The Actor's Art and Craft

The Actor's Art and Craft. By William Esper and Damon DiMarco. New York: Anchor Books, 2008; pp. 286. $13.95 paper.

William Esper is perhaps the most well-known of the first-generation Meisner acting teachers and is sometimes referred to as Sanford Meisner's most "authentic protégé." Esper trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and then continued his collaboration with Sanford Meisner as both a teacher and director. Esper went on to found the William Esper Studio in 1965, and in 1977 established the MFA and BFA Professional Actor Training Programs at Rutgers University. In his long-awaited book, co-authored by Damon DiMarco, Esper documents for the first time the technique that he has developed over the last thirty years of teaching. Esper's technique extends, refines, and details exercises that were omitted from or developed since Meisner's own book, Sanford Meisner on Acting (co-authored by Dennis Longwell), was published in 1987. Although the exercises described in The Actor's Art and Craft follow the basic process intended by Meisner, Esper's ability to articulate the pedagogical and philosophical rationale for each exercise make this book a valuable record of the technique.

Using a familiar style seen in the Meisner/Longwell book, Esper and DiMarco create a fictional class of sixteen students to help illustrate the step-by-step approach to Esper's training methods. By way of the students' trials and errors in the classroom, Esper and DiMarco present...