Meisner Technique

MEISNER
Sanford Meisner- Act August 31st 1905- February 2nd 1997, raised in Brooklyn, New York.
Attended Damrash institue of Music(now Julliard) where he studied to become a concert painist before he found acting. In 1931, a group of young actors inluding Meisner Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman, among others, joined together to establish the Group theatre.
Group theatre was the first permanent theatre company that brought "Method" acting, rooted in the methods of Konstantin Stanislavsky to practice and prominence in America.
In 1933 Mesiner became disenchanted with pure "Method" acting. He wrote, "Actors are not guinea pigs to be manipulated, dissected, let alone in a purely negative way. Our approachwas not organic, that is to say not healthy."
Meisner wanted to achieve the goal of," Actors living truthfully under a given set of circmstances" Acted and directed plays Group Theatre, was head of Drama Dept in the Playhouse and then New Talent Divison of Twentieth Century Fox.
In 1985 Meisner and James Carville co-founded The Mesiner/ Carville School of Acting on the island of Bequia in the West Indies. They later extended the school to North Hollywood, California, where it still exists with Martin Barter, as Artistic Director and head teacher.
Meisner, Carville, and Barter opened the Sanford Meisner  Center for the Arts in March 1995, and later the school and theatre were combined to form the Sanford Meisner Center, the first school and theatre to operate under Meisner's name.
Arthur Miller once said of Meisner's, " He has been the most principled teacher of acting in this country for decades now and every time I am reading actos I can pretty well tell which ones have studied with Meisner. It is because they are honest and simple and don't lay con complications that aren't necessary.

Some Key points:
"The greater he investment in the reality of doing, the better we assess the quality of acting".
Being 'in the moment'
Acting truthfully, responding in moment under given set of circumstances
'Calls' must be a fact, not question/ speculation/opinion.
words don't matter; respond to moment.
"What happens to you as an actor does not depend on you; it deends on what the other person does you".
Pinch and ouch.
Observe and Respond
Don't try to effect each other, let other person effect you
Text floats above.
"Let your audience put 2+2 together, they'll love you for it"
Putting all your energy into the other person.