Damon DiMarco (born October 16, 1971), is a New York City author, actor, playwright, and historian. His oral history work has been compared to that of Studs Terkel. He was born on Princeton, New Jersey.
Oral histories
DiMarco's oral histories include Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11, which chronicles the September 11 attacks in 2001, from diversified perspectives on the destruction of the World Trade Center. When asked why he wrote the book, DiMarco told CNN news anchor Betty Nguyen that "as a writer, my specialty is words. And so I couldn't go down to ground zero and dig, I couldn't pull bodies out. My service was to compile the accounts of people who did extraordinary things."
The book's 20th anniversary commemorative edition (2021) features forewords by George Pataki, who served as Governor of New York during the September 11 attacks, and by former Governor of New Jersey and Chairman of the 9/11 Commission Thomas Kean.
A starred Publishers Weekly review called Tower Stories a "monumental work" and says that "DiMarco's contribution to the memory of that horrific day is enormous; the testimonies collected here form an amazing, one-of-a-kind account." MSNBC cited it as one of "five must-read books about 9/11 and its legacy," and said it was "arguably the most successful attempt at capturing the enormity of the events of 9/11." The book was also praised by The New York Times and William F. Buckley, Jr.
Kean praised the book for being as important as the Federal Writer's Project under the Roosevelt Administration and the Works Progress Administration Slave Narrative.
For the Tower Stories 20th anniversary commemorative edition, DiMarco included a new Retrospective section that includes interviews with Alice M. Greenwald, President and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis; Jesuit priest, Father James Martin; and Glenn Guzi, who oversaw matters related to the reconstruction of the World Trade Center for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
DiMarco has appeared as a television and radio guest for 9/11-related events, notably on CNN, Premiere Radio Networks, NPR/PBS, and the National Geographic Channel. In his introduction to Tower Stories' 20th anniversary commemorative edition, DiMarco noted that, two decades after 9/11, he sees the event as testifying to the strength of mutual aid as described in the work of Peter Kropotkin, Charles Darwin, and Rebecca Solnit.
Other oral histories include Heart of War: Soldiers' Voices from the Front Lines of Iraq, a collection of first-person narratives from U.S. veterans of the War in Iraq.
Critics of DiMarco's oral history work praise the respect he pays to his interviewees. They note the diversity of perspectives he brings to bear on a single issue, as well as the fact that his interview subjects are often highly intelligent people whom mainstream media have failed to notice. DiMarco himself has voiced dissatisfaction with mainstream media.
Books on acting
DiMarco wrote The Actor's Art & Craft and The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character with Bill Esper, one of the "most important contemporary master-acting teachers" in the United States. Esper founded the William Esper Studio and the Professional Actors Training Program at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts.<ref>The New Generation of Acting Teachers: More than 20 revealing interviews with today's master teachers on the art and craft of acting" by Eve Mekler (1987) </ref> DiMarco has been called Esper's protégé. Both The Actor's Art & Craft and The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character detail how Esper explores and elaborates on the famous acting techniques pioneered by legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner. The books have been endorsed by Meisner-trained actors and writers who studied with Esper, including David Mamet, Sam Rockwell, Patricia Heaton, Mary Steenburgen, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Gretchen Mol, and Calista Flockhart.The Quotable Actor collects 1001 quotes from actors on such diverse subjects as imagination, rehearsal, technique, and the actor's lifestyle. Featured quotes come from diverse sources including Constantin Stanislavski, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ellen Burstyn, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Stella Adler, Forest Whitaker, Laurence Olivier, and many more.