An Actor Prepares (Russian: Рабо́та актёра над собо́й, romanized: Rabóta aktyora nad sobóy, IPA: [rɐˈbotə ɐkˈtʲɵrə nət sɐˈboj]) is the first of Konstantin Stanislavski's books on acting, followed by Building a Character and Creating a Role.

[1] Stanislavski intended to publish the contents of An Actor Prepares and Building a Character as a single volume, and in the Russian language.

However, An Actor Prepares was first published as a single volume in English, and World War II delayed the publication of Building a Character for more than ten years.

[citation needed] The system that he describes is a means both of mastering the craft of acting and of stimulating the actor's individual creativeness and imagination.

The book is autobiographical and deals with many different areas of acting skills, including action, imagination, concentration of attention, relaxation of muscles, units and objectives, faith and a sense of truth, emotion memory, communion, adaptation, inner motive forces, the unbroken line, the inner creative state, the super-objective and the subconscious mind.