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In This
Issue: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
Dear
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 Welcome! Since my
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Here's the third
article in the Sanford Meisner series. I depart from my
usual Great Acting Coaches format and ask for
your help.
If you're a Meisner-o-phile, I welcome your take
on this famous technique.
Oh . . . and a
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. . "he didn't
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and learn tools . . . to use it effectively. But if he
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Meisner
Part Three: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
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I need your help! As I've said in my two previous Meisner articles, I only studied with Sandy for a brief, harried time. So I need the perspective of all you Meisner-o-philes out there to
educate this Meisner-o-phobe in Meisner-isms.
See, here's my dilemma. I get deep in my soul that,
as Meisner says, "acting is living truthfully under
imaginary circumstances." I also get that "the foundation of
acting is the reality of doing". But I define these things in
Method-speak, NOT Meisner-speak. Because that's the way I was
trained. And, let's face it, you just CAN'T explain what takes
place internally when you train in a specific way. Even a
coach can't do that. All we can do is explain the way you do
an exercise and give feedback about how well we think you did
it. So, if you Meisner-speak, feel free to comment on this
article by e-mailing me at jill@actingintuitive.com
I'd be glad to publish your name and your
insights in future articles of this series.
I DID
experience repetition when I worked with Sandy. It's the
"foundation of the reality of doing". And no one else
describes the reason for doing it better than Sandy himself in
Sanford Meisner on Acting. "I wanted an exercise for
actors where there is no intellectuality . . . and get to
where the impulses come from. And I began with the premise
that if I repeat what I hear you saying, my head is not
working . . . my approach is based on bringing the actor back
to his emotional impulses and to acting that is firmly rooted
in the instinctive".
So
repetition begins with two actors in chairs facing each other.
The one who is designated to begin looks away, then looks back
and says aloud the very first thing they notice about the
other. Then it has to be repeated by the other actor. For
example, the first actor says "bright hair" (yes, that was the
very first thing that someone said to me in a Meisner class. I
have red hair, and was very generous with numerous dye bottles
that summer). The other actor then repeats "bright hair". And
the repetition continues ad nauseum until you're told to stop.
These
exercises evolve from simple repetition into repeating
sentences into asking provocative questions and then
responding to whatever reply you get from your partner. Then
you proceed to "working-off" which, as Larry Silverberg
describes in the first volume of his wonderful series, The
Sanford Meisner Approach, as "becoming available to what
is happening with our partner and being in response to that".
In other words, at this point, your interaction determines the
course of the repetition and it changes accordingly. Meisner
explains that the two key things to remember in this work are,
"don't do anything unless something happens to make you do it"
and "what you do doesn't depend upon you; it depends upon the
other fellow". Silverberg adds, "the quality of your acting
depends upon how fully you do what you are doing."
The
working-off game now progresses into something called "The
Pinch and Ouch". In Meisner's book, he gives an actress the
text "Mr. Meisner", tells her not to say it until something
happens, and then slips his hand into her blouse . . . the
obvious "Pinch". She truthfully reacts by giggling as she says
the text and then draws away . . . the proverbial "Ouch". The
first time I did this exercise, I was paired with an actor to
whom I had done a really brainless thing. I was a VERY young
20 and, full of myself, had just come back from UCLA and
hobnobbing with celebs. My partner parroted, "you're a brat"
about 20 times and I dissolved in tears. It was one of the few
times I got a compliment from "Mr. Meisner" about my very real
response.
After
the "Pinch and Ouch", repetition becomes more improvisational
or, as Silverberg says, 'we are adding 'imaginary
circumstances'". The exercises progress through simple "Coming
in the Door" games, where one person responds to the knock of
another and then immediately begins a repetition, to adding
variations of an independent activity to the "Door" scenario.
In Meisner's own words, "an independent activity has to have
two things. It must be difficult and there must be a
compelling reason why you are doing it." An
independent activity also needs to be specific or it won't
propel the exercise. Independent activities are the bridge
between basic repetition and the next phase of Meisner-work,
Emotional Preparation.
Jill's Meisner-Musings:
Looking
back on my own experience, plus reading the eloquent words of
Meisner and Silverberg, has given me ultimate respect for this
solid technique. I DO agree that the best acting is from
fully-experienced impulse. I just DON'T agree that this is the
only way to do it.
When I
did repetition, it had exactly the opposite effect upon me.
Instead of relaxing, it tensed me. Instead of a safe haven for
"allowing", it beached my talent. Yes, I didn't do it long
enough, and, yes, I was very young, but instinctively we must
do what we feel is correct. It just didn't feel correct.
Meisner
told me, "you'll never be an actress". I not only proved him
wrong, but realized through my study of many techniques that I
did best by STARTING with relaxation and inner work. Once I
had a firm technique base, it freed me to really be
in-the-moment. And I disagree with Meisner about improvisation
. . . the "reality of doing" improvisational games got me out
of my head instead of miring me in it.
Also,
this work, like that of any technique, is only as good as the
person coaching it. And it helps when you work, as I did, with
the person that developed it. Sometimes, it loses a lot in
translation when the coach interpreting it second-hand doesn't
fully understand it or make it their own.
Just my
take. What's yours?
Next Week: Meisner
Part Four: Emotional
Preparation
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