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Question:
I am a first year grad student and have to
teach a class next week on
Meisner's technique. I have taken some classes on this technique,
however, I don't know how to teach this to beginning actors. If you
have any suggestions on exercises that i would be able to run through
with my class, I would truly appreciate it.
Thanks so much,
Alli
Answer:
Hi Alli,
Well, you have an interesting situation there. Let me see if I can
give you an idea of what I would do.
To me, the most beneficial basic
level contribution of Meisner technique to the actor is the ability to work
off of the other actors' behavior, rather than acting out of theatrical
ideas.
The basic Meisner exercise, the "Repetition Exercise," is the
training exercise for this ability. I would focus on two aspects:
- 1/
following your impulses. What that means is "do what YOU feel like doing in
the moment, not what you think you should do, or what others expect."
- 2/
The second principle is to "deal with the other person's behavior," which
involves the skills of accurately picking up behavior and then responding to
it through the impulse.
Here are some exercises you can do based on these
ideas:
- 1/ Have two students sit across from each other. Ask student A
what they see in Student B's behavior, and tell them what they see. It can
be as simple as "You're laughing." Then it's student B's turn; they may say "You look tense." etc.
This develops the ability to "read behavior" accurately.
- 2/ Have the
students say something about what they like or don't like in the other
person's behavior. eg, "Stop grinning at me," or, "I don't want you to
stare at me," or, "I like it when you smile like that," etc. This gets a bit
more personal and/or confrontational and develops a sense of desire or
conflict in the relationship.
- 3/ From here you can introduce the
"Repetition Exercise." The idea is to say something that is meaningful about
the other person's behavior and then continue to repeat it back and forth.
It can change as it is repeated. The fact that you are repeating means that
you don't have to think about what to say. Encourage the students to
"express their point of view" through the repetition and through
their behavioral response, whether that response it through facial
expression, gesture, etc.
- 4/ In more advanced repetition exercises,
you can allow the students to change the statement as they notice more
behavior and the exercise becomes like a "behavioral
conversation."
Example of a repetition exercise:
- "You look
tired."
"You look tired."
"You REALLY look tired."
"No, YOU look
tired."
"You think you know it all."
"You think I'm a
know-it-all?"
"Yeah, I do think you're a know-it-all."
"You're insulting
me."
"I'm insulting you."
"You don't care?"
etc.
This develops the ability to improvise, develop the
relationship, and deal with dramatic conflict.
Hope this is useful to
you. If you have further interest in my program for yourself or your students feel free to contact me any time. If you want to
tell me what school you are in and what your graduate work is focused on that
would be of interest as well.
Best,
Robert Epstein
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