The figure of Stella Adler towers high among the memorable acting teachers in American theatre. Her methods of training, her principles of acting and character interpretation, her analyses of the seminal plays of the modern theatre comprise a legacy for everyone who followed her. In this book, that legacy gains the special immediacy and authenticity of her own spoken words. Over three years in the 1970s, Joanna Rotte worked with Adler as a student and as an actress under her direction, all the white taking the copious notes that have become the heart of this book. Throughout, Adler speaks about her principles in a tough minded and demanding way, inspired by her overriding conviction that as a person an actor ‘becomes bigger through working’. This book provides an opportunity to sit in on the classes of this remarkable woman of whom her student Marlon Brando said, My debt and gratitude to her are enormous. As a teacher of acting, she has few peers. As a human being, few equals.