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SANFORD “Sandy” MEISNER (1905-1997) and the Meisner Technique

SANFORD “Sandy” MEISNER (1905-1997) and the Meisner Technique. The core principles. “ Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances …is my definition of good acting.” To achieve this, Meisner emphasizes that actors must: First and foremost, fully understand and develop character

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SANFORD “Sandy” MEISNER (1905-1997) and the Meisner Technique

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  1. SANFORD “Sandy” MEISNER(1905-1997)and the Meisner Technique

  2. The core principles • “Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances…is my definition of good acting.” • To achieve this, Meisner emphasizes that actors must: • First and foremost, fully understand and develop character • See the script as an outline of the emotional reality and commit to the objectives within a play and a scene • actors should throw out stage directions and emotional descriptions • “What’s my motivation?” • Move the scene forward, pushing toward your objective

  3. The core principles, cont. • memorize and practice the text in a completely neutral, non-judgmental, cold, uncalculated, expressionless fashion (no line readings). • Eliminates tensions, the actor is relaxed with the lines and open to any influence (esp. those presented by the scene partner): emotional flexibility. • Don’t pick up cues; pick up impulses • Only respond when the imaginary circumstances/ scene partners genuinely prompt a response • Don’t just wait for your turn to speak! • LISTEN and respond in character • “Be in the moment.” • Don’t project; don’t indicate, embody • Focus on emotional detail above all else • i.e. instead of focusing on visualizing snow outside a window, focus on an objective (“If it doesn’t stop snowing, I’ll never get back to New York and I’ll lose my job”).

  4. LESSON ONE • “The foundation of acting is the reality of doing…The foundation of acting is the reality of doing. The reality of doing.”

  5. LESSON TWO • “Don’t do anything unless something happens to make you do it…What you do doesn’t depend on you; it depends on the other fellow.”

  6. Emotional Preparation & Particularization • “The purpose of [emotional] preparation is so that you do not come in emotionally empty…It’s simple. Don’t come in empty.” • “When you prepare, go into a dark corner if you can find one.” • “Preparation lasts only for the first moment of the scene, and then you never know what’s going to happen.” • Particularization - it's "as if"…“your personal example chosen from your experience or your imagination which emotionally clarifies the cold material of the text.  a particularization is similar to preparation only that it's for a specific moment, chosen, and rehearsed.

  7. Meisner wisdom • “It takes twenty years to become an actor.” • “How does an actor think? He doesn’t think—he does.” • “No acting please…Be a human being who works off what exists under imaginary circumstances. Don’t give a performance. Let the performance give you.”

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