About the Book:

Do you have any notes for me? Professor Ron Marasco noticed that actors always ask for notes on their performance, and they will take them from just about anyone. Getting a note is a good thing! It means the acting coach, director, or casting director is paying close attention to your work and wants to refocus it in some manner. While people in other pursuits tend not to ask for performance ratings, actors demand them. Tinkering is a part of any craft and it’s how you reach a level of excellence. It is learned by experience, trial and error, and by succeeding and failing.

In his years as an actor, scholar, and teacher of acting, Ron Marasco found that most acting books were either outdated classics that were rarely read, or quasi-textbooks that actors only "skimmed." So he developed Notes to an Actor, a compact, user-friendly book geared specifically to the way actors work. Written in a conversational director to actor dialogue, the book is based on the innovative idea that notes, given one on one, are the essential tool of creative learning. Practical advice is the core of the chapters on Perspective, Rehearsal, and Performance. These notes help guide students to think about their character beyond a surface level. Deeper issues of the actor's act are considered in chapters on Talent and Greatness. Clear, intelligent, and beautifully written in a "shop talk" way, Notes to an Actor offers usable how-to-notes on acting in Comedy, on playing material with Style, and on moving back and forth between Stage and Screen (after all, actors have to make a living with their art).

What people say:

"I think this is the best book on acting I've ever read." — Kirk Douglas

"Finally, the definitive book on acting. Ron Marasco will make you a better actor." — Patricia Clarkson, two-time Emmy Award Winner and Academy Award Nominee

"It is, hands down, the best book I have ever read on the art of acting...the writing is direct, smart, brief, and practical." — Kelly Younger, award-winning playwright

"Ron's advice and tools on acting are incredibly astute, thought provoking, refreshing, and inspiring. I wish I'd had this book in my back pocket before many an audition." — Neve Campbell, star of the Scream franchise for more than 25 years

"Notes to an Actor is inspiring, transforming and absolutely fun. This brilliant book will be a cherished favorite of actors and artists until the last star falls from the sky." — Beth Henley, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright

"Ron Marasco is everything a young actor could want in a coach, a director, or a guru. His advice is practical and broad-ranging, his experience is extensive, and his stories about the business are often very funny. Notes to an Actor is a smart, useful, and even wise guide for living the actor's life." — Curt Columbus, Artistic director of the Trinity Repertory Company

About the Author:

Ron Marasco is an American actor, director, and professor emeritus of theatre arts at the prestigious Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has always been a working actor, appearing in an array of TV shows from West Wing to Bones to originating the role of Mr. Casper on Freaks and Geeks, to his recurring role of Judge Grove on Major Crimes, to playing the lead opposite screen-legend Kirk Douglas in the movie Illusion. His book Notes for an Actor has become a bible for many.