Sanford Meisner on Acting [Paperback]

Sanford Meisner (Author), Dennis Longwell (Author), Sydney Pollack (Introduction)

Book Description

Release date: July 12, 1987

This book, written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, follows an acting class of eight men and eight women for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Throughout these pages Meisner is delight--always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of "Out of Africa" and "Tootsie," who worked with Meisner for five years.



"This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods."--Arthur Miller


"If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book."--Gregory Peck

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Sanford Meisner has been called "the theater's best-kept secret," and Sanford Meisner on Acting by Dennis Longwell gives some insight into what techniques the hugely influential drama teacher used in his 50-plus years of work. One of the founding members of the Actors Studio (with Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Harold Clurman), Meisner developed his own special lessons based upon his understandings of the great Russian teacher Stanislavsky. Turning away from the sense-memory exercises common among his colleagues, his training focused instead on a realistic approach to imagination and creativity. Unlike many other educators associated with "the Method," Meisner had little tolerance for self-absorption or striving after strong emotional effect, instead preaching that clarity of purpose and efficient use of the psyche are the actor's greatest tools. Longwell's book follows a class of eight men and eight women through one of Meisner's 15-month courses at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, with extensive transcripts taken directly from Meisner's notes to the students on the basis of their exercises. With an introduction by director Sydney Pollack, one of the many influential artists who studied with Meisner (the book includes accolades from Maureen Stapleton, Arthur Miller, Gregory Peck, and Eli Wallach), this is an excellent introduction that helps to demystify the work of a great theatrical teacher. --John Longenbaugh

From Library Journal

Meisner, a member of the Theater Guild and the Group Theater, has devoted most of 50 years to teaching acting and is one of the great unsung resources in American theater. This book is not an acting text, but a journal of a 15-month course taken by 16 adult actors. We follow them as they progress from early exercises through preparation to detailed scene work. Meisner emphasizes emotional truth and acting as the reality of doing. His students find the course difficult, but most improve markedly. Not all survive. Though Meisner is not well, he is a superb teacher and his enthusiasm is undiminished. This is required reading for all actors and those interested in acting. Thomas E. Luddy, English Dept., Salem State Coll., Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (July 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394750594
• ISBN-13: 978-0394750590
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater > Stagecraft
  • #12 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater > Acting & Auditioning

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sanford Meisner On Acting May 10, 2000

By Christon Basham

Format:Paperback

I am currently studying the craft of acting at one of the 3 year professional acting acadamies here in LA. I very much enjoyed reading this book and have done so at this point several times. I would most highly recommend it to anyone thinking about or currently studying the craft of acting.

In the first chapter (Setting The Scene: Duse's Blush), we are giving a chronology of Meisners life and how he came to be such a great and beloved teacher. It is also in this first chapter that Meisner recounts the story of Elenora Duse, a legendary Italian actress who played the role of Magda in Hermann Sundermanns Heimat. In the first scene of this play, as the story goes, she is a young girl that has an affair with a guy from the same village, and she has a child by him. Twenty-five years later, or thereabouts, she comes back to visit her family who live in this town, and her ex-lover comes to call on her. She accepts his flowers and they sit and talk. All of a sudden the actor realizes that she is blushing, and it gets so bad that she drops her head and hides her face in embarrassment. Although we learn that this does not happen every performance, it is this blush that is the epitome of living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. This is Meisners definition of all good acting.

The foundation of acting, is the reality of doing. It is this basic premise that is the spine of this book of exercises intended to bring the actor closer to their emotional self. It is an approach that is based on bringing the actor away from the intellectualizing of character analysis back to his emotional impulses and to acting that is firmly rooted in the instinctive. Through preparation, the actor is bought to a full state of emotional aliveness for those first precious moments on the stage at the beginnings of any scene. It would be impossible to escape the powerful impact of emotion or the importance of being able to realize and use effectively this impact in your performance.

Once those first precious moments of emotional aliveness that the actor has prepared for have elapsed however, the actor must be willing to enter into a state of, what Constantine Stanislovsky refers to as public solitude (as opposed to public exhibitionism). A complete surrendering of ego and willingness to make oneself vulnerable to the ultimate revealing of truth in who we are in the context of the words and circumstance written and demanded of the actor by the playwright.

Everything in acting is, of course, a kind of heightened intensified reality but it is based on one that is fully justified. Good acting isn't just the emotionless reciting of lines of text as mindless chatter. It is responding truthfully to the other person or persons on the stage. To fill words with the truth of your emotional life Meisner suggest that you must learn text coldly without expression in a completely neutral way. This learning should than be taken further through repetition mixed with a distracting independent activity. It is this repetition coupled with a distracting independent activity that takes the actor out of the intellectual mind into that of the of instinctual. That is, not thinking but simply acting and reacting honestly to what's happening on stage in every moment. But again, in order to get out of your head and into the emotional life of the instinctual, you have to know the lines so well that you don't even have to consciously think about them. As the logic goes; if you don't know your lines cold you can not get to the emotions. If you can't get to the emotions than you are nowhere near the heart of your instincts and can therefore not act or react honestly. </font></p> Learn lines and pick up impulses. This is what Meisner suggest is crucial if you are to always be in the moment of a scene honestly and most importantly, realistically. It is the truth of your instincts that is the very root of the foundation from which you must build not only your character, but also all of the honest emotional actions and reactions asked of you on stage. Living the emotional life of the character truthfully under imaginary circumstances. It is this emotional honesty and openness that will most profoundly move you and the audience for the enjoyment of you both.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The reality of good acting February 21, 2003

By Javier Galito-Cava

Format:Paperback

I agree... Sandford Meisner is by far one of the best kept secrets in acting. I stuided the Meisner Technique approach to acting with the wonderful Rachael Adler and it has absolutely changed me. Not just my acting but my life as well. This is a MUST HAVE for ANY actor. Whether this technique is right for you or not, the information you will get from this book will most defenitely help you understand what makes good acting.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for actors exploring what works best for them December 31, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I did a 1/2 semester project on Meisner's acting techniques for an acting class (we had to compare and contrast another technique with the Stanislavski technique most of us are familiar with). at the conservatory I attend, and found this book answered just about all my questions. It was an interesting read, but from a research standpoint, would have been easier to use had it not been in journal style. However, I have come acrossed nothing better as a resource exclusively dealing with Meisner. Read something about the Group Theatre as well, which may just lead to study of some techniques of some of Meisner's contemporaries and help you to combine styles to find your own unique approach to the art.