Tactics

I loved this piece because it explained so many different and specific tactics you can use in a scene. I originally thought inductive tactics were much more difficult that threat tactics, because it's easier to frighten someone than convince or seduce them depending on the situation. After reading the handout, I began to broaden my range of tactics that I was using in my scene from Stop Kiss. I've noticed that in my particular scene, I can begin with an inducive tactic, yet transition into a threat tactic to have more of an affect on my partner. The third grade teacher inspired this. I pictured her as a small older woman who is very nice, then by the end of that story, she seemed like a real badass, and that all worked to her advantage.

Tactics

The article we read really clarified Threat and Induction tactics for me. I like the idea that in threat tactics it's an "I win, you lose" scenario where in induction tactics it's a mutual victory. Using these terms you really know what you're working for.

I also liked the idea of Attack as a threat tactic as far as "turn-taking". The author writes "...in life one is not ordinarily handed the opening to speak--one must make it...The actor must not assume that he has an unchallenged right to speak just because the playwright has given him a line to say, nor the unchallenged right to continue speaking just because he hasn't finished his scripted speech." I really like this idea. I think it's important to keep this in mind. This aspect of acting would really bring the script to life. I know we've all seen high school productions when actors are just reciting lines and there's no life in them. What a difference it would make if they instead attacked the lines as if they were fighting for the right to talk and really taking the attention of all the characters on stage when they did talk.

My Man Meisner

Meisner has been very influential to my LIFE! Not just my acting but my life he has influenced. He keeps it real. What I mean by that is that he doesn't just explain how an actor should be in the studio but he also speaks about the actor outside of the studio. The forever growing and forever learning human beings that we should strive to be will help us in the studio. Growing up in a world so heavily influenced by society makes it hard to be different from what everyone else in society has learned to understand and except. Does that make since? Example. You stop by starbucks before going to class. You really need some coffee to stay awake because the night before you were up all night writing your ten page paper on why do you think Jason is so tall. You have 3 classes today and you are running off of an hour and thirty minutes of sleep. You left your ipod in the dorm room and you cant go back to get it because you already gave the subway your last $2.25. The 6 train finally arrives after running 10 minutes late and the people storm off of it and on it at the same danm time. A stranger bumps into you and knocks your coffee out of your hand. You go to catch it with both hands forgetting that you're holding Jason's ten page paper in one hand, the lid pops off, the hot coffee splashes into your face and onto the paper. The stranger looks and shouts while walking away "Sorry about that." You then reply, "Its ok". Now what society has taught me at least was to be nice and its not right to yell at strangers or be mean. Society tells us that accidents happen and its not right to blame other people for accidents. You are supposed to be nice. :/ Do I feel a Meisner moment coming up? I think so... FUCK BEING NICE!! I don't know about you but in the studio if that happened, it would get ugly. Now sometimes in the real world you shouldn't take things to the extreme because of the permanent consequences they may lead to. Meisner helps me explore those impulses that I sit on in the studio and in real life. I thank him for showing me and explaining to me that sometimes its ok not to sit on impulses, in fact you should rarely sit on impulses.

Meisner is The Man

Just for the sake of saying it, when Jason called us 'Meisner trained actors' it just made me beam like the sun. As much as I respect Strasberg's approach and don't know a lot about Adler, i really feel like iv'e been doing what Meisner has broken down for us, all my life. Iv'e always memorized lines by rote, sometimes it was great and all those other times i can look back on now and say,"I get to learn how to make those times great". With Meisner's approach it's really important to know you're lines, not because the lines are important, but because it should be text that you can rely on, that you don't have to go to your logical brain for. At first, the Repetiton exercise was hard for me to get and do, but now I completely understand working purely off of your partner's behavior and as it goes back and forth; a scene is like a ping pong match, you have to receive the ball your partner is sending for you to be able to send it back across the table, your stage(observed circumstance). This is really going to help a lot with scene work because as much as we can experience a scene where your having an argument with your best friend, it's nothing like having a real argument with your best friend. In a real argument it's all about the words, a person's behavior is instantly accepted and then cast aside. In a Meisner influenced scene the actors are fully aware of each others behavior and can't be shocked by the text but by the way they say it in their body. With conditioning like this i hope to be able to catch onto a person's behavior instantly, even in the heat of the moment, and get to the root of the real argument. That's what the repetition exercise is, dealing with the problem and moving on, no buffering.

Meisner Work Reflection

I went into the Meisner based work with a certain confidence because I understood it as being dependent upon another person, which it is. I figured that maybe this could be my technique because working within my own head leads me to think and analyze way too much for my own good. With my past experience in Meisner based work, I knew one of the bigger challenges I would face was the fact that you have to trust the person you are working with considerably in order to do the work and be believable. The value of trust in acting, I feel, is most visible in Meisner activities.

That being said, I was wrong in thinking it would be that simple. Thinking that I only had one obstacle to overcome was a ridiculous thought and it turns out anything can be over thought. It is something that I am working on, and I feel I am getting much better with it, but even in responding one begins to consider how the response will be interpreted, how a response can be formed from what your partner will possibly say, and even what will be said after class. Even the one obstacle I initially expected presented much more difficulty than anticipated. Trust is a bewildering concept to someone who believes that a person is never really known by their peers. Also, the impulsiveness required for the Reptilian Brain exercises was still there. Impulsiveness is still something I feel I struggle with.

Everything I presented as difficulties would make one think this was the hardest few weeks of my life. In all honesty, I found working with Meisner technique fairly manageable. It made me aware of what I needed to work on as an actor but did this in a manner of low intensity. I never felt that any activity was daunting and I enjoyed every minute of it. I do not know if this technique can be called my favorite, but I undoubtedly enjoyed working with this technique and I hope to come back to it if I am not incorporating it into every thing I do from here on in (which I probably will be).

~ Joshua D.A. Scarlett

Breaking Through

At first I was excited to work on Meisner. But as we went through the exercises I found that it was harder than any other technique I've studied. I went in expecting immediate results and, much to my dismay, it didn't work out that way. I've always had a problem acting on impulse. Living in the streets, I couldn't afford to do that. Every move I made had to be carefully thought out and planned. I can see the result of that in my work. For a long time I wasn't getting anywhere, it felt like I was at a stand-still in the work and I was so ready to give up. 

I think incorporating the justification for the activity really helped me. I was finally able to connect the repetition with the extreme point of views and that's when I began to grow. Just doing an activity with no reason wasn't good enough for me. I didn't get the point. But he daydreaming exercise helped me. I got to explore a situation that I never would have the balls to do otherwise. I put it off until the last possible day. I dreaded that assignment because I knew that I'd have to finally confront my fears. That daydreaming exercise began to knock down a wall that has been up for years, and I was finally able to break through and grow in the work. 

-Darius

Meisner in Real Life

It was really almost magical exploring through the basic Meisner work. I had never experienced anything like it, and at first was afraid of my impulses. I went into this work with a closed mind, thinking I wouldn't like it. However, through our little Meisner adventure, I have learned to embrace both the content of it as well as my impulses. I feel like my letting the repetition exercise into my life has helped me in the studio and in the real world. Of course, the extreme point of view that I am free to express in the studio is not acceptable in all places in my life, I find that I am openly expressing what I am feeling more often. I am also getting better at KNOWING what the impulses that I am sitting on actually are. This is silly, but sometimes in public when speaking to my family or friends, if they say something to me such as "I am upset today." I find myself repeating it back to them, until their behavior changes me to say something else. I don't even catch myself doing it on occasion. It has also happened outside of class with some fellow students in the class, and it makes the exercise even more enjoyable and enlightening.

When reading STOP KISS by Diana Son as well as my scene, I immediately thought of Meisner work. The text is very much like the repetition exercise, which is very exciting. It is very impulsive and I feel is a great step up in the work. I am very very curious AND excited to work with Monica on the scene in public tonight and tomorrow and see how it goes. Perhaps my subconscious experiences with the Meisner work in the recent past has been leading up to the public scene exercise.

I REALLY want to continue in the Meisner work, for forever, all the time. Ha. And I'm pumped for what is to come.

rawr.

Chelsea