This book is about the actors in The Sun and The Moon , two plays staged at Stockholm City Theatre. It is about role-play in the fictive story developed during rehearsals and in the social drama that kept unfolding in the production groups. My aim has been to describe the actors' work as a specific social process within a dual reality. This study is based mainly on participant observation at the two productions, from first reading to final performance.

Compared to the director the actors played a subordinate role. At the same time, between director and actors, there was competition for power and influence, as well as for artistic merits. In relation to one another, both partner could be viewed as support personell or as artist.

Each production group functioned as a temporary free zone, or anti-structure, in relation to the overall institutional structure. The director was expected to initiate the artistic process in the group, as well as supporting, but not interfering with, the actor's inner process as they developed their roles.

In both productions, interaction was rather informal, with a wide spread of information about personal relationships. While working with the roles, the actors systematically exploited their own experiences.

From an interactionist perspective, the actors' work may be described as role taking on several levels, toward director, stage character, audience and fellow actors. In the intensive process of role taking during a performance, the actors portrayed not only other people but the very essence of being human.