Acting: The Active Process is not a text about theory only, but a hands-on, classroom-friendly, doable process. It forces actors to ask the right questions: What do I want? What's in my way? What tactic do I select to get what I want? Where does the scene start/end and how did it get there. All of these principles are centered in the author's major advice: Acting is about one character trying to get another character to do something.

Organized into six chapters, Acting: The Active Process:

uses a precise approach to understanding each principal in every chapter
provides classroom warm-ups relating to the chapter's main idea
prepares students with exercises in connecting the chapter's principle to a written scene

However, the learning doesn't end after the six chapters. There are important additions to the appendices that include insightful hints on dealing with monologues, a list of active and playable verbs, an actor's vocabulary list, and more!

Books by Tom McNally