Reviewed by: Interchangeable Parts: Acting, Industry, and Technology in US Theater by Victor Holtcamp Beth Johnson Interchangeable Parts: Acting, Industry, and Technology in US Theater. By Victor Holtcamp. Theatre: Theory/Text/Performance series. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2019; pp. 360. Victor Holtcamp's Interchangeable Parts: Acting, Industry, and Technology in US Theater is an exploration of the industrialization of theatrical and cinematic practices in the United States. Framing his analysis with Thomas Kuhn's theories of shifting paradigms and "Actor-Network Theory" (ANT), Holtcamp postulates that Frederick Winslow Taylor's 1911 The Principles of Scientific Management and the "American System" of interchangeable parts manufacturing helped to transform actor training. Examining widely known and influential acting methodologies and practitioners, Holtcamp presents the evolution of actor training from the 1870s onward and reveals the origins of several questions about process and practice that are still relevant today. What is the most efficient and effective way to train actors? Can training replace natural talent? Are emotions primary or secondary in rehearsal and performance? In his first chapter, Holtcamp establishes a number of what he calls "rhetorical landmarks" in acting pedagogy that "recur with striking regularity" throughout discussions of acting methodologies from the late nineteenth century in both theatre and film (57). First is an analogy used by many acting teachers that hypothesizes a "dream of scales"—a set of exercises, like a musician's scales, that an actor can practice to build foundational technique. Second is the belief that offstage instruction, in conjunction with the dream of scales will allow actors to develop their technique without apprenticing in small roles. Third is the conviction that every actor, regardless of their natural talent, can benefit from this training. Finally, acting teachers highlighted a single concern, be it elocution, emotion, or physical expression, that they believed paved the way to an actor's success (ibid.). These four landmarks, or shared beliefs, are critical to the connection Holtcamp makes between industrial values and a component model of actor training. Chapter 2 takes a deep dive into The Principles of Scientific Management and its question of efficiency and experimentation. Important to Holtcamp's thesis is Taylor's belief that the principles should be applied to all aspects of public and private life, and that there is one optimal solution to every problem discoverable by experimentation. Equally significant is Taylor's assertion that systems of manufacture which rely upon "rules-of-thumb, tradition, and tricks of the trade" handed down from master to apprentice, enable inefficiency and waste (62). Holtcamp connects these principles to Englishman Edward Gordon Craig's On the Art of the Theatre, also written in 1911. Craig, like Taylor, is a firm believer in repudiating tradition and embracing experimentation. Holtcamp then returns to his study of America's technological paradigm and the science of psychology revealed in actress Minnie Maddern Fiske's memoir, the work of Luther Anthony, editor of the journal The Dramatist, and the legacy of the Provincetown Players. Chapter 3 analyzes the Moscow Art Theatre's system (MAT), the Carnegie Institute of Technology's first degree in theatre in 1914, and the American Laboratory Theatre (ALT). It also engages work published by Longmans, Green and Company, specifically their textbook Acting and Play Production (1925) and "Directors' Manuscripts" promptbooks, which allowed local theatre companies to replicate professional productions as precisely as possible. In each example, Holtcamp demonstrates how the industrial paradigm influences theatrical practices (102). Chapters 4 and 6 explore cinematic production starting with pre-sound-era film. Holtcamp begins with actress Mae Marsh's 1921 book Screen Acting, which dispels the idea of the overnight success. She invokes the dream of scales, comparing the untrained actor to a painter who does not know color, a musician ignorant of music theory, or a [End Page 135] writer without command of language (145). Marsh distains inspiration, relying instead upon preparation and rehearsal before filming. Chapter 6 explores the Hollywood studio training system by focusing on Paramount, MGM, and Warner Brothers during the 1920s and '30s. As a matter of industrial efficiency, these studios instituted "talent" departments, employing acting teachers who could coach actors on specific projects and train them when not on...