The Official Website of Richard Reilly

Acting Naturally

A middle-aged man goes to his first audition and is shocked to be offered the lead role - and suddenly he realizes he has "fallen down the rabbit hole" into a very strange world of stage-craft and illusion that he finds curiously addictive.

Cast as Ebenezer Scrooge in his very first role, a bewildered novice begins a crash course in all things theatrical. Written with humor and a frank humility, we discover the world of performance through the author's eyes. What is it like to play the infamous Professor Henry Higgins? How does it feel to say goodbye to cast-mates who have grown closer than family? What is "talent," really?

We get a first-hand look at the orderly chaos behind Opening Night, and we look over his shoulder as he competes with sleek twenty-somethings to master song-and-dance routines and win coveted roles. Through musicals and dramas, back-stage dressing rooms and rehearsal halls, the reader experiences both the joys and the heartbreaks of the stage.

Every aspect of the theater is covered in this loving memoir from a man who found his passion on the stage. A must-read for aspiring actors. Written in the first-person journaling tradition of the infamous Constantin Stanislovski's "An Actor Prepares."

Purchase the E-Book Now.
$10 to purchase the complete E-Book, 224 pages (Memoir: 76,000 words)