Introduction
Other sources of block

Many different problems arise in rehearsal and performance that can damage acting. The room may be ill lit, badly ventilated, echoey or cold. More significantly, there may be a difficult atmosphere in the group, or a bad relationship with the director or writer. External problems over which the actor may have little control can also coagulate the work; but circumstantial difficulties will not be dealt with here.

When things go wrong I must distinguish between what I can change and what I cannot change. I also have to divide the problem into two parts: first, the part that comes from outside me, over which I may have little or no control, and secondly, the part which comes from inside me, over which I can learn to have increasing control. This book only addresses that second part of the actor's difficulties, the part that seems to come from within.