It was 1988, I was filming the movie Landarzt in Schleswig-Holstein, and Phillip Moog was booked for an episode role, with whom I had a conversation about my professional future. Phillip had worked in New York a few years earlier at the Neighborhood Playhouse and told me about the Meisner technique that was taught there. I had only heard of the Actors Studio, the school of Lee Strasberg gehört.
Sanford Meisner had developed his own technique at the Playhouse, which, like the Method, was based on the teachings of Konstantin Stanislawski beruhte.
The conversation with Phillip turned out to be a stroke of luck for me. I don't want to say that Strasberg's Method isn't a good technique, but I found the two years at the Playhouse to be an event that had a lasting impact on my life. To this day, that training shapes me in everything I do, and I wouldn't be the teacher I am if I hadn't met Sanford Meisner and all the teachers at the Playhouse.
Truthful under imaginary circumstances
The aim of the Meisner Technique is to “live truthfully under given circumstances”. This means avoiding any kind of contrived, anticipated game and relying entirely on your instincts as a human being.
These in turn are addressed by using a series of exercises to shift the focus from oneself to the play partner, “really listening” to them and thus living from “moment to moment”. This adds depth to the game and avoids any kind of arbitrariness. You start to react in the game instead of acting (“acting is reacting”).
Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given circumstances
People feel something and are the first to show behavior that is adapted to this feeling. We then verbalize something based on what we have just experienced and felt. The aim of the Meisner Technique is to live these impulses in a scene, i.e. under imaginary circumstances.
Words can lie, behavior never!
The Meisner Technique does not work on the words, but on the emotional behavior that underlies the text. The behavior is the “how”, not the “why”. Meisner was concerned with what an actor feels in the given situation and not what the character pretends to feel. Only in this way an individual performance is possible. To a certain extent, it is about surrendering to the truth that underlies the scene.
If you can't listen, you can't act, no matter how talented you are
Life happens in the moment. The only real moment is what is happening between two people right now. In order to experience those moments, the actor must be open and listen to his partner. The Meisner technique trains true listening like no other technique. If we are open and allow what we hear to happen to us, a true impulse will follow. We give ourselves the freedom to follow these impulses.
Repetition
The repetition exercise is the cornerstone of the Meisner technique. At the beginning, this exercise must be learned from scratch in order to perfect it. The aim of the exercise is to establish intensive contact and really listen to your partner by shifting your concentration from yourself to your playing partner. This is done by observing and saying rudimentary things (e.g. “blue shirt” because the partner is wearing a blue shirt) and learning to make contact on a purely instinctive level, to avoid an actors conscience.
“Acting does not mean being more emotional, but deeper”.
The Knock on The Door
The second stage of the Meisner technique is “knocking on the door”. Here, one partner leaves the room and knocks on the door after a certain amount of time. This knock should be as precise as possible. In other words, it should be possible to get an impression of the mood of the person knocking inside the room. The playing partner who has remained in the room opens the door and works with off playing partner by “repetition”.
Independent Activity
In the “Independent Activity” exercise, the play partner performs a task in the room that has a high level of difficulty, is linked to an emotional need and must be completed within a certain period of time. To intensify concentration on this task, it should be almost impossible at the beginning, e.g. forging a signature perfectly or copying a picture exactly. Later, the tasks can be easier, but the element of emotional need must still be present.
The aim is always to do things, actions, “truthfully”, i.e. really. The aim of acting is not to be emotional, but to do things truthfully. The personal meaning of the action determines the emotional intensity and depth of the performance.
Emotional Preparation
Emotional preparation involves working on the actor's emotional instrument. Here the actor tries to put himself in a daydream, i.e. a very strong fantasy. The aim is to create a strong emotion that is adapted to the requirements of the situation to be played. The actor prepares himself emotionally to go into a scene and then work off the partner through the repetition.
Famous Meisner Quotes:
„Acting ist the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances“
“Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given circumstances.” Truly doing and being in the moment, uncensored and directly experienced. Far removed from any scenic interpretation, it enables us to live together. In front of the camera or on stage.
„Fuck Patience“
Acting out our own impulses in the here and now creates the urgency and relentlessness of acting performances that will be remembered. If we are too patient, we suppress our own impulses and serve neither ourselves nor the audience.
„Fuck Polite“
Actors are not paid to be nice and polite. Characters in film and theater fight every minute for their right to be heard and seen. They are no longer able to accept the circumstances, but are angry and stimulated enough to change the world. Who needs patience in this situation?
„The reality of Doing is the foundation of acting“
People are characterized by their actions, not their words. The way we do something tells its own story about the meaning of the things we work with. Not the meaning for the play or the movie, but the meaning for us. We invite the audience into our world and pursue our goal concretely and with energy.
„Acting is reacting“
“Don't do anything until something really happens” One of Meisner's most important Quotes. We learn to rest within ourselves and focus on the other person. We draw our artistic moment from the presence of the other person and are thus capable of organic, human interaction.
„The source of your acting is your fellow actor“
See above. We derive our performance from our counterpart, who becomes a stimulus.
„Don’t do anything, until something is happening (No ouch before the pinch)“
One exercise that has remained in my dubious memory was this one: Meisner asked someone to close their eyes. He then stepped behind you and at some point pinched you with his pointed fingernails. He wanted to make it clear that our instincts are wide awake WHEN they are really triggered. Not before. Many players anticipate situations and play them. But we only react when something really happens.
