An Actor's Work on a Role Book

This and An Actor Prepares and Building a Character are not academic books on theatre history. But they are far too important and influential to ignore. In the Actor Prepares Trilogy, Stanislavski defines acting as a very serious activity requiring immense discipline and integrity. He lays out a system for acting that demands a kind of psychological realism that was rarely seen in pre-19th Century acting styles. It is common for teachers of acting to regard the works of Stanislavski as the beginning of the modern era in terms of how young theatre artists are trained.