Providing a blueprint for mastering the mechanics of creativity, this insightful resource explains in detail how to acquire and cultivate the necessary skills to obtain peak performances on stage and in life. Calling upon decades of experience from having worked on both sides of the camera, this study provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a child-actor's life in Hollywood during the Golden Age of motion pictures while chronicling the development of two ground-breaking workshops for teaching dramatic art. A brief but comprehensive survey of the history of acting in the Western theater is also included.