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In
This Issue: Sanford
Meisner: Part One
Dear
[[FirstName]]
Happy
New Year! I hope you had a great one. I celebrated 2007, as always,
with a New Year's Day party. It's a tradition
that goes back more than 30 years
to my Strasberg days when my
good friend and fellow acting teacher, Corinne Broskette,
and I used to have absolute blasts with casts
of hundreds. I remember one that lasted for four days and
changed venues from
her house to
the beach to the carousel on the Santa Monica Pier.
Now that I'm
older, the scene is more sedate. And the cast
smaller. I trot out my old cheffing
skills. And cook low-fat goodies for two
days. Then I bask in the ooohing and aaahing over the
food. As well as the animated conversation between
friends and students. A really perfect gift to
start the year!
And here's some other New Year's gifts for you. First
of all, I'm so
excited to be doing the BRANDact Branding for Actors Workshop this
month! I created
acting magic when I created this workshop. I swear I must have
channeled it. The workshop process
is so powerful that BRANDactors who took it immediately had huge
wins in their careers. Seating is limited
to 14. And SEVEN SPACES ARE ALREADY
GONE!
So act now to grab your seat.
One of my
students who recently went through the branding process with
me individually has not only had major auditions for shows
like The Unit and CSI:
Miami . He also recently won a
huge demo reel competition. And . . . after years of good
roles but no representation . . . he found an agent
who told him she'd do anything to work with him.
In addition, he just closed last month in a comedy revue helmed by
a famous sitcom director. And, last week, he sent me
pictures from a commercial he shot that may air at the Super
Bowl. He's a
BRANDactor success! And it could be
you! Click
here for
details.
Also, CLASS FEES are going up substantially in
February. But if you sign up and pay for the first
month of classes before the 1st, you can take class with me
for the old rate of $120 for four sessions for six
months! That's my second New Year's gift
to you.
Here's another . .
. the first of a BRAND-NEW series
about Sanford Meisner.
BRANDact™ is
BACK!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Don't miss this
career and life-changing workshop!
To find out
more, click
here.
Have Acting Success with a SUCCESSact™ Intuitive
Session!
To read some inspiring stories of actors who have had
SUCCESSact successes,
click
here.
Buy the Aligning your BRAND™eBook for
the pre-internet price of $39!
With even MORE
FR^E perks!
For a sneak
peek, click
here.
To learn more, click
here.
To order,
click
here.
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|
Sanford
Meisner: Part
One
|
| I've studied with almost every
legendary acting coach you know. I'm a little too young to
have studied with Stanislavski. But my illustrious coaches
include Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, Viola Spolin and Lee
Strasberg. Great acting coaches all have one thing in common.
They can instantly diagnose acting problems and then challenge
the actor to break through these creative blocks to find true
expression. So this series is not only about them. It's
dedicated TO them . . . and to all those acting coaches out
there who dare us to be better!
Sanford Meisner . . . or "Sandy" as everyone called him .
. . was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 31, 1905 to
Hungarian Jewish immigrant parents. Young Sandy studied
to be a concert pianist at what was
to become the prestigious Juilliard School. But acting always "dug at
him".
So at age 19, Sandy auditioned for and was
hired as an extra by the Theatre Guild. Soon afterwards,
he was awarded an
acting scholarship to the Theatre Guild of Acting. There he met
what would become two of the most influential men in American theatre
. . . Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg.
In 1931, Clurman, Strasberg and Cheryl Crawford
founded the Group Theatre and invited Meisner among
28 other actors to join. The Group Theatre was considered by
many to be the truest expression of American theatre
and acting art to date. Meisner acted in many Group
productions and even co-directed a production of Waiting
for Lefty with its now-legendary author, Clifford
Odets.
But Meisner
became disenchanted with the Russian-originated Stanislavski system of
acting taught by the Group. He wrote, "Actors are not guinea
pigs to be manipulated, dissected, let alone in a
purely negative way. Our approach was not organic, that is to say
not healthy." He dreamed of a purely American type of
training to allow actors to "live
truthfully under imaginary circumstances". The Neighborhood
Playhouse allowed him to realize his dream. . By 1935,
Meisner was head of the Drama Department at The Playhouse, while
continuing to act and direct plays produced by The Group Theatre
until its demise in 1940 as well as performing on Broadway.
In 1958,
Meisner moved to Los Angeles to lead the New Talent Division of
Twentieth Century Fox. He also acted in several movies,
including Odets' The Story on Page One and Tender
is the Night. He returned to the Neighborhood
Playhouse in 1964 and remained as its head for almost 30
years. In 1985, Sandy and his partner, James Carville, founded the
Meisner/Carville School of Acting on the island of
Bequia in the West Indies and then opened a second school and
theatre, The Sanford Meisner Center, in North Hollywood, California where it exists
to this day.
Meisner received many
acknowledgements and commendations from Presidents, the
theatre community and the world alike. Not only
for his uncompromising vision but his lengthy acting career. In 1995, his
guest-star turn on a special episode of
ER . was his
final swan-song after more than 70 years
on stage and screen. Sandy overcame several health challenges, including throat cancer and
a subsequent laryngectomy, to live a very long and fruitful life that ended
on February 2, 1997.
Even though he wore many hats in
the Entertainment Industry, Sandy is best remembered
for developing his "Meisner Technique" of acting
training. It is the most-used technique among
actors today. Arthur Miller once said of Sanford Meisner, "He has been
the most principled teacher of acting in this country for
decades now, and every time I am reading actors I can pretty
well tell which ones have studied with Sanford Meisner. It is
because they are honest and simple and don't lay on
complications that aren't necessary."
Next Week: An
Interview with a
Meisner-o-phile
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Jill Place,
The Acting Intuitive 1309 Montecito
Drive Los Angeles, CA
90031 (323)
225-9850
© 2007 Jill
Place, the Acting Intuitive, All Rights
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