Discovering Meisner

This year has been devoted to Stan and Uta. Last summer was devoted to Mamet. Kids, I'm embarking on a new journey. A couple of my friends have recommended I become acquainted with Sanford Meisner. From the little that I currently know about him and his method, I really, really love it. I'm intrigued, at least. I just bought Sanford Meisner On Acting at Half-Price, and I'm pumped. In no organized fashion, I'm going to type out some of the points that strike me...no comments, just notes...the world wide web is a wonderful thing, blogger is a wonderful thing, and I now have this lovely repository for various miscellany that can be retrieved anywhere that has wi-fi. So, my notes go here.

Sanford Meisner On Acting

"Bernard Shaw, who I believe was the greatest theater critic since Aristotle, wrote: "Self-betrayal, magnified to suit the optics of the theatre, is the whole art of acting." By self betrayal, Shaw meant the pure, unselfconscious revelation of the gifted actor's most inner and most private being to the people in his audience."

"I, too, betray myself in the sense that here, in order to teach what i know, I am forced to reveal much more of myself than any prudent man would confess to his priest."

Self-betrayal=Acting: Sydney Pollack said that when working with Meisner (he worked with him personally for a number of years) it was just a series of "YES, yes, that's it--that's the truth" type moments. 'Duh' moments. I've already experienced that in his forward. I love that description of self betrayal equating with acting. How glorious.

David Mamet is a Meisner devotee. This is probably a well-known fact, but I'm a theatre baby/toddler and I'm just now discovering this. Meisner: "Here was a man who...actually knew something...He was autocratic about things he believed in because he knew them to be the truth. And we knew we were being exposed to the truth--that is, to something which was absolutely practicable, which absolutely worked, and which we wanted desperately to learn." -- David Mamet

Just discovered that this was online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNuFSrsYfpM Hot damn. Sanford Meisner: The Theatre's Best Kept Secret Documentary

Oh, gracious. Watching the documentary and taking breaks to read. Meisner is asking to eliminate all intellectuality. This is going to be an insane struggle--I'm such an intellectual snob...

Viscerally=Instinctively. (I'd forgotten. Stupid me.)

Acting takes you 20 years. It takes you 20 years to become an actor. The first 20 years, you're thinking. Finally, it becomes somewhat instinctive...

Okay, copying this verbatim as a transcript/clip from the documentary. So brilliant...David Mamet on Meisner:
"One nice thing about dealing with people at the Playhouse--they've been trained viscerally to put their attention on something other themselves--so it's easier to work with them. When you have to cut through various layers of self-consciousness which cuts out productiveness. Most actors, being badly trained, are terrified of being foolish--of looking foolish--of doing something that is out of their control. But you have to--if you're going to be any good."

"Everything should be as in real life"--Anton Chekhov to the cast of the 1st production of his play, The Seagull. St. Petersburg, 1896.

Be wide open, be receptive. Don't just agree with it, do it.

If something happens, it's because it has to happen. Because it has to occur. (Send/respond/repeat exercises.)

Richard Dreyfuss: Acting is behavior--beginning and the end. Just instinct. Repeating. Send/receive.

Don't fake. Don't present. Don't anticipate.

Dialogue is the last thing that happens. It's a result of behavior. You say something, I hear it, depending on the state I'm in, it means something to me--produces a reaction. last thing to happen: dialogue.

You read the text--you make it into music. Allow instinct to play truthfully for you. But let it go further. Need emotional deepening.

Acting is imagination. Before you open your mouth, add a full preparation.

Acting is doing under imaginary emotional circumstances.

Attitude: way of doing.

Meisner tehcnique: having an innerlife without being inhibited externally

Lee Grant on Meisner v. Other Acting Professors: There is a tremendous tendency for acting teachers to use their "God" position to tie people to them--so they're afraid to take a step without the approval of a teacher. (Sounds oddly familiar.) Sandy sets you free.

Okay--Part 2 Posted Later Today.