The Meisner Technique has influenced some of the most popular stage and screen actors of our time. Sanford Meisner developed his technique while working with the Group Theater at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse and continued its refinement for fifty years. Today the technique is part of a two-year program at the Neighborhood Playhouse and other studios and university programs throughout the United Statees. Sanford Meisner (born August 31, 1905, New York City, died February 2, 1997, Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California) was an actor and a teacher of acting. ... The Group Theatre was a left-wing theater collective, formed in New York in 1931 by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg. ... The Neighborhood Playhouse is an actor training school in New York City, generally associated with the Meisner technique of Sanford Meisner. ...

The great strength of Meisner Training is its cohesive, interdependent, series of exercises that build upon each other. The basic exercises are critical for later ones, and the more complex work is used, in turn, to support a command of actual dramatic text.

Meisner students work on a series of increasingly complex exercises designed to develop an ability first to improvise, then to access an emotional life, and finally to bring the spontenaiety of improvisation and the richness of personal response to scripted text. The technique builds upon teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski (father of the Stanislavski System and grandfather of the elusive American "Method"). Emphasizing "moment-to-moment" spontaneity through communion with other actors allows adherents to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Improvisation is the act of making something up as you go along. ... Konstantin Stanislavski at a young age Konstantin (Constantin) Stanislavski (Stanislavsky) (Russian: ; January 5, 1863–August 7, 1938) was a Russian theatre and acting innovator. ... The Stanislavski System is an approach to acting developed by Konstantin Stanislavski, a Russian actor, director, and theatre administrator at the Moscow Art Theatre (founded 1897). ...

There are literally hundreds of "Meisner teachers" in the United States of America, although there are no objective standards or licensing procedures to monitor the authenticity or accuracy of their work. As a result, one can study with one Meisner teacher who emphasizes certain aspects, and go to a different Meisner teacher whose personal interpretation is widely varied from the first. This is true of all the major approaches to acting.

Other more character-based techniques are often used to supplement the training -- Meisner himself recommended the study of Michael Chekhov's work. The Meisner technique is sometines rounded out with more character-based, physical practices such as Michael Chekhov and with study of style, physicality and period. Whatever combination is applied, the saying at the Neighborhood Playhouse is that it takes 2 years to learn the technique, five years to learn how to use it, and twenty years to become a master. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Chekhov (August 29, 1891, Moscow – September 30, 1955, Beverly Hills), was an actor, director, author, and developer of his own acting technique used by the likes of Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, and Robert Stack, just to name a few. ... Mikhail Aleksandrovich Chekhov (August 29, 1891, Moscow – September 30, 1955, Beverly Hills), was an actor, director, author, and developer of his own acting technique used by the likes of Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner, and Robert Stack, just to name a few. ...

Meisner emphasized doing with early training heavily based on actions. The questions "what are you playing" and "what are you doing" are frequently asked in class to remind actors to commit themselves to an objective rather than a script. Silence, dialogue, and activity all require the actor to find a purpose for performing the action. By combining the two main tasks of focusing one's attention on one's partner and committing to an action, the technique aims to compel an actor into the moment (a common Meisner phrase), while simultaneously propelling him forward with concentrated purpose. The more an actor is able to take in his partner and his surroundings while performing his action the more he is able to leave himself alone and live truthfully.

The most fundamental exercise in Meisner training is called Repetition. Two actors face each other and "repeat" their observations about one another back and forth. An example of such an exchange -- "You're smiling." "I'm smiling." "You're smiling!" "Yes, I'm smiling." -- illustrates this exercise. Actors are asked to observe and respond to others' behavior and the subtext therein. If they can "pick up the impulse" -- or work spontaneously from how their partner's behavior affects them -- their own behavior will arise directly from the stimulus of the other. Repetition is the occurrence of an event which has occurred before. ...

Later, as the exercise evolves in complexity to include "given circumstances," "relationships," actions and obstacles, this skill remains critical. From start to finish — from Repetition to rehearsing a lead role — the principles of "listen and respond" and "stay in the moment" are fundamental to the work.

Reactive spontaneity can result in Meisner actors being excellent improvisers, enabling fresh -- if slightly varied -- performances.

For a Meisner actor, traditional line memorization methods that include vocal inflections or gestures makes no sense. Doing so merely increases the chance the actor will miss a "real moment" in service of a rehearsed habit or line reading. Meisner actors learn lines dry, "by rote," without inflection, so as not to memorize a line reading. When the line is finally to be delivered, its quality and inflection is derived from the given moment. For computer memory, see computer storage. ... This article is about inflection in linguistics. ...

The improvisatory thrust of the technique should not be misconstrued as permission to wing it or to go unprepared. Meisner training includes extensive work on crafting or preparing a role. As students mature in the work, they get to know themselves and can make use of this self-knowledge by choosing actions compelling to their particular instrument. Thus they "come to life" through informed, provocative choices. Actors prepare emotional responses by "personalizing" and "paraphrasing" material and by using their imagination and "daydreaming" around a play's events in highly specific ways that they've learned are especially evocative to them personally.

When circumstances are advanced, this preparation must be accomplished with specificity and depth, or else the actor's attention simply cannot move away from self and onto the moment. Solid preparation supports the spontaneity, an idea articulated by Martha Graham when she wrote, "I work eight hours a day, every day, so that in the evenings I can improvise." Martha Graham and Bertram Ross in Visionary Recital, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1961 Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991), an American dancer and choreographer, is recognized as one of the foremost innovators in modern dance. ...

Characteristics of Meisner-trained actors include a confidence with improvisation, an easy spontaneity, a regard for truthful behavior and a devotion to the "reality" of a moment. Benefits of training include strong improvisational skills, an ability to accurately read another's behavior and the confidence to "live" onstage, moment-to-moment with an outward focus.

Character Development

Despite some misconceptions, Meisner work also addresses the development of character, though in an indirect way. As articulated by the authors of A Practical Handbook for Actors, character is a tension between the actor's personalization of circumstances and the audiences understanding of those circumstances. Character attributes such as "mousy," "vindictive," or "noble" are the result of actors' choices when juxtaposed to the story in the text.

Rather than specifically playing "mousy", a Meisner actor would instead want to continually appease another character to create the appearance of the quality. Such derivation of attributes or qualities from specific actions is a critical skill developed by Meisner students. Instead of specifically portraying the personality traits required, the actor instead behaves in such a way that the audience believes the character embodies the traits.

List of Meisner-Trained Actors

Some prominent actors who trained at The Neighborhood Playhouse in the Meisner technique are:

• Robert Duvall
• Allison Janney
• Jon Voight
• Joan Allen
• Tom Cruise
• Philip Seymour Hoffman
• William H. Macy
• Christine Lahti
• John Malkovich
• Diane Keaton
• Mary Steenburgen
• David Mamet
• Jeff Goldblum
• Kim Basinger
• Grace Kelly
• Gregory Peck
• Joanne Woodward

Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall (born January 5, 1931) is an American film actor and director. ... Allison Janney at a Red Carpet event Allison Brooks Janney, born November 19, 1960 in Dayton, Ohio, is an American actress, most famous for her portrayal of C.J. Cregg on the American television series The West Wing. ... Jon Voight at an April 2005 meeting with Senator Norm Coleman and rabbis from Chabad Lubavich. ... Joan Allen in a scene from The Contender Joan Allen (b. ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer who has starred in a number of top-grossing movies and remains one of the most successful movie stars in Hollywood. ... Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman (born July 23, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American actor. ... Publicity photo of William H. Macy William Hall Macy (born March 13, 1950) is an American actor, teacher, and director, in theatre, film, and television. ... Christine Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress. ... John Malkovich at the Grimme Online Award 2005 at Schloss Bensberg. ... Diane Keaton in 2003s Somethings Gotta Give. ... Mary Steenburgen (born February 8, 1953) is an Oscar-winning American actress of partially Dutch descent. ... David Alan Mamet (born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, poet, essayist and novelist born to a Jewish family in Flossmoor, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. ... Goldblum, in a scene with Kim Thomson from the 1989 film The Tall Guy. ... On the cover of Playboy, February 1983 Kimila Ann Basinger (born December 8, 1953) is an American film actress of German, Irish, Swedish and 1/8th Cherokee descent. ... Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an Academy Award-winning American film actress who, as a result of marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco on April 19, 1956, became Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco. ... Gregory Peck at Cannes, 2000 Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an Oscar-winning American film actor. ... Joanne Woodward Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward (born February 27, 1930) is an Academy Award-winning American actress. ...

External links

• The Neighborhood Playhouse - Sanford Meisner's Original School
• Maggie Flanigan Studio - a conservatory-based Meisner program in NYC