The Sanford Meisner Approach: Workbook Three, Tackling the Text (Career Development Series) [Paperback]

Larry Silverberg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1575251302 | ISBN-13: 978-1575251301 | Publication Date: July 1, 1998 | Edition: 1st

Larry Silverberg, author of the revolutionary four book series The Sanford Meisner Approach: An Actor's Workbook now brings to you Workbook Three: Tackling the Text. In this exciting next step of the Meisner technique, Silverberg guides you through a specific and step-by-step method of bringing a vivid authenticity to the roles you play. As you work through the lessons in script-work, you will have the experience of easily avoiding the traps and cliches of performing preconceived notions of the character and learn how to carve out your own unique path of discovery from the greater possibilities the script holds within it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

..we will have the most vital experience of avoiding the traps and clichés of performing preconceived notion of the character. -- Midwest Book Review, February 1999

Silverberg's writing is concise and insightful throughout and makes the technique accesible to any commited student. --Library Journal

About the Author

Larry Silverberg is founder and Artistic Director of the Belltown Theatre Center in Seattle, WA. He is also on staff at the University of Washington where he teaches Master Classes in the Meisner Work, while continuing his own acting career. Larry is a past winner of the Warner Bros. Filmmaker of the Year Award for his film, Flight in Masquerade, and has also been busy directing for the stage. Larry is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York City where he studied with master acting teacher, Sanford Meisner.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus; 1st edition (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575251302
• ISBN-13: 978-1575251301
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Visit Larry at:

http://www.trueactinginstitute.com

Larry Silverberg is one of the world's foremost authorities on the Sanford Meisner technique of acting through his internationally acclaimed four volume series, "The Sanford Meisner Approach: An Actors Workbook," and his book, "Loving To Audition." Larry's first book for teen actors, "The 7 Simple Truths of Acting for the Teen Actor" was released last year.

Larry's newest book is now available! It is called "Meisner For Teens: A Life of True Acting" and is published by Smith and Kraus Publishers.

Larry is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre where he studied with legendary acting teacher, Sanford Meisner. Since then, Larry has worked professionally as an actor and director across the United States and in Canada. Most recently, he received high praise from the New York Times for his performance as "Don" in Athol Fugard's "People Are Living There" at The Signature Theater in New York City, and he won the Seattle Critic's Association "Stellar Acting Award" for his portrayal of "Teach" in the Belltown Theatre Center production of "American Buffalo".

Larry is Founder and Director of The True Acting Institute at Eckerd College where he offers his "Teaching The Meisner Approach Certificate Program" for acting teachers and his "College Actor Master Class." Learn more about these programs at this link:

http://www.trueactinginstitute.com

Larry has been very busy touring Europe, Canada, South America and the US, teaching acting in his renowned professional actors training program, "The Meisner Master Class" which he brings to universities, colleges and professional acting studios around the globe. Larry has also been teaching his "Teen Actor Master Class" at high schools all across the United States.

Larry is available to lead symposiums and key note lectures on the Meisner technique and the craft of acting. The photograph on this page is Larry leading a symposium to more than 500 Brazilian actors, film directors and screenwriters, at renowned FAAP University in Sao Paulo Brazil, where Larry was brought in to introduce the country of Brazil to the Meisner Approach. And Larry just returned from Berlin where he trained 45 professional actors from all around Europe as well as leading two public symposiums on the Meisner Approach and The Art of Directing. Larry is also happy to lead symposiums and master classes at the wonderful TETA conference in Texas and many thespian conferences around the United States.

Larry also leads ongoing master classes at The International Institute for the Performing Arts in Paris, European Act which takes place in London, Paris and Berlin and at the Munich Film Academy.

Learn more about Larry's many international programs at this link:

http://www.trueactinginstitute.com

Larry's has also been busy leading his newest workshop, "The Way Back Out" an empowering and transformational seminar aimed at freeing the authentic expression of people in all fields. Please visit the website to learn more about this exciting event. The link is:

http://www.thewaybackout.com

Larry has also recently launched "College Acting Programs.Com", his website devoted to helping high school actors find the best college acting programs. The website address is:

http://www.collegeactingprograms.com.

Larry can be contacted through his own web site address, http://www.trueactinginstitute.com or emailed at [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wanna Act? Learn Meisner. Period., June 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sanford Meisner Approach: Workbook Three, Tackling the Text (Career Development Series) (Paperback)

Actors and students everywhere: put down the imaginary coffee cup and GO somewhere TODAY and learn the Meisner Technique. If you do, you'll be better than the competition. Period.

If you can't find a Meisner class in your area, or even if you can, GET LARRY SILVERBERG's "THE SANFORD MEISNER APPROACH" books. There are four books in the series. BUY THEM ALL. And they're workbooks, so work 'em. Then, hide 'em from all but your actor friends who respect the craft and deserve to work. Remember us little people when you hit the big time.

One warning: rely on Meisner in your work, but don't talk about it. The premises of the technique aren't widely known, so the way we talk confuses people, even though what we DO is very straighforward. And be smart: keep some excuses handy for when the cast wants to play "trust games," or they want to sing the lines of Othello to "keep it fresh." Just quietly use what you know - the end result is worth it. Good luck and God bless your career!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Meisner Rejected This and Any "Workbook" for Acting, August 6, 2011

By 

Yadira - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sanford Meisner Approach: Workbook Three, Tackling the Text (Career Development Series) (Paperback)

No one can blame Larry Silverberg for putting together a marketing campaign that include words/phrases like REVOLUTIONARY, LIFE CHANGING, ASTOUNDING, TRANSFORMATIVE, FOREMOST EXPERT, RENOWNED, and so on. It's marketing and he does it well. He wants to sell his books and make a living. His book reviews are from non experts in the technique yet Silverberg's marketing proclaims their praise from rooftops. I guess I'm from a different age when people just did their teaching work without hiring someone to tell the world how great they were at teaching for in all that marketing hype the truth does get lost. In addition I'm from an age where people viewed and understood the work quite differently from the way others, most certainly the reviewers here, seem to understand the work now. The humility is missing. Strasberg, Adler, Uta Hagen, Meisner, and the many other unnamed teachers at professional programs at Universities across the country 20, 30 and more so years ago, no one, no one told you how good they were going to make you, how free, how expressive, more human, and so on and so on. These teachers held up ideals to strive for, ideals that served the art of acting. Ideals for which it was made clear that you the actor would spend your whole life striving for. These dedicated teachers many of whom I knew began to bemoan the lack of discipline and lack of dedication . . . the simple lack of time that an individual (their students) would be willing to put into the task of working on their art. An extreme example on youtube is of Stella Adler "loosing it" really, about giving your whole life to your art and the suffering it requires. But the point remains. I think Mr. Silverberg's books are an example of the growing loss of serious training for the actor and a growing market for quick fixes, answers to questions that really have no answer you can put in print, and what none of these cheerleaders of Mr. Silverberg seem to grasp as important to the teaching of their OWN students. Mr. Silverberg was never trained to teach by Meisner. Not an insurmountable obstacle. But for those people who think they're getting what Meisner taught, even in the poor substitute for Meisner's classroom that Silverberg's printed language tries to provide, these books will disappoint because they are simply wrong in what they convey when he tells you this is The Sanford Meisner Approach. What the books are is Mr. Silverberg's take on his time as a student of Meisner's at the Playhouse. And he has every right to do that. But, But (and this goes to the HYPE) when he constantly aligns himself with Meisner, for example when he mentions all of the fine actors in a list by name after name as if you're getting the same training in this book as they got, it is Simply Wrong and forgive me for being blunt, but UNTRUE. This whole series of books would be no issue for me but for the fact that there are actually teachers at universities and colleges that use them in their classrooms which I think is a real shame and should be cause for concern for those department heads and the students that study there. One principle of education is the trust we give to our educators. These instructors who teach from these books, I believe, have violated that trust. They are working from a so called workbook that Meisner had nothing to do so it lacks credibility on that point, so what exactly is being taught is the question. Meisner didn't review these books or authorize them as a representation of his work. Is this point lost on people. I know that the marketing hype is some places tells you that Meisner arranged with Silverberg to get this work down before Meisner's death but there are no facts to support this. None. But PT Barnum said "there is a sucker born every minute" or something like that. However I guess we are in an age that has to dumb down the difficult and nearly impossible and strive to explain even the mystery of acting.

5.0 out of 5 stars Bravo Silverberg, October 4, 2011

By 

Allan Byrne - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sanford Meisner Approach: Workbook Three, Tackling the Text (Career Development Series) (Paperback)

I have been a professional actor for 30 years. About fifteen years ago I was verylucky. I picked up Larry Siverberg's first book on the Sanford Meisner approach. It changed my life as an actor, and as a teacher. I know of no finer book on acting, and I have read a lot of them. It is the clearest, the most step by step, and the most inspirational book on true acting that has ever been written. This also holds for the other three books in his series. Did reading his book make me a better actor over night? Of course not. And Larry Silverberg never said that it would. Let me repeat that - he never said that it would! So what did it do? It opened a path that I could begin to follow - a long and very difficult path, but a wonderous and life changing journey. It showed me where my training was lacking, and what real actor training could be. It inspired me and gave me a map to use to begin exploring with fellow actors the craft of acting. And it lead me to seek out new teachers. I am a better actor because of this book.
I have used Larry Silverber's books in many university acting and directing classes. When I started using his first volume, teaching became fun and exciting again. I have seen his approach work with so many students, and it is miraculous. I can not recomend his books highly enough as either an introduction to what true acting can be, or as the beginning of a wonderful journey.