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 Meisner. It is because they are honest and simple and don't lay on complications that aren't necessary."

Arthur Miller on Meisner

“The primary tool Meisner employed in preparing his students was spontaneous repetition. Among his many exercises was one in which two actors looked directly at each other and one would described a feature of the other. After this, the two actors would simply say the phrase back and forth. Because the phrases (such as, "You have soft eyes") came from a physical reality apparent to the actors, the statement retained meaning no matter how often they were repeated.

Another example of Meisner's method has two actors enter a room playing specific roles without specific lines. They begin to speak and the plot is formed out of nothing but the surroundings. The actor's concern is to remain in character. Techniques such as these allow actors to move beyond the printed script and address the underlying emotional or philosophical themes of a play. “
From: American Masters

THE MAIN EXERCISE

The key exercise which (in its various forms) is the backbone of the Meisner Method, is the repetition exercise. At its simplest level this involves two actors facing each other.

One makes a simple observation about the other as in “you have green eyes”. The second actor repeats this back as “I have green eyes”, and the phrase is repeated back and forth in this way. Meanwhile the actors observe each other closely and respond, without artifice or contrivance, to the changes they perceive.

The responses register in the body and in how the line of text is offered. The exercise can be done very simply in this way or within detailed pre-set circumstances. At first the actors are themselves, and because this is so, they make no assumptions before the exercise starts about how the interaction will develop.

As the exercise develops they can assume fictional identities within fictional circumstances, but although they know the facts of the scenario, the use of repetition ensures that they remain connected to the moment rather than trying to manipulate the story of the scene.

The circumstances, the objectives and the emotions all remain in the subtext, affecting but not dictating how the relationship develops.

Source here

The greatest piece of acting or music or sculpture or what-have-you always has
its roots in the truth of human emotion...What I'm saying is that the truth of ourselves is the root of our acting" Sanford Meisner

"I decided I wanted an exercise for actors where there is no intellectuality. I wanted to eliminate all that 'head' work, to take away all the mental manipulation and get to where the impulses come from...My approach is based on bringing the actor back to his emotional impulses and to acting that is firmly rooted in the instinctive. It is based on the fact that all good acting comes from the heart, as it were, and that there's no mentality to it" Sanford Meisner