ANITA JESSE'S BOOKS ABOUT ACTING HAVE EARNED KUDOS
FROM ACTORS, MEMBERS OF THE INDUSTRY, AND EDUCATORS.

Representative Samples
(The following samples are specific to Let The Part Play You)

"Anita Jesse knows what she's talking about and vividly communicates the fun and challenges of practicing and refining good solid technique!" John Ritter - Emmy Award and Golden Globe Winner

"My copy is well thumbed, dog-eared, highlighted, and never more than an arm's reach away in my dressing room!" - Eva La Rue - nominated for a Daytime Emmy for her work on ABC's All My Children

"Finally an acting book so simple that it demystifies the acting process for the beginner, but so rich in content that the most trained professional will be inspired." - Gary Grubbs

"a brilliant bare-bones approach to the craft of acting. Let The Part Play You has become my bible." - Leslie Jordan

"This is teaching at its highest level. Anita Jesse not only identifies actors' problems, but provides specific solutions." - Judy Kerr - acting coach, Los Angeles; author of Acting Is Everything

"No actor should be without this excellent volume. Anita Jesse's wisdom is evident on every page and her clear-headed pragmatism is useful every day." - Richard Brestoff - author of The Camera Smart Actor, The Great Acting Teachers and Their Methods, and Acting Under The Circumstances

"Let The Part Play You is a true treasure. Anita Jesse has brilliantly assessed the art of acting and synthesized her findings into a process that is clear, concise, and inspiring." - Dr. Marion Castleberry -
Director of Graduate Theatre Studies, Baylor University, Waco, Texas) and noted Horton Foote scholar

"Anita Jesse's wonderful, no-nonsense book is written in clear, direct language and full of valuable information. I recommend this book to every actor who is serious about the craft." - Michael Donovan,
Casting Director

"This is the book I have been looking for, for the twenty years I have been teaching acting."
Professor Maureen McIntyre - Head of the Acting Program, Sam Houston State University-Huntsville, Texas

Twenty instructive chapters guiding the actor to mastery of the craft:
An accessible and effective approach to character work
Practical techniques for learning lines
An indispensable guide to mastering concentration
Methods for developing listening skills
Simple and reliable relaxation techniques
Time-saving checklists for script analysis
Classroom-tested exercises, indexed for convenience
Valuable tips for auditions
A concise and convenient bibliography

How much force were you exerting to keep your attention on your book? It seemed effortless, right?"

"Until you can focus your attention with pin-point accuracy-screening out all distractions, acting and preparing to act will be difficult and frustrating. If your mind wanders aimlessly, you will struggle unsuccessfully with everything from studying the script and rehearsing to hearing the comments on your work after the performance. You may find, for example, that although you settle down with the best of intentions to investigate your part, your mind keeps wandering to whether you will play the role effectively. Perhaps you have set aside time to learn lines, but you find yourself, instead, agonizing over unpaid bills or fantasizing about a vacation. The last time you were on stage, or in front of the camera, you may have had trouble screening out anxious thoughts about the effectiveness of your performance. Have you recently forgotten your lines on stage? Has a director or teacher told you lately that you weren't in character, or that you weren't listening, or that you weren't playing the action? If any of these problems sound familiar, you should begin working immediately to improve your concentration."

Theatre games thrust actors into situations where they are inclined to interact naturally, and without self-consciousness. The circumstances of the game make it natural-almost inevitable-for the players to use their bodies and voices effectively, listen well, and strengthen their imaginations. Engrossed in authentic interaction and free of the tyrannical commentator who dwells in their minds, the actors readily learn to focus their attention, not on themselves, but on a doable task. Once they escape the tyranny of their inner critics, the actors are prepared to tell the truth in imaginary circumstances. The actor who has mastered these skills is on the path toward creative and dynamic acting.

Puzzle-like analytical games succeed because they take advantage of the actors' natural curiosity. As soon as they view the script as a mystery waiting to be unraveled, actors are more easily motivated to commit to a thorough investigation of clues. Game-like exercises allow the players to discover that scene analysis can be a fascinating play of wits and imagination rather than routine drudgery. Eventually, the actors will be motivated to analyze a scene because they want to satisfy their curiosity and because they know it improves their performances, rather than to satisfy an authority figure. The actors will come to understand that the pages they read are not really a play, but only the directions for presenting a play. This realization will help them see that they must use their fact-finding skills and imaginations to fill in the exciting details that will bring the play to life.

I encourage you to explore these games and exercises because they are designed to work with human nature and assist the actor in learning to take risks. While most people thrive on a certain degree of familiarity in their lives, the actor regularly confronts the terror of the unknown. In attempting to reconcile the imaginary reality of the character with his or her own actual reality, the actor faces the inability to predict the outcome of the creative process. That period of reconciliation is fraught with disorientation and apprehension-it is a period where The Beast, the unknown, terrorizes the actor. Improvisational games provide a means by which actors can develop a tolerance for that anxiety. While playing, the actors are regularly thrust into situations filled with the risk of not knowing and eventually they learn they can survive the apprehension. They can even learn to love The Beast and when that occurs they are free to unleash their imaginations and realize their full potential as creative beings.