Why I Teach Meisner Technique At Love Acting In Baton Rouge
The Meisner technique is one of my favorite things to teach at my film acting studio in Baton Rouge, Love Acting. Years ago, I had the great privilege of working the great Wayne Pére, an acting coach from Los Angeles, who was stationed in Louisiana for a little while. He held his class at Celtic Studios in the early 2000s. After I got a degree in Theater, studied at a very difficult method acting school in Los Angeles, then studied on-camera acting for three years, through Wayne I finally found Meisner technique. It felt like I’d come home to the technique that I’d been missing in my studies.
Stanford Meisner says that “the foundation of acting is the reality of doing”. In his book, Stanford Meisner On Acting there are so many pearls of great wisdom from this legend of an acting coach. He uses the example of building the World Trade Center and how they had to build a foundation first to explain what the foundation of acting is: the reality of doing. He didn’t want actors to pretend like they were doing anything, he wanted them to actually do it. His definition of acting is “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. Meisner has all types of exercises for actors to go through to break them of pretending, being self-obsessed, or stuck in their head— and I use a few of these in my class at Love Acting.
One of the exercises is called ‘repetition exercise’, and William Esper, one of Standford Meisner students, wrote a book called The Actor’s Art and Craft, and William says that “repetition exercise forces you into real contact with your acting partner— not intellectual contact. That’s useless to actors. I mean real contact, emotional contact.” Very early in your studies at Love Acting, you’ll be introduced to repetition exercise. One of my favorite things about Meisner is that he always wanted the actor to take the focus off themself and put it onto the other acting partner. When actors come into the classroom, they’re usually very judgmental towards themselves and fearful and thinking about themselves in their performances. It takes a lot of bravery to take the focus off yourself and focus on someone else. In the act of doing this exercise, actors focus on one another, and we see true emotional contact happening in the class.
Meisner also said it takes 20 years to master the craft of acting. Having started acting when I was 16, I feel like I am far from mastering it still. But the things I have learned I love sharing with the students at Love Acting. I love working with actors because they are all so unique and creative. Stanford Meisner said, “Actors are like icebergs— what you see on the surface is only 10% of who they really are. The rest of them, the 90%, that’s the really interesting and exciting— the massive bulk of their true personalities— it lies hidden below the water, and that hidden part, that’s where their talent lies.”
It’s my job as an acting coach at Love Acting here in Baton Rouge to help actors look into the hidden parts of who they are and help them bring out that part of themselves to share with others. What I love about teaching Meisner is that there’s so much use of the imagination. The imagination is our greatest tool. Esper says, “The real world and the imaginary world, they’re like oil and water. The real world and the imaginary world, they don’t mix, but you can use the meanings of actual people and actual circumstances in your work.” For example, if your mother is in your life, then you can use your imagination and put her in all kinds of crazy circumstances in your imagination in order to evoke emotion. In our class we practice finding ways to use our imagination to deepen our work.
Many actors believe that they are coming here to make a career and start making money immediately, and I believe what Esper says in his book: “the only true reason to approach any art is because it’s your passion.” My passion for this craft is definitely what got me to this moment in my life and this stage in my career— not my drive for commercial success, that’s for sure.
