to develop the talents of world-class actors like Robert DeNiro, Matthew Broderick, Gene Wilder, Amanda Peet, Austin Pendleton, Whoopi Goldberg, and more.

 

In this book, Hagen offers an indispensable account of the techniques that professionals use to elevate their acting to an art form. This updated edition illuminates Hagen's original text with a new foreword written by Katie Finneran, retaining the David Hyde Pierce foreword, along with added background on HB Studio—one of the original New York performing arts training and practice spaces—and an excerpt from Hagen's autobiography Sources.

 

In working through this book, actors will learn physical, verbal, and emotional practice that empower them to connect their own self- concept to the characters they play. Specific, detailed exercises help actors learn to address a range of problems actors face, like maintaining immediacy and relevance, and developing the dimensions of a role over a long performance run. Respect for Acting is a book for actors and audiences who understand the need for truth in the creative process.

• Discover the acting book that has shaped professional theater performances for decades
• Learn the history and background of Herbert Berghof Studio, one of New York's foremost acting schools
• Practice the craft of acting with concrete exercises and instruction on technique
• Delve into the deep questions that arise when actors truly inhabit the lives of their characters

Actors at all levels of their craft will love this stunning updated version of the essential Respect for Acting.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

UTA HAGEN, Tony Award-winning actor and renowned acting teacher, co-founded HB Studio in New York City with her husband, Herbert Berghof, where she trained actors including Al Pacino, Jason Robards, Jack Lemmon, Whoopi Goldberg, and Christine Lahti. On stage she starred in groundbreaking productions with José Ferrer, Paul Robeson, Anthony Quinn, and Marlon Brando. HB Studio is her legacy where new generations of actors come from around the world to study.

 

HASKEL FRANKEL worked as a journalist and critic for publications including The New York Times, The Saturday Evening Post, Saturday Review, The National Observer, Show and Playbill. He wrote and collaborated on many books including Milton Berle: An Autobiography, The Admiral's Daughter with Victoria Fyodorova and All My Patients Are Under the Bed with Louis J. Camuti.

Uta Hagen, one of the great ladies of the American theater has written a deeply personal memoir of her life, from her childhood in Germany to the present.

 
Sources is Ms. Hagen's lyrical account of the special ways love of nature is intertwined with love of art in her life, providing a rare glimpse of the off-stage life of an actress.

Originally published in 1983, this book was republished in 2019 by Jesse Feiler at Champlain Arts with a foreword by Uta's daughter, Letty Ferrer, and her grand-daughter, Teresa Teuscher to whom Uta dedicated the book.

Uta Hagen's history of HB Studio from its founding to the present day. The early adventures with the effort to find a permanent home paid off with the purchase of 120 Bank Street in Greenwich Village which remains the home to generations of actors and other theater professionals.

 

The book includes Herbert Berghof's Report to the Austrian Academy which summarizes his work in the theater. It was published in 2022 by Jesse Feiler at Champlain Arts.