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In This Issue: Meisner-o-philes
Speak
Out
about Sandy
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Meisner Part
Six:
Meisner-o-philes Speak Out
about Sandy
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Patrizia Mora waxes spiritual about her experience with Meisner Technique. "It's as if your soul were acting with you and you feel completely supported by the truth. It's almost mystical," she says.
My
thanks to the many, many actors who contributed to this
article. Especially the ones I didn't quote directly. Your
comments about Meisner, which ran the gamut from divine to
damning, are distilled below. It's impossible to explain an
acting technique to those who haven't experienced it. All you
can express are the feelings you get from the process itself.
As well as those who teach it. And express they did!
On
repetition: Pamela Clay relates, "my
experience with repetition was that it taught me that it
really doesn't matter what we're saying at all. What matters
most is what we are feeling . . . great dialogue, spoken by an
actor who understands it's all about 'how do I feel', gives
this great dialogue immense clarity . . . it's a
'double-whammy'! Then the story . . . is told/revealed through
the actor's emotions as well as through the actor's spoken
dialogue. In other words, the audience can not only FEEL
'what's happening' but they can also 'put it into words'!"
Patrizia compared repetition and the sequential nature of
Meisner's work to "learning how to juggle. You start with one
ball and then you progress to 2 and 3 and then you do it on
one foot and then jumping and then with one eye closed, etc. .
. . it constantly adds up details to make you function in a
way that's as close to life as possible."
Several actors said that it's too bad I "never
stuck around to learn emotional preparation because,"
according to Zander Rice, "for me that's when things really
began to come together. Other than learning to live in the
moment and work off the other person/people, this is the one
technique that has helped me the most." Many actors had
wonderful things to say about Meisner's emotional preparation
technique.
On emotional
preparation: Andrew Masset said, "preparation
is the foundation and the performance is the building." I
certainly agree! Zander described the Meisner process of
emotional preparation in this way . . . "instead of recalling
a tragic, funny,etc. incident from your life to spark yourself
emotionally, which will lead to that incident either losing
its impact or possible scaring yourself emotionally . . . you
simply relax, and IMAGINE a situation, event or anything that
puts you in the emotional state that is required of the scene.
Once the scene is done it becomes very easy to drop that
emotion, because the event was not real. The emotion it will
bring is very real but what brought it up was not." According
to Pamela, "The emotional preparation exercises worked for me,
because I did them 'properly'- in that, I 'went to that
private place' where 'emotions live' and 'filled myself up
completely with emotion' BEFORE I walked onto the stage
through the door that we always came through in class."
Patrizia added "by using your imagination (almost
with visualization techniques) you get yourself to a place of
understanding the circumstances of the scene as 'you'. There
is no character outside of you in Meisner's work and so you
are deeply connected to the situation. . . . you can just
'live [it] out' as if it were happening to you for the first
time."
On Meisner's
"shadow side": One actor said, "I think
Meisner was a genius. And, like all people, he had a shadow
side. A very pronounced one." Another understated, "Meisner
was emotionally harmful." In Meisner's book, Sanford
Meisner on Acting
, he expresses profound regret over throwing someone
out of class and said that he didn't do it very often. Most
Meisner students I talked to, however, including myself, saw
students thrown out of class right and left as well as
experiencing Meisner's verbal abuse firsthand.
I
realize that most trailblazers have little time for niceties
and a profound need for purity and truth can often make them
mindless of others. My own teacher, Lee Strasberg, never
indulged in small-talk. As a matter of fact, he very seldom
said hello. Many actors reported that Sandy's cutting words
inhibited instead of nurtured their acting. But no one should
be able to abuse another human being in the name of art.
Meisner as well as succeeding generations of his
teachers also seem to worship his work as almost holy . . .
and anyone who digresses from or taints it is banished as a
blasphemer. He continually denigrates other acting teachers in
his book, especially Strasberg. I find this type of one-sided
arrogance unsettling. As another contributing actor says,
"venerating people [like this] is delusional". When I studied
acting, I explored many techniques, took what made sense to me
and left the rest. Now as a coach, I encourage actors to do
the same. Even if it isn't what I teach.
Instead, I love what Bob McLean said about
acting. "Acting is both an art and a craft." he said, "Many of
us who are drawn to act do not just naturally possess the
stuff of greatness. That's just the way it goes . . . So most
of us are left with the craft part. That is where to focus. It
doesn't matter much if you can do it the Meisner way or the
Uta Hagen way or the Hubba Bubba way as long as it resonates
with you. Learn the craft. Maybe
the magic will follow. "
Meisner, despite his personal shortcomings, spawned
generations of fine acting. According to Bob Legionnaire,
"when I helped a director audition actors for [an Off-Broadway
play], we could tell who studied with Strasberg, Gene Frankel,
Uta Hagen, or Herb Bergoff. Sandy Meisner students were the
best." Many others agree. Meisner successfully realized his
quest for truth and moments of acting purity many times over
in his loyal followers.
In
the
Next Issue: Technique 101:
Place
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