Quarter 3

The Meisner Technique

ADV ASSIGNMENTS 2024 - 2025

The Meisner Approach

Technique for character’s thoughts and feelings to be expressed through physical action
Representation of real life under imaginary (given) circumstances
Requires a concentrated use of imagination & belief in the given circumstances
Heightened awareness of environment and concentration on partner

The World of Sanford Meisner

"Your acting will not be good until it is only yours".

a reminder about COLLEAGUESHIP and CONSENT

Our artform relies on a student actor’s commitment to honoring the facts of the script. For actors, that sometimes means pretending to be mortal enemies, or pretending to be in love. As actors, we must have an understanding of respect for each other and being a professional. In theater, for instance, you may be in a scene where you will need to touch, hug, kiss, tickle, etc. another person. Your work on-stage doesn’t mean you have consent off-stage to touch hug, kiss, tickle, etc. that person. Consent from your fellow human beings is required. As a part of your ensemble, you agree that you will respect the boundaries of each person in our class. “I was just joking” does not rectify overstepping a boundary with a fellow human being.

When community agreements have not been followed, harm has occurred, and/or a student's boundaries have been crossed, the students involved will be referred to their counselor and/or the Dean of Students to rectify the issue, and an immediate ban from Advanced Drama activities.

Realistic Plays & Scenes

Below are links to realistic scene text I've cut, edited and prepped for intermediate. You may use one of these, but I encourage you and your partner to explore playwrights and find your own text.

Meisner Technique is best suited to realistic, contemporary - that's 1920s -ish on through now - text with subtext. Although the technique is able to be used with any style, other non-realistic forms of theatre - like Shakespeare - require non-Meisner technique that may get lost / vague if applying Meisner.

The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow by Rolin Jones

Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts

Appropriate by Braden Jacobs-Jenkins

"Oh, the power of working well, the feeling of power that races through your veins and heart! Oh, the deep content of sitting in the creative climate! In that warmth there is no longing, no yearning, no loneliness or unhappiness. One functions and the self is forgotten, although it is the self that is most alive and quivering. It is joy, no other word."

-Clifford Odets, The Time is Ripe, The 1940 Journal of Clifford Odets

Meisner's Exercises

Meisner's Repetition Exercises are a series of exercises that build upon each other and culminate in scene performance. The purpose is - by moving away from acting - to be present In The Moment with your partner while at the same time providing the fight / drama that exists in the scene onstage.

Have patience, remain aware of yourself at all times, and know that everything you're experiencing is part of it. Relinquish control. Don't act. Be with your partner.

"Through the doing comes the emotion." -Jessica Houde, Houde School of Acting

Observing Behavior

Behavior is a human's physical, non-voiced communication. It's subtext, but it's not invented or alluded to in a play: As you sit there right now, you are communicating something. Some of you hide it, some of you are oblivious that you do this; all of us have an inner world, and behavior is our conscious or unconscious communication of what's going on up there.

Session One MECHANICAL REPETITION
Session Two BRINGING REPETITION INTO LANGUAGE; HAVING A TRUTHFUL POV
Session Three OBSERVING BEHAVIOR
Session Four WORKING OFF
Session Five WORKING OFF, CONT. Session Six PINCH & THE OUCH
Session Seven COMING TO THE DOOR
Session Eight DOING FULLY
Session Nine THE ACTIVITY, CONT.

Meisner's activities / games / exercises are consecutive, meaning the next exercise builds upon the prior. As we progress through his teachings, at some point for each of you and at differnt moments, you will have an epiphany. It will not make sense, you will get frustrated: guess what? It's all a part of the experience. Then, one day, it'll all fit together.

Before we Get Started

Meisner Technique is ONE way to find a realistic performance; some actors prefer other methods. Strasberg, Adler, Esper, Hagen, Chekhov: all of them have developed different ways to find the Realistic, some focusing on specific phases of the actor's work.

Lee Strasberg found the key to Realism being an actor's Empathy with the Role.
Stella Adler thought the path to realistic performance was treading into the imagination in order to find Empathy.
Although Sanford Meisner discussed an actor's Moment Before, his technique focused on dissecting, understanding, provoking and controlling the In The Moment phase of the work.
Repetition Exercises are designed to help the actor observe, interpret and respond to their partner's behavior, all the while using the playwright's content to battle it out.

Who you truly are is magnificent and totally unique.

The work I'm going to share with you, the Sanford Meisner Approach, is miraculous.

Performances built upon the Meisner Technique require implicit, precise memorization.

There's no role; only actor. But the actor must be an expert at colleagueship and professionalism.

"We're reading behavior. Acting is about behavior, not lines."

-Anthony Montes

Session One: The Reality of Doing

Multiply 7482 by 1201.

We have to move AWAY from performance, acting, entertaining. We have to move the actor's focus away from the self and toward their partner.

Through Mechanical Repetition, we're going to practice making a truthful observation of your partner; then, we will take our first steps in the moment, repeating what we see.

Acting is not about emoting. Acting is about doing.
"The observer": help each partner become aware of what is happening. One can learn a lot from observation.
Mechanical Repetition exercises: observations are superficial, on the surface
It's not about being Nice, and it's not about being Offensive. It's about observing your partner and staying in the moment.

"I am ENOUGH."

"First, be ruthlessly honest with yourself, don't let yourself get away with anything. Second, I ask that you approach this work with a great deal of patience and lots of compassion, for your partners and for yourself."

-Larry Silverberg, The Sanford Meisner Approach

Recognize behavioral change in your partner and in yourself
Be truthful in the moment about your observation
Bring language into your Repetition and maintain YOUR truthful point of view

Session Two: A Truthful Point of View

As you add language to your observation, remain truthful to your point of view. Allow your POV to change the repetition. There's TWO types of observations: Static and Dynamic.

Static: An observation that doesn't change: "You're wearing a brown shirt"
Dynamic: An observation that may change: "You're scratching your nose."
- As you continue Repetition, stay with the SAME observation as it changes: "You're scratching your nose" may change to "You're not scratching your nose" may change to "You want to scratch your nose".
- If you aren't scratching your nose, don't say "I'm scratching my nose" because that's not true! "I'm not scratching my nose" would be the truthful response.

What's going on with your partner?

Anthony Montes says "Acting is not about the lines. Acting is about reading behavior."As you continue Repetition, you may notice the words begin to lose meaning. You may notice that Repetition is having an affect on your partner: boredom, exhaustion, frustration, anywhere but here... for now, notice and acknowledge their behavior with Repetition. Later, you'll earn tools that allow you to acknowledge their behavior.

"Inspiration may be a form of super-conciousness, or perhaps of sub-consiousness - I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the anti-thesis of self-conciousness."

-Aaron Copeland

Session Three: What's Happening

Hopefully Repetition is having its effect on you: maybe we're getting bored, or exhausted, or maybe we're finding other things to pay attention to...

While your partner repeating what they observe, is there something else happening?
Subtext. As they continue to repeat, can you see their feelings? Their inner thoughts?

As you continue Repetition, we're evolving how we accomplish it.

The observer is no longer responsible for starting a session. Either partner is welcome to start when Something Happens.
At any time, the observer may ask for a new observation from a specific parter.
Everything else is the same: stay present, continue making truthful observations from your point of view, don't anticipate the moment: ANYTHING can happen!
Observe immediately: don't edit, don't search. It's already there, and there's always something!

Three Moment Game

As we start to acknowledge what's happening in your partner, a few things to keep in mind.

Your opening question should be provocative, spicy, asked to illicit an obvious reaction you can't miss.
Partner A, stumble around your observation and form a final, summed up statement
Remove the modifiers from your response to their behavior; "you seem like..." "you feel like..." These modifiers leave the actor with a way out: it's non-committal. Instead, say exactly what you mean

"A word does not start as a word - it is an end product which begins as an impulse, stimulated by attitude and behavior which dictate the need for expression."

-Peter Brook, The Empty Space

Session Four: Working Off

Three Moment Game, pt. 2

Your provocative question - a truth question in a truth or dare game - is chosen to illicit a response from your partner, one that you can't miss. Your partner is to immediately repeat your question - immediately, no time to process and hide - and instead of working through your response, practice just finding the end statement.

You will be put on blast: that is, now that your partner is fully aware of you and you are now - maybe the first time in awhile - seen. This is the part that can get a bit intense.
Remember: we're trying to form a truthful observation. We aren't messing with our partner, we aren't trying to "win"; instead, we're describing exactly what we see.
Your correctness is inconsequential; that is, it doesn't matter that you're correct in your observation. If you aren't, your partner will tell you in the repetition. No need to correct, just keep up the repetition.

Working Off Your Partner

After the Three Moment Game, pt. 2, let's take things a step further: continue your repetition of the last observation made in the Three Moment Game, and, if there're new things to observe in your partner, make new observations during your repetition.

DO NOT STOP THE REPETITION. As you continue to observe their behavior, you may see changes; and if you have the words, say your obervations out loud in the moment you see them. If you don't have the words, continue repetition.
Remember the signs passing on the freeway: you might find the words a few repetitions later BUT if it's not true anymore, let it go. Keep paying attention to NEW observations, and eventually with practice you'll find the words exactly when you need them.
If something happens inside you: epiphany, emotion, confusion, elation: DON'T STOP TO SMELL THE FLOWERS. Let it all go. Stay connected to your partner and observe the Next Thing.
If they're observation is incorrect and you feel the need to correct them, don't: that's you in your head. That's you Out of the Moment. Instead, stay connected to your partner's behavior, not your own.
If you break any of these rules, let the moment pass like a sign on the freeway and keep observing your partner.
As you continue to observe your partner, DON'T STOP THE REPETITION.

"The mind is extremely seductive, so you must bring it to awareness when you are getting lost in thought and out of sheer will, bring yourself back to your partner. It's hard work now, but ultimately, it will be like tying your shoes - you won't need to think about it!"

-Larry Silverberg, The Sanford Meisner Approach, workbook 1

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what, next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."

-Agnes De Mille, Classic Hollywood actress

Session Five: Working Off, continued

You do not need to find things to work off of, your partner will continue to give them to you, always.
Your observations can be behavior. Your observations can be physical/superficial.

Don't do anything unless something makes you do it. And right now, that something is over there.

...and DON'T STOP THE REPETITION! I'll remind you that what we're looking to foster is STRUGGLE: if the going get's tough, KEEP GOING until I end the session. When you start to struggle, that's where the real juice is. Keep Going.

Really Talk and Really Listen.

As we continue our repetition sessions together, Meisner and Silverberg remind us to avoid the trap of the Meisner Trance: doing repetiton for its own sake.

We're not getting good at this weird game called repetition; rather, we're practicing listening and keeping our attention on our partner at all times.

Start without The Three Moment Game and a provacative question; instead, start when your partner gives you a reason to start. Something is ALWAYS happening.

"In the repetition exercise, in all of this work, we must continually be leaving the exercise behind giving up the 'exerciseness' of it."

-Larry Silverberg

“What you do doesn’t depend on you; it depends on the other fellow.”

-Anthony Montes

Session Six: Pinch and Ouch

What's Happening?

Last we asked this question, it was framed by what's happening over there, that is what's happening in your partner. Now let's add what's happening over here, in You.

As we continue with Repetition, you've no doubt found in past moments that your partner's observations may have had a bite to them; your partner may have got to you, and up 'til now we've let our own reactions remain unacknowledged.

So let's acknowledge them: if your partner's observation of you took a bite, you must acknowledge in the moment.

A word of caution...

Don't let acknowledgement of your own experience override your observations about your partner. Your partner is still your main source of stimuli.

HOWEVER, if - like the Three Moment Game that was designed to shock you into a reaction - something your partner is doing creates in you an overwhelming reaction, tell your partner how you feel and bring it into your Repetition.
The moment you start looking inside yourself for what's happening, you're NOT in the moment / present, you're not paying attention to your partner.
KEEP THE REPETITION GOING.

Mean it all personally, take it all personally.

Session Seven: Coming to the Door

Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.

We've practiced living truthfully by observing our partner and sharing what we observe.

Now let's begin to explore those imaginary circumstances. In Coming to the Door, we've started with one partner outside the door and the other waiting for the knock in the room. They knock, the other partner opens the door, and you're to start repetition. A few rules:

The door is locked; it must be answered, partners can't just barge in.
The partner waiting inside the room: you don't know who's on the other side of the door. All you know is if you hear a knock, you must respond to the knock.
The partner that's knocking: you know who's door you've come to, but you don't know if anyone is home.

"You DO KNOW, but you MUST NOT KNOW. You must ACCEPT that you don't know, an actor MUST NEVER KNOW."

-Larry Silverberg

By now in your technique, you've all received your Merit Badge of Repetition: as you continue to practice your technique, allow the Pinch and the Ouch - the give and take - to inform the Next Moment.

Take the first thing.
Don't stop the repetiton.
Don't DO ANYTHING unless your partner makes you do it, or gives you reason to do it.
This work is UNCOMFORTABLE, it's about living in the unknown.

"The seed to the craft of acting is the Reality of Doing."

Sanford "Sandy" Meisner

Session Eight: Doing Fully

"The quality of your acting depends on how fully you're doing what you're doing."

-Larry Silverberg

Balancing the stick on the tip of your thumb is difficult, isn't it? As we prepare for the inclusion of the activity, the physical activity of balancing the stick illustrates the actor's attention split of listening to their partner and doing something. It's beginning to sound like acting :)

One partner will balance the broom stick on the tip of their thumb (not the pad of your thumb, that's easier). The other parter will sit on a chair and start repetition.
Master balancing the stick. Be The Best at it. Give it 100% of your attention. Do it Fully.
Keep the repetition going. Keep listening to your partner. Give them 100% of your attention.
As we continue, switch to balancing on the tip of your pinky. Later, switch to balancing the stick somewhere else maintaining the difficulty of the tip of your thumb or pinky.

Building The Activity

The Activity encompasses the next series of the Meisner Approach. As with Repetition, we will be building upon each exercise as we continue. Remember: although you'll be in front of your ensemble, we're NOT performing. There's NO NEED to force something to happen. It will happen, if you allow the approach to work its magic. To start...

Your activity needs to be physically difficult
There must be a limited time constraint: I have to get it done "now"
You must have a version of success in your head: "I'm going to do this 20 times in a row"; "I'm going to beat my time" . There's no need to voice your success to the class.

We're reminded by David Mamet's words: "Invent Nothing, Deny Nothing."

Session Nine: The Activity, continued

One partner will be onstage doing their activity. After they've been given enough time to get into it, the other partner will knock THREE TIMES.
After each knock, the partner w/ the activity will describe the knock. "It was soft." "You're anxious."
After the 3 knocks and 3 observations, the knocking partner will enter; either partner will start repetition.
Continue the activity. Do NOT stop the repetition.

Our work is about what's Really Happening. Don't deny your struggle; embrace your vulnerability and perceived weakness.

Go Deeper With Your Observations.

Although the superficial is absolutely correct - "You are smiling" - the actor must go deeper and observe motivations: yes, their smiling, but why? Instead of "you're smiling," it could be "you're deflecting", or "you're flirting with me".

Meisner's Activity encompasses what we've learned as the actor's objective and the tactics to get that objective. No longer are we approaching the objective as "the motivation, the goal" and tactics as actions to get what we want; now, motivation and actions are One Thing, The Activity.

Rehearsal: Living In The Moment onstage

Before you have the privilege of experiencing In The Moment, The Flow, The Groove, Vibin', your lines are memorized implicitly, you have a full understanding of the chain of action that constitutes the play, you've found a connection to the given circumstances of your role and have a clear picture of Role. If there's any reason the actor can't achieve Living In The Moment, typically it's because they don't have faith they may let go.

Above is author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Mee-Hi Chick-Mee-Hi). I think he's explaining the same thing which he calls Flow. Further he connects the dots between flow and happiness, explaining what he means in different disciplines. Worth a watch!

I'm paraphrasing, but Csikszentmihalyi mentions The Flow = Ecstasy, which is a "more concentrated, arranged form" of day to day life. Sounds like a good performance worth watching!

Session Ten: Building the Exercise

Your new activity - a physically difficult task - is now motivated by a simple and specific reason you're doing this particular activity in this particular room. Maybe...

...your best friend in the world expects it;
...the person who loves you the most would be devestated if they found out;
...a person who relies on you needs it done;
...the one you love the most is upset and this is a gesture

The Activity is growing: starting with the broom stick, the analogy with the actor's objective should be apparent: you have something to get done and there's an obstacle to overcome. Your partner - just like drama in plays - is always the greatest obstacle in a scene.

The Exercise starts with the activity and ends with the stress/frustration created by your personal connection with what you have to get done.

"The quality of your acting depends on how fully you do what you are doing."

-Sanford Meisner

own your emotions. Find the sensitvity. Be sensitive to what's going on in yourself and your partner

doing repetition exercises in front of your class

The fantasy. “that device which permits you to start your scene or play in a condition of emotional aliveness.”

RESOURCES

Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner

The Sanford Meisner Approach by Larry Silverberg

(there's four workbooks)

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