William Esper, one of the most celebrated acting teachers of our time, takes us through his step-by-step approach to the central challenge of advanced acting work: creating and playing a character. Esper?s first book, The Actor?s Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor?s Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper?s second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. Esper?s training builds on Sanford Meisner?s legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.