An Actress Prepares is the first book to interrogate Method acting from a specifically feminist perspective. Rose Malague addresses 'the Method' not only with much-needed critical distance, but also the crucial insider's view of a trained actor. Case studies examine the preeminent American teachers who popularized and transformed elements of Stanislavsky's System within the U.S.-Strasberg, Adler, Meisner, and Hagen- by analyzing and comparing their related but distinctly different approaches.