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FAQ
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Sanford Meisner was an American practitioner and founding member of the famous Group Theatre that rose to prominence throughout the 1930s exploring Stanislavski's ideas in New York.
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When the company folded, Meisner went to the Neighborhood Playhouse where he taught for the rest of his life, developing these ideas further and creating his own process to teach actors.
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He believed acting should be rooted in the reality of doing, shifting performance away from the notion of "pretending well" and into something more real.
He believed that everything you need as an actor is in your scene partner(s), and so his technique is about learning how to authentically connect to them and respond impulsively to their behaviour.​
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Thus, the foundation of the Meisner Technique is the principle "what happens to you as an actor, depends on the other person".
Dates: 21st Jan - 24th March 2024
Total of 10 sessions.
Our foundational course Act 1: Living Truthfully starts right at the beginning of the technique, so there's no prior experience necessary -- you could be brand new to acting, a seasoned pro who's looking to try something new, or a Meisner superfan who simply wants to go deeper!
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Our only requirement is you must be over 18.
Unfortunately not -- one of the strengths of Meisner's process is that each exercise builds upon the last, meaning it isn't a random assortment of exercises but a very specific piecemeal approach.
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As such, it does require everyone to start at the beginning in order to have the foundation in place that's required for the work in Act 2 or Act 3.
Truthfully, everyone teaches this work differently so even if you've taken Meisner classes before it won't be exactly the same, and going "back to basics" isn't going backwards at all -- it'll only deepen your work with new perspectives and insight, whilst getting everyone in the class singing from the same hymn sheet.
Both! For this reason...
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The technique is about working truthfully as an actor, which is the heart of the job regardless of which medium you're in, so whether you're on stage or screen, the only thing that changes are your given circumstances.
Your job as an actor is, as Meisner would say, to "live truthfully under the given set of circumstances", meaning the TECHNIQUE doesn't necessary change, it's just aspects of CRAFT that do.
No problem at all if you need to miss a session, we'll catch you up at the next one.
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However, the process is one where each exercise builds upon the previous, and for that reason we offer 10-week courses rather than individual classes that can be dropped in and out of, and we do encourage you to commit to the journey to get the most out of this work.
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That said, we do run Taster Workshops which are a great place to start if you want to get a flavour of things first!
There's enormous value for directors in these classes as you'll not only gain great insight into the acting process but also deepen your understanding of how to communicate with actors.
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Nevertheless, we highly suggest you join in rather than simply observe, as you'll learn so much more from experiencing the process and a huge aspect of the work is about getting out of the head, which only happens with practise rather than analytically sitting on the sidelines!
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Trust us, the actors you go on to work with will love you for it!