~What Meisner Has Taught Us~

The Meisner work that our class has been doing has been such a fulfilling experience for all of us because not only have we all improved individually, but we have been able to witness each other grow and have these brilliant breakthrough moments that I have especially enjoyed watching my fellow peers experience! I think the most important thing I have learned from this Meisner work is that the possibilities are absolutely ENDLESS! However in order to be open to all of these opportunities/possibilites you have to focus 100% on your partner and be completely free and open. Once you let go of all you inhibitions your viewpoint changes and you can see all the creative possibilites and act on them impulsively. These magical moments that have happened in class have been so natural and organic and I find them to be so amazing because they could never happen, unless the actor was completely open and willing to take the risk and trust their impulses.

The things we have learned from Meisner are crucial for our upcoming scenes because we have to trust our partner and work off of them, and once we feel comfortable with our lines, scene objectives, etc...the impulses will then come naturally. I'm very excited for this next step, it will be so liberating!

~Emily : D

Meisner Work Reflections- The Power of Freedom & Intuition

Since starting the Meisner work, I have really come to appreciate the freedom of the studio. When I walk in, it's like a breath of fresh air (no pun on the Thailand-scented spray intended); I know that nothing I do will reflect upon me as a person, as it would in everyday life. It's a place where my classmates and I feel free to let our raw, human impulses flow, knowing that it won't always be pretty. In fact, we respect one another for being able to say "Yeah, this is how I feel! And YES, I'm going to let you know and make you GET IT."

Outside the studio, I've noticed myself taking inventory of what other people say and thinking to myself, "Don't let it roll off! How did what [he/she] said make me feel? How would I respond to this in the studio?" In fact, this silent activity, intended to make me more aware of my everyday reptilian experiences, has sometimes brought itself into my actual conversations and interactions. In one situation, when I realized that I was repeatedly being taken advantage of and disrespected, I spoke up for myself. Now, in the studio, I may have reached right out, grabbed her by the arm, and called her a bitch. Realizing this, I finally understood that the choice of ignoring what she said would have been boring for a scene and unproductive to a story; I would never "deal with it" (one of my biggest struggles in class) by ignoring it, whether in a scene or in real life. So, I composed myself, and finally let her know that what she said had insulted me.

Going back to this "inventory" of emotions and their real-life attachments will help me in scene work, I believe. Like several others were saying, I am a tad fearful of losing my sense of personal truth when taking on a character, but I think what will help me most is remembering that I must "live truthfully," even if my imaginary circumstances are that I am not myself. Perhaps my character would not react the way I would in a given situation, but if I return to my "inventory of emotional experiences," I'm sure I'll find something to draw from. If not, I can always escape to my daydreams-- they are goldmines.

I must never stop collecting more and more emotional experiences-- it's like a plant I must take care of and attend to daily, and the the more I collect, the more fruitful of an actor I'll become.

"Live fully - moment to moment - that is reality." ~Sanford Meisner

What I Learned From Sandy

There are 2 things that stick out to me when I think about the Meisner work we have done. The first is like what Madeline said, becoming a listener. The 2nd is like what Taylor said about letting everything in everyday life affect you and taking impulses off those and acting on them. I have too become a listener now. And now I let everything I hear have an effect on me. Well...I like to think everything...but I know I'm not that good yet :) In everyday life I find myself more expressive and more free than the average person bound by society. Now society sometimes prevents me from acting on those impulses I have, but I truly let everything affect me and I get something out of it...And if I can't act on it, I put it in my status on facebook :)

The ENTIRE work with impulses has really helped me grow tremendously as an actor. I feel more aware and connected when in the observed circumstance. And also I feel like when we approach text, I won't need to plan out what to do. I can now trust my impulses enough to just say go with it and whatever happens happens...And if it doesn't work, well, I tried :)

I feel Meisner has brought me more in touch with myself as a person too. Like I said, I feel I have something that no one else outside of the acting world has - Freedom.

Like Bruce Willis has told us "Live free or die hard!"

-Drew

Listening

Someone recently asked me if I was more of a listener or a talker, and I found myself hesitating before giving an answer. If someone had asked me this question before doing the Meisner work, I would have instantly said that I'm more of a talker, but the work we've been doing in class has made me more of a listener. The repetition has really made me aware not only of what an individual is saying to me, but how they're saying it, how they feel about it, what's going on with them today, etc. In the observed circumstance, I'm more conscious of how what I say or do affects my partner and vice versa. This awareness has carried over into my every day life; I'm more intuitive with people and I'm really starting to hate small talk. I'm constantly trying to make meaningful contact with people and to be more direct in my communication with others. I can feel myself becoming more impulsive on stage and off, and I really feel that I'm living life more fully than I ever have before. I love how the studio work overlaps with everyone's personal lives, I've said before that we're essentially going to school to learn how to be children again, but I also believe we're learning to be better human beings.

On a different note, I can't wait to get started on scene work! I imagine that the text will replace the repetition but the impulses will still carry the interaction. Adding text will definitely make things more challenging, but I can't wait to just play with it. I've been working on my monologue for the TPW audition, and I'm probably going to use the daydreaming exercise for my emotional preparation. I did a kind of mini daydream prep for a scene I read in my script analysis class, and I could feel the difference in my work.

~Madeline

My Meisner Work

I have made many profound insights throughout my Meisner work. I now know the importance of listening and reacting, and using the impulsive side of my brain. Oftentimes we as humans are instinctual creatures; reacting without thinking. As actors we must find a way to break free from our logical, "theatre brain," and let things come naturally. Through exploration of Meisner's work, I have noticed a significant difference in how I react to the world around me. Even in my everyday life I find myself speaking more from my gut, letting my words be spoken truthfully, and tersely.
Now that we are stepping out of exercizes and have begun dealing with full scenes, it will be nice to incoorperate everything I have learned into a piece of text. I will use what I have learned in Meisner to react truthfully, and use mental preperation to put myself in any sort of situation. I know now the importance of focussing on my partner and listening, and I will let practice cultivating my full attention and focus while working in my scene. I can't wait to start rehearsing, and to incoorperate everything I have learned!!
-taylor h.

Meisnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

WHAT. A. JOURNEY. THIS HAS BEEN.

Meisner... hm.

This technique has stirred different emotions in me. It scared me, chilled me to the core, and made my heart glow. All at once. It's funny, letting my reptilian brain and impulses lead me...it's so freeing. Such a blank slate. It's made me see myself in a new light. I feel like I am getting to know myself deeper, and paying attention to how the world makes me really feel. I'm also hyper aware of others... their truth being revealed in subtext and body language. My interactions with others have evolved to a level of honesty that was not there before.

I LOVE the readings. Reading it, seeing our class on paper... awakens my brain. So many quotes have stuck out and stayed with me as I delve further into Meisner. For example, from the Mesiner packet: "until we acknowledge what's truly going on within ourselves-- the specifics of who we are and how we feel-- how can we possibly seek to be understood by others?" The concepts of being fully aware and having a complete point of view on everything has taught me the character of Monica. As we branch on to text, I think I am ready to take hold of a new person for I know my blank slate and how to let it go. And also, how to incorporate my impulses and draw from my imagination to paint the imaginary circumstances. The recent daydreaming work and emotional preparation was interesting... I liked letting my heart and mind wander and see where it lead me. Bill said, "a daydream will seek to reshape harsh reality into a form our egos can embrace."

Our midterm scenes surprised me. I saw how much we have all grown and sewn together the different aspects of Meisner into one cohesive presentation. There were both highs and lows, which can be expected. BUT. One thing I MUST let go of is expectation. I always feel like the scene has to GO somewhere. But no... the impulses will drive the scene and something will happen out of the course of things happening. A climax will come naturally. Or if not, then that is the truth of the scene. Always truth.

For my personal work, sometimes I sit on my impulses while trying to figure out how to word it. I get lost in the words. In the translation. So, we'll see with these scenes. I will try to own the text, not vice versa.

To infinity and beyond. :)

~Monica

Meisner and Madonna

I feel like I've grown within the past couple of weeks with the Meisner work, mainly because I've been able to be myself. I really enjoyed learning about letting go and letting the natural emotion rise to the surface and just be myself. I felt that as we progressed, I gradually broke out of my shell, and I saw that everyone else did as well, and it was nice to finally see the true, raw emotion and personality come out of everyone.

In regards to the scene work, I'm very interested in how we will take what we've learned of the Meisner technique and apply it to characters. Yes as we've developed our repetition exercise, it seemed to gradually become a natural scene and the repetition was a buffer, letting life portray itself genuinely in the studio. But I'm curious as to how to prepare for a character with this work. Yes, there is the mental preparation, but I feel like there may be something more. I kind of enjoy how we need to memorize, not with feeling, but just the basic gist of the words for our scenes. After reading my play (Stop Kiss by Diana Son), I realized though that there may be difficulties among actors with mental preparation because of the structure of the plot. I guess I'll learn eventually how to fully adapt and utilize the Meisner work for works like this, as well as others in mildly abstract styles [i.e. how would one prepare mentally for something as abstract as The Bald Soprano?]

Overall, I find Meisner very much like Madonna: it's all about being true to yourself and not inhibiting your natural being. In the end, it's important to express yourself...