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Built on the foundation of the work of Sanford Meisner, the master acting coach, Meisner acting classes are designed as a progression of exercises that build more complex acting skills as you move forward. Students that take Meisner acting classes often realize that a student of the technique is never actually "done" learning. Phrases such as improvisation, personal response, emotional memory, emotional preparation will take on new meaning for the student as they work through these exercises from simple repetitive phrase exercises to scene studies with complex texts.

Students just beginning to study the technique in Meisner acting classes often finds the work "easy" and somewhat simplistic, because the first exercises are meant to strip away the crutches of dialogue and story. The goal of this work is to help the acting student not rely on the words of a script to communicate, but on other actors in the exercise, their own spontaneous emotional reactions to the exercise and responding behavior. Fine tuning this reliance on emotional reaction, on committing in the moment, to the action that is happening, and to creating a new reality in the moment is what professional Meisner acting classes are about.

Known for asking the same pointed questions again and again as students worked, Meisner's goal was to make the student aware that they needed to be fully committed to their emotional responses and have a purpose for actions that would propel the story forward. Even activities with no movement, such as resting, sleeping, or sitting still are still considered "actions" and according to the Meisner technique must have a purpose and must propel the story forward. Meisner was considered by many to be a tough, yet brilliant coach, who was known for coining the phrase "acting is doing." His other well known saying "an ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words," is a good way to sum up his theory about acting. The only way dialogue will work is if it is spoken by an actor who is living truthfully in the moment, with authentic emotions and behaviors.

It is about creating a new reality, every moment, even if the actor is simply working on a simple exercise. Many acting classes nyc will train the actor to use sound, feeling, emotion, physical space, and the sounds, emotions and physical expression of the other players to create an edgy exciting performance full of spontaneity. Learning this skill is the best way to change bad acting habits, especially the all pervasive myth that acting is "pretending." Getting out of your own way is the number one goal of Meisner acting classes. The aim is to eliminate self awareness while acting, and always be present in the moment, as the character, and use that energy to create the new reality of the story. If this sounds difficult, then this training might be for you. If you are still convinced that acting is merely delivering lines as given, pretending to be a character than perhaps this kind of training is for you. The Meisner acting technique will force you to work far more deeply than that. First, you become a different person, aware of your habits and pre-programmed emotional responses, and then you learn to do it all over again as a character. Instead you become someone new,someone real, that changes as the work progresses in unrehearsed ways.

Using an entire set of imagined circumstances of a character's memories, needs, obsessions, mistakes, etc. the character can just emerge and change as the story progresses, which is how Meisner works. This involves behavioral theories, including the elements of adaptation and communication which were aspects of the discipline known as Method acting. Putting his own stamp on method acting principles, Sanford Meisner developed a whole new training technique which has produced some of the most legendary actors of all time.

In order to generate truthful behavior in a new imagined reality, which is what theatre and film are about, an actor must focus on two things: the other actors they are playing with and moving forward in a committed way to the next moment in the scene. If they are open, and have achieved self forgetfulness, the impulses generated by fellow actors will feed this forward, moment-by-moment movement. Performances will have an edge, a sense of spontaneity which completely draws an audience into the story. This, in fact, mimics life. We have no idea what will happen moment to moment, but we continue on, talking, sitting, meditating, eating a bite, having a thought, all with the idea that we are moving toward something big or small. Gaining the ability to create this kind of spontaneity onstage with other actors, the lines and story emerging brand new every second, is the most rewarding things you will learn in Meisner acting.