No-one has had greater influence on acting as we know it than Stanislavski. His 'system' or interpretations of it - has become the central force determining almost every performance we see on stage or screen. His teaching is principally set out in three famous books: An Actor Prepares, Building a Character and Creating a Role. It is still the only comprehensive theory of acting we possess. In the first book An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski dealt with the inner imaginative processes. In the second book, Building a Character, he deals with the physical realisation of character on the stage - expressions, movement, speech etc. It is a book in which theory is inextricably bound up with practice - a perfect handbook to the physical art of acting.