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Dec 31, 2017 · Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This book follows one of his acting classes for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays.
- Emotional Preparation
- Repetition
- Improvisation
Meisner explained emotional preparation as doing whatever is necessary to enter a scene “emotionally alive.” He instructed actors to use whatever affected them personally to put themselves in their character’s emotional state. Actors could use imagined circumstances or real personal memories. But the prepared emotion was only to be played in a scen...
Meisner used repetition exercises to develop his students’ skills of observation and instinct. He believed that repetition gets actors out of their heads so they can rely on their organic instincts. Meisner taught that these authentic instincts, as provoked by another person in the live moment, capture realistic human behavior.
All the preparation ultimately leads to improvisationand flexibility in a performance. Meisner preached that an actor should not make any choices until something provokes them, thereby justifying their behavior. To react to justified and organic stimuli improvisationally, actors must be fully connected to the other actors so they don’t miss meaning...
- Alex Ates
Oct 24, 2018 · When an English teacher takes on the responsibility for starting a drama club, the question is where to start. The Meisner technique is one answer. This book offers more than a theory of acting. It brings the reader into a Sandy Meisner acting class.
Lewis and Sanford Meisner emerged from the Group Theatre as the preeminent teachers of what has come to be known as ‘the Method’, a kind of lazy label that refers to most of contemporary American acting. Each one of these teachers has really made his own method, honing down and personalizing his approach over the years. Though they all
Sanford Meisner had ongoing discussions about technique with Adler, who worked with Stanislavsky in Paris, and Clurman, who took a deep interest in the American character. Eventually Meisner realized that if American actors were ever going to achieve the goal of "living truthfully under imaginary circumstances," an American approach was needed.
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Below is a brief overview of the Meisner method, its core principles, exercises and application, but should you wish to dive a little deeper, go straight to the source and get yourself a copy of Sanford Meisner on Acting.
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The Meisner Technique emerged as a part of the realist, modern theatre of the early-Twentieth Century and extended its influence through the rest of that century, including the 1960s and 1970s when there was an explosion of various forms of postmodern performance.
