Pondering Tree
People in Places · Book 1

Places,
Please

An actor's training for showing up in everyday life.

Every day you step into a room where it matters how you come across. The interview. The pitch. The meeting where you finally say the hard thing. Actors train for exactly this moment: the call of “places, please” before they walk into the light.

Get the bookLook inside
13cues
3parts
8 × 10 inpaperback
Kindlefull colour
Places, Please by Scott Buley: a young man stands alone on an empty stage under a single red spotlight.
What it is

The working tools of actor training, put to use in ordinary life.

Through film scenes, plain explanations and short scripted exercises you can run in your kitchen, your car or your next meeting, you'll learn to watch yourself honestly, arrive with presence, breathe before the line, let your body lead and make yourself heard. The book flips like an illustrated script, with storyboard sketches on every spread and lined pages to write in.

Storyboard sketch: watch the tape
Watch the tapeCue 1
Storyboard sketch: the empty stage
The empty stageCue 2
Storyboard sketch: breathe before the line
Breathe before the lineCue 3
Storyboard sketch: the body arrives first
The body arrives firstCue 4
Storyboard sketch: be heard
Be heardCue 5
Storyboard sketch: listen like it’s the first time
Listen like it’s the first timeCue 8
Storyboard sketch: the scene breakdown
The scene breakdownCue 11
Storyboard sketch: stage fright
Stage frightCue 12
Storyboard sketch: be yourself, on purpose
Be yourself, on purposeCue 13
Running order

Thirteen cues, from first rehearsal to opening night.

It opens with The Half, the call that goes out thirty-five minutes before curtain: the moment actors stop being nervous in general and start preparing in particular.

Part one · First rehearsal

  1. Cue 1Watch the Tape
  2. Cue 2The Empty Stage
  3. Cue 3Breathe Before the Line
  4. Cue 4The Body Arrives First
  5. Cue 5Be Heard

Part two · Tech week

  1. Cue 6The Observation Notebook
  2. Cue 7Want Something
  3. Cue 8Listen Like It’s the First Time
  4. Cue 9The Pecking Order
  5. Cue 10Yes, And

Part three · Opening night

  1. Cue 11The Scene Breakdown
  2. Cue 12Stage Fright and Falling Over
  3. Cue 13Be Yourself, On Purpose
Sketch of Hester, the director, sitting on a folding chair in a rehearsal room with a script on her knee.
Your director

Meet the company.

Hester is the Director: late sixties, silver hair, a red scarf she never seems to take off. She's warm, dry and very hard to rattle, and she doesn't do pep talks. Alongside her, four people work through the book with you: Sam, in his first job; June, a nurse turned manager; Dev, who runs a building site and now has to present to the board; and Ruth, a senior executive who's very hard to read. You've probably met all of them, and you may be one of them.

“Hit the mark, look the other guy in the eye, and tell the truth.”David Mamet, whose ideas keep the book honest
Sketch of the book's cast: Hester, a young man in a blazer and hoodie, a nurse, a site manager in a hi-vis vest and a woman in a long coat.
Coming soon

Places, Please is almost ready.

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By Scott Buley. Published by Pondering Tree Pty Ltd, Adelaide. The people in the exercises and examples are fictional. This book is not affiliated with or endorsed by David Mamet.