Built on the foundation of the work of Sanford Meisner, the master acting coach, Meisner acting classes are designed as a progression of exercises that build more complex acting skills as you move forward. Meisner acting classes help students develop a life-long love of learning about the art of acting. Phrases such as improvisation, personal response, emotional memory, emotional preparation will take on new meaning for the student as they work through these exercises from simple repetitive phrase exercises to scene studies with complex texts.
In the beginning, Meisner acting classes may seem too simplistic, lacking real dialogue or "story" to work with. The goal of this work is to help the acting student not rely on the words of a script to communicate, but on other actors in the exercise, their own spontaneous emotional reactions to the exercise and responding behavior. Fine tuning this reliance on emotional reaction, on committing in the moment, to the action that is happening, and to creating a new reality in the moment is what professional Meisner acting classes are about.
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. Even listening or sleeping is thought of as an "action" and has a purpose when using the Meisner technique. Meisner was considered by many to be a tough, yet brilliant coach, who was known for coining the phrase "acting is doing." Another one of his famous sayings "an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words" is telling. Dialogue is all important as it tells the story and shows the characters, but unless spoken by an actor working truthfully and authentically, the words won't matter.
It is about creating a new reality, every moment, even if the actor is simply working on a simple exercise. Acting classes nyc can teach you to take the sounds, feelings, emotions, the physical space, the emotions of others and incorporate it into a moment by moment performance, even if you are just participating in an exercise. No matter how good a student is at it, "pretending" rather than "being" is a bad acting habit that needs to be broken. Getting out of your own way is the number one goal of Meisner acting classes. One aims to achieve complete self-forgetfulness, while at the same time developing complete "mindfulness" of the character and the new reality he or she is a part of creating. If this sounds difficult, then this training might be for you. Too many up and coming acting students believe acting is simply a matter of "becoming someone else" and reciting the lines as given, and doing it well. The Meisner acting technique will force you to work far more deeply than that. First, you become a different person, aware of your habits and pre-programmed emotional responses, and then you learn to do it all over again as a character. Instead you become someone new,someone real, that changes as the work progresses in unrehearsed ways.
Meisner classes are designed to help students learn about emotional truth, what it is, how to create it and how to live it out in a performance. There are some elements of behavioral science including in the discipline which were also part of what's known as "method acting" a precursor to Meisner. However, Meisner put his unique stamp on this discipline and ended up training some of the most legendary actors in theatre and in film.
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. This will move the story forward, every moment and every actor will live truthfully and achieve complete self forgetfulness, which is the key to great acting. A performance based on these principles with have a spontaneity and an authenticity that is guaranteed to be mesmerizing. This, in fact, mimics life. Not knowing what will happen at any moment, we take in what another person says, we react, we respond, we move toward the next thing. Creating that onstage successfully is one of the more exhilarating experiences you can have as an actor and Meisner acting is the best way to achieve that.
In the beginning, Meisner acting classes may seem too simplistic, lacking real dialogue or "story" to work with. The goal of this work is to help the acting student not rely on the words of a script to communicate, but on other actors in the exercise, their own spontaneous emotional reactions to the exercise and responding behavior. Fine tuning this reliance on emotional reaction, on committing in the moment, to the action that is happening, and to creating a new reality in the moment is what professional Meisner acting classes are about.
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. Even listening or sleeping is thought of as an "action" and has a purpose when using the Meisner technique. Meisner was considered by many to be a tough, yet brilliant coach, who was known for coining the phrase "acting is doing." Another one of his famous sayings "an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words" is telling. Dialogue is all important as it tells the story and shows the characters, but unless spoken by an actor working truthfully and authentically, the words won't matter.
It is about creating a new reality, every moment, even if the actor is simply working on a simple exercise. Acting classes nyc can teach you to take the sounds, feelings, emotions, the physical space, the emotions of others and incorporate it into a moment by moment performance, even if you are just participating in an exercise. No matter how good a student is at it, "pretending" rather than "being" is a bad acting habit that needs to be broken. Getting out of your own way is the number one goal of Meisner acting classes. One aims to achieve complete self-forgetfulness, while at the same time developing complete "mindfulness" of the character and the new reality he or she is a part of creating. If this sounds difficult, then this training might be for you. Too many up and coming acting students believe acting is simply a matter of "becoming someone else" and reciting the lines as given, and doing it well. The Meisner acting technique will force you to work far more deeply than that. First, you become a different person, aware of your habits and pre-programmed emotional responses, and then you learn to do it all over again as a character. Instead you become someone new,someone real, that changes as the work progresses in unrehearsed ways.
Meisner classes are designed to help students learn about emotional truth, what it is, how to create it and how to live it out in a performance. There are some elements of behavioral science including in the discipline which were also part of what's known as "method acting" a precursor to Meisner. However, Meisner put his unique stamp on this discipline and ended up training some of the most legendary actors in theatre and in film.
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. This will move the story forward, every moment and every actor will live truthfully and achieve complete self forgetfulness, which is the key to great acting. A performance based on these principles with have a spontaneity and an authenticity that is guaranteed to be mesmerizing. This, in fact, mimics life. Not knowing what will happen at any moment, we take in what another person says, we react, we respond, we move toward the next thing. Creating that onstage successfully is one of the more exhilarating experiences you can have as an actor and Meisner acting is the best way to achieve that.
About the Author:
The Maggie Flanigan Studio provides meisner acting classes in nyc for serious, committed actors. To learn more about meisner summer intensive you can visit the studio website.
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