Rooted in the work of master acting teacher Sanford Meisner, Meisner acting classes use a series of exercises that build upon each other progressively, until the most complex skills are mastered. Meisner acting classes help students develop a life-long love of learning about the art of acting. From exercises that involve improvisation to word repetition, and exercises that teach students how to emotionally prepare, these Meisner exercises cover a wide range of skills and a deep awareness of what is required of the professional actor.
In the beginning, Meisner acting classes may seem too simplistic, lacking real dialogue or "story" to work with. The aim of these beginning exercises is to remove the crutch of dialogue and storyline, and instead teach the students to use emotional clues they get from other actors. Over time, if they remain open to the process, students in Meisner acting classes learn to rely on the emotional cues they get from other players in a scene or exercise and use them to create and live in a new reality they are creating in the moment.
Fond of asking pointed questions of students to help them recognize what how they might be falling short, Meisner continually challenged students to commit and have a purpose for to every action and emotional response. With the Meisner technique even sleeping or being still is considered an "action" that requires purpose. Known to be a brilliant, yet tough task master, Meisner believed that "acting is doing," even if the moment in a piece calls for silence. His other well known saying "an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words," is a good way to sum up his theory about acting. The only way dialogue will work is if it is spoken by an actor who is living truthfully in the moment, with authentic emotions and behaviors.
The student who excels is one who recognizes this and discovers an ability to create a new reality every time they act, even if for a simple acting class exercise. Many acting classes nyc will train the actor to use sound, feeling, emotion, physical space, and the sounds, emotions and physical expression of the other players to create an edgy exciting performance full of spontaneity. This can eliminate bad acting habits, such as "pretending" rather than "being." Once bad habits are broken in Meisner acting classes an actor becomes completely self forgetful, able to "be" someone else, rather than merely pretending. The aim is to eliminate self awareness while acting, and always be present in the moment, as the character, and use that energy to create the new reality of the story. If this seems challenging, it is, and being aware of this might be an indication that this technique is for you. Any actor that believes that delivering dialogue and reading lines as a character, full of the appropriate emotions and personalty, is in for some serious work. The Meisner acting technique will force you to work far more deeply than that. Yes, you essentially become someone else but, not a pre-determined someone else. Instead you become someone new,someone real, that changes as the work progresses in unrehearsed ways.
By creating an imagined set of circumstances, including a character's history of needs and wants, failures etc, and living them out, the student of Meisner learns to allow the character emerge and change as the project story plays out. There is a behavioral aspect to this which involves theories about adaptation and communication, and an emotional aspect that stems from the Americanized discipline called Method acting. Sanford Meisner felt that American acting was different and put his own unique stamp on the training, while at the same time developing a whole new system, which has produced some of the greatest actors of all time.
Committing to emotional responses and physical actions and focusing only on what the other actors are doing is the way to propel a story forward with energy and excitement is the foundation of Meisner acting. Self forgetfulness, and allowing the impulses of other actors to guide you, is the way to create a whole new reality, that reveals itself moment by moment. The performance will have an edge, a sense of reality that is hard to create unless spontaneity is constantly at work. This, in fact, mimics life. This is, in fact, how we live; having no idea what may happen at any moment, how others might react, what they will say, what we will say in return. This ability to re-create "real life" as it unfolds, telling the story in a way that you genuinely having no idea how the story will unfold every time, is the most important thing you can learn in Meisner acting.
In the beginning, Meisner acting classes may seem too simplistic, lacking real dialogue or "story" to work with. The aim of these beginning exercises is to remove the crutch of dialogue and storyline, and instead teach the students to use emotional clues they get from other actors. Over time, if they remain open to the process, students in Meisner acting classes learn to rely on the emotional cues they get from other players in a scene or exercise and use them to create and live in a new reality they are creating in the moment.
Fond of asking pointed questions of students to help them recognize what how they might be falling short, Meisner continually challenged students to commit and have a purpose for to every action and emotional response. With the Meisner technique even sleeping or being still is considered an "action" that requires purpose. Known to be a brilliant, yet tough task master, Meisner believed that "acting is doing," even if the moment in a piece calls for silence. His other well known saying "an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words," is a good way to sum up his theory about acting. The only way dialogue will work is if it is spoken by an actor who is living truthfully in the moment, with authentic emotions and behaviors.
The student who excels is one who recognizes this and discovers an ability to create a new reality every time they act, even if for a simple acting class exercise. Many acting classes nyc will train the actor to use sound, feeling, emotion, physical space, and the sounds, emotions and physical expression of the other players to create an edgy exciting performance full of spontaneity. This can eliminate bad acting habits, such as "pretending" rather than "being." Once bad habits are broken in Meisner acting classes an actor becomes completely self forgetful, able to "be" someone else, rather than merely pretending. The aim is to eliminate self awareness while acting, and always be present in the moment, as the character, and use that energy to create the new reality of the story. If this seems challenging, it is, and being aware of this might be an indication that this technique is for you. Any actor that believes that delivering dialogue and reading lines as a character, full of the appropriate emotions and personalty, is in for some serious work. The Meisner acting technique will force you to work far more deeply than that. Yes, you essentially become someone else but, not a pre-determined someone else. Instead you become someone new,someone real, that changes as the work progresses in unrehearsed ways.
By creating an imagined set of circumstances, including a character's history of needs and wants, failures etc, and living them out, the student of Meisner learns to allow the character emerge and change as the project story plays out. There is a behavioral aspect to this which involves theories about adaptation and communication, and an emotional aspect that stems from the Americanized discipline called Method acting. Sanford Meisner felt that American acting was different and put his own unique stamp on the training, while at the same time developing a whole new system, which has produced some of the greatest actors of all time.
Committing to emotional responses and physical actions and focusing only on what the other actors are doing is the way to propel a story forward with energy and excitement is the foundation of Meisner acting. Self forgetfulness, and allowing the impulses of other actors to guide you, is the way to create a whole new reality, that reveals itself moment by moment. The performance will have an edge, a sense of reality that is hard to create unless spontaneity is constantly at work. This, in fact, mimics life. This is, in fact, how we live; having no idea what may happen at any moment, how others might react, what they will say, what we will say in return. This ability to re-create "real life" as it unfolds, telling the story in a way that you genuinely having no idea how the story will unfold every time, is the most important thing you can learn in Meisner acting.
About the Author:
The Maggie Flanigan Studio provides meisner acting classes in nyc for serious, committed actors. To learn more about meisner intensive nyc you can visit the studio website.
