Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner
SANFORD MEISNER
(1905 - 1997)
while continuing to act and direct plays produced by The Group Theatre until
"Crime and Punishment" (1948). Sanford Meisner directed "The Time of Your
Born August 31, 1905, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Sanford Meisner
Life" (1955) and acted in "The Cold Wind and the Warm" (1958).
graduated form Erasmus Hall in 1923 and attended The Damrash Institute of
Music (now Juilliard), where he studied to become a concert pianist before
Sanford Meisner left The Playhouse in 1958 to become director of the New
talking his way into a job in a Theater Guild production of Sidney Howard's
They Knew What They Wanted. Sanford Meisner realized then that acting, which
he was also able to cultivate his career as a film actor. Sanford Meisner starred
really "dug at him", was what he was looking to find. In 1931, a fervent group
in Odets' "The Story on Page One" (1959), "Tender Is the Night" (1962), and
of young actors, including Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, and
were combined to form The Sanford Meisner Center, today the only school
wrote, "Actors are not guinea pigs to be manipulated, dissected, let alone in a
purely negative way. Our approach was not organic, that is to say not healthy."
Sanford Meisner had ongoing discussions about technique with Adler, who
worked with Stanislavsky in Paris, and Clurman, who took a deep interest in
the American character. Eventually Meisner realized that if American actors
were ever going to achieve the goal of "living truthfully under imaginary
circumstances," an American approach was needed. The Neighborhood
Playhouse provided him with a venue to develop that approach on his own.
Arthur Miller once said of Sanford Meisner, "He has been the most principled
teacher of acting in this country for decades now, and every time I am reading
actors I can pretty well tell which ones have studied with Sanford Meisner. It is
because they are honest and simple and don't lay on complications that aren't
necessary."
Se$ion One
not know. The actor must not hnou. So how do we "not know "
not anticipate, not get ahead of where we ar. (and not get
ready for that big moment in the next scenewhile in the miqdle of this scene!)
Session
One
Session One
something else is u,hat we are doing. The great news here is that
when our attention is not on being emotional, our emotions
suddenly become much more available.
You know there are too many so-called acring classeswhich are
actually therapy sessionsdisguised as acting classes.Teachers
who instigateor push the srudenr ro "get emotional" and leave
the student open and raw, without a senseof purpose or closure. I have worked with many students who have been damaged by this kind of work. \fhat I want you to know is that
acting is nor emoting. Again, ACTING IS NOT EMOTING.
Acting is doing something.Of course acting does demand of us
the abiliry to accessour own rich emotional life and the way in,
the organic way, is through meaningful doing.
Session One
Let me ask you a few questions. Did you do it? Did you try to
do it or did you quickly give up? Did you get the answer?Vas
it very difficult and still you gave it your best shot? Listen, the
answer doesn't matter, itt never about the results. It's always
about the attempt. IT IS ALL IN THE AITEMPT. And while
you tried, who was doing the multiplying? Was it you? rVas it
you as Gregory Peck in Z Kill a Mockingbird or you as Joanne
'Woodward
in Rachel Fachel Or were YOU MULIIPLYING?
Though you didn't get the answer, were YOU REALLY
DOINGTHAT?
I bet, if you really tried, something happened to you. You
might have noticed yourself laughing, grunting, feeling hopeless, or having some other response to this nearly impossible
task. If so, wre you pretending to have that response to
impress me? Of course not, I'm just a book! You responded
however you did because you were really trying to multiply.
YOU CAME TO LIFE because you were really doing something! And you didnt haie to force or push or even think about
having an emotion. Your authentic response was out of your
control while your attention was on what you were doing.
Remember that!
A\rARM UP
I want to give you a very simple experience of the realiry of
doing. Look at the following two numbers than close your eyes
and in your minds eye, not on paper, multiply the two numbers.The rwo numbers are:
7948X6988.
Do it now and then read on.
SegsionOne
right next to you givesyou their word, that you will discover
what comesoucofyour mouth.
'What
<l:iAi i'\
REPETITION
The First Step
Our working definition of acting is, 'Acting is living truthfully
under imaginary circumstances."Liuing Truthful$. After the
yearsI havespent working in the theatre,I keep coming back
to the profound powerand beautyof this very simplephrase.It
is the coreofour work together.
More of our acting comesfrom our true listening(anotherw.y
of saying that is beingfully auaihbh) than from anything else.
Our fuel on stageis our partners,the other acrors,so that we
must be open and receptiveto them at all times. Even in the
midst of the most extremeand heightenedmoments, it is
imperativethat we be presentto our partnersand our environment in every moment (the stageis a dangerousplacel). Isnt
this great!If I turn myselfover to my PARTNER and instead
ofpushing, give up control, I get everythingI need(like a good
relationship).Yet most actorsmake actingvery effortful, doing
it on their own in spite of their partnerson srage,isolatedin
their own privateexperience(like bad relationships).
l:
ar'].ii".
SCAI F-
SessionOne
Exercise
1. MECHANICAL REPETITION
l. Thke rwo chairs and place them facing toward each other.
2. You and your partner each sit down in a chair so that you are
both facing each other. Have a little room between the fwo
ofyou.
3. Pick one person to start rhe exercise. We'll call you Partner
4, For Partner A:
First I want you to rurn your head away from your partner.
(who we will call Partner B).
*To the Obseruer:Afer
you read through to Step 5, ulten Partner
A bas nrned his or her head auay you taill tahe a moment and
then say "Begin" or "Go" to start the exercise.The Obseruer will
continue to do this throughout todq\ Session.
Partner A, when you hear "Begin" or "Go" from the Observer,
turn your head back and say outloud rhe ueryr
frst thing yow
ACTUALLY NOTICE over there on your partner. This must
be a physical obseruation.(For example, if the first thing I was
aware of as I looked at my partner were her eyes, I would say
"eyes" or if it was her green sweater I would say "green
sweater.")Again it is whatever you ACTUALLY norice and not
what you might conjecture. So you would not say, "You had a
bad day' or "You dont like me" and so forth.
5. Go ahead and try that a few times, waiting for rhe Observer
to get you started. Then switch and Partner B try that a few
times. Then read on.
11
session One
'What
"To the Obseruer: You must help tbem here by pointing out to the
Partner uho starts xuhen tbey did not use tlte uerl frst thing they
were alaare of Stal rekxed in your attention, rthat I mean is,
don't strain to see if it happens, trust that yu will not;ce it if it
does. When you do notice rhis occuning, simply sa1, "Start again
and tahe the ueryfrst thing you are au.tareof " Do this througbout
today'ssession.
Tiy Step 5 again with this information. You might starr ro overly watch yourself for a few moments, that's OK for risht now.
Go aheadand eachofyou try Step 5 a few more rimes and then
proceedto Step 6.
session One
(Remember, listening is doing.) Also notice how naturally, simp l y , a n d o n t h e i r o w n a h e s er e s p o n s e sh a p p e n e d . T h a t ' s
GREAI!
*To the Obseruer: Your job bere is to heep the repetition going.
'Vhateuer
responsethe partners haue to lepeating urith each other is
fantasic, AND, do not l.t them g;ae t? the repetition. For example, Partnn A ma1 laugb so hard that sbe has a hard time speahing. Help her to haae ber responseand to repeat, allouting the
uords to come out bou.naerthey come out AS SHE IAUGHS. Do
'DON'T
DROP THE
lou get that? You can yell something lihe,
REPETITION!" And if it takesyelling to be heard, YELL! Mahe
sule lou are heard! Also, udtch for, if in the mid* of a large
responselihe this, this partner drops out of listening to the other
person. You can sa1, "Put your attent;on bach on your partner and
rePe/tt!"
ti7hen the Observer interacts with those of you who are working, do not come out of the exercise. Simply take the note the
Observer just gaveyou, keeping your amention on your partner,
and keep going. Remember, never drop out ofthe exerciseuntil
the Observer saysto stop.
Never do anything more than is actually happening. What I
mean is, be aware of any desire to be interesting.Do not purposely do anything with the words. Leave yourself alone and
repeat what you hear. Your attention must be over there with
your Parrner.
As soon as you hear what you hear, repeat what you hear.-Tate
out any pausing that might be occurring between hearing what
you hear and your repeating it. This is not technical, it is not
about "pacing," it is simply, there is nothing to think about so
when you hear what you hear, repeat what you hear. This does
Session One
not mean rushing. You musr not be "topping" what your partner is saying or in other words, repeating what he is saying
beforehe has actually finished sayingit.
rwenrv
minutes
-'- .":t':'i
:"1 :':'*'"
How is that feeling for you? Let me tell you a few keys to all of
this work:
Don't do the repetition, let the repetition do you.
: '., I i
Session Two
mouth as I notice the gren sweater. So as compared to "green
sweater" this is now more like real talk-it is real talk! How you
say it is not important, itt however it comes out of your mouth
as you notice the first thing. So I might have said, "green
sweater on you there" or, "sweater, gren s\ryeateryou got on."
It's however I discover I am saying it as I say it.
Now, with this ntw element in the repetition, go ahead and do
some.Each partnr start two times, then come back and read on.
Session
Two
Now there are some things to talk about.
Point of View
\rARM UP
Do repetition for about fifteen minutes and then read on.
(\i?hen I give you a length of time, that is for each pair ofpartners in the group.)
INTO IANGUAGE
Ve are now going to take a next step with rhe repetition. For
no better way of saying it, I call this step, 'putting into language." It is a simple new element in rhe work and it will rdse
a few very important issues.It works like rhis: As I rurn to my
partner and see her green sweater, rather than saying "green
sweater," I might say, "You have a green sweater" or, "You're
wearing a green sweater" or whatever words come out of my
20
\?HAI'S HAPPENING
Lett look at the example I just gave. Who's shirt was my partner talking about? She was talking to me about my grey shirt.
That is what was happening in the moment. So I must frw
repeat what I hear and include what is happening right now
Session Two
She said " Youre wearing a grey shirt," so I would now repeat,
" I m w e a r i n g a g r e y s h i r t . " I r e p e a r e dw h a t I h e a r d a n d I
22
LIKE NO BULLFROG!"
As opposed to what most people think, what we know, takes no
thought. An infant communicates to us very specifically and
with no thought. "Yeah, but that's instinct!" you may be saying
to me. EXACTLY!!! EXACTLY!!
*To the Obseruer: Vhen you u.,orhagain, uatch
for these pat)* of
thought and tell the person talten it happens.h is so mucb a habit
session Two
HOME\SORK
BeforeSessionThree, meet with a panner a minimum of rwo tinqs
and at eachmeetingdo at leasttwenty minutes of the repetition.
Session
Three
What's Happening
-Aaron Copland
\TARM UP
Begin today with twenty minutes of repetition and then read on.
2A
Three
/ Session
Go ahead now and play the Three Moment Game with each
other; each partner ask five questions. Take your time and have
fun. Then let's talk about it. Now play, then read on.
lVhat
are not interested here in the answer to the question.
we are interested in is what the behavior said to you. So in thrs
example your statement to your partner might have been,
"That made you ill!" or, "You wanna puke!" or whatever it was
to you. If you find yourself stating back what you think the
answer to the question was, stop and try to figure out what
happened with your partner-wltat uas in their behauior that
gauelou the answer.
Do you find yourself using words like "seem" or "look like" as
you tell your partner what their behavior said to you. " Youseem
pissed" or "You looh like yow want to scream." You must take
"seem" and "look like" and any other modifiers out ofyour acting vocabulary. Do you have a hunch why this is important?
You know itt a risk to say what we believe to be true . Horrific
consequencesare possible!The other Person may not lik us!
Or, she may disagree.Or tell us we are just plain wrong. In life
"seem" and "look like" and all the others are buffers, a way out.
Session Three
30
b.-
the thing you start with. So the looking away business,to get
the first thing, served its purpose and is no longer needed'
V/hat I'm saying is, we are through with it so dont do it any'We are always
more. (That's very much how this work goes.
moving forward, never going back.)
*To the Obseruer: Once the rePetition has begun, yu utill call out
tbe Partners' names to baue tltem u.,orhfom a neu obseraation.
Nou, the repet;tion utill not stop but uill be continuous. So, leti
sal the rePetition is under utay and you say "Nancy Go!" Nancl
uill immediately say tahateuer sbe'sauare of ouer on her partner,
in that moment, and tbe repetition continues-the Partners utork'
ing fom tbis netu obseruation.Then, at somePoint lou sab, "Bill
Go!" Bill uill nota immediatei say uhat be obseruesin that
moment and onuard thel go. And so on... You tuill continue to do
this tbrougltout tlte exercise.Haue fun and be trichy Gall the same
persons name three times in a rou, and soforth) so that the part'
nerscannot dnticiPate the changes.
set of partners'
HOME\(ORK
Betweennow and SessionFour, meet at lasttwice with a partner and at each meeting do twenty minutes of the Three
Moment Game. Then do ten minutes of repetition.
r
Liuing is a form of not beingsure,not knowing ultat, next or
hou.,.The momentlou hnout hou, you begin to die a linle. The
altist nearentireQ hnous. Weguess.Wc may be urong, but ue
taheleapafer leap in the darh.
-Agnes De Mille
Seeyou at SessionFour!
33
Session Four
take out the thinking about what you get from your partner's
behavior as they repeat the question and tell them what you got
immediately! Then, let that third moment lead you into repetition. Here is an example:
Session
Four
Partner A:
Partner B:
Partner A:
Partner B:
Partner A:
Partner B:
Working-Off
\rARM UP
As you let the third moment lead you into repetition, continue
repeating for seven or eight moments only. Do not go on at
length as you have done before. OK, you can go ahead now
and do the Three Moment Game in this manner for twenry
minutes. Vork now and then read on.
Do ten minutes of the Three Momenr Game and then read on.
How does that feel?In the third moment, did you find that
sometimes you knew that you got "something?" from your
partner but you could not immediately find the words to
describe it? That's OK. If you dont have the words you must
still respond to what you got from your Partner, so, respond in
some way. You don't have to say it good and it doesnt have to
make sense!So if your partner screamsin delight your immediate responsemight be "\(O\7EE \7O\w \7O\7 VO\?!" You
see,it is better to respond immediately, than to stop ro "Get tt
right" or "Say it well", AL'$7AYS!
Now, I want you to do the Three Moment Game in the following way. Everything srays rhe same except for the third
momnt. Now the third moment musr happen immediately. So
34
TheSanfordMeisnerApproach
Session Four
REPETITION: \TORKING-OFF
I want you each to try something right now.
Do the Three Moment Game as you have just done it, the third
moment leading you into repetition. Now as you are repeating,
when you are aware of something happening ouer tltere, something that you gt from your partner, you can say it. I am
telling you that now, as you are aware ofthings happening with
your partner, you must respond to that-which means thar rhe
repetition will now have changesin it. Give that a try and once
your into the repetition, dont stop for a while. Simply allow
the repetition to change when you are aware of something
.'-'
:" l' ::
""0
*'n readon'
::
36
Session Four
Did you find that, at times, you were aware of yourself having
thoughts during the repetition? A lot of times these thoughts
are the very dring you could have said to your parmer but didnt,
so you end up thinking about it. For example: You feel that
your partner is "taking control" and you hear yourself repeating
automatically (like a roboQ For a good many moments while in
your head you are thinking, "God, het controlling this thing!"
There are two things to do:
First, you must begin to allow that voice in your head to be
expressedto your partnet "God, you're controlling this thing!"
You see,thatt the repetition!
Or second, if the moment has passed,you must bring your
attention back to your partner and what is happening right
As you did the repetition, did you find periods of working with
-and
each other where the repetition wenr on for a lonq time
it
didn't change?Do not worry about that ar this poinr. It is berter for. that to be happening right now then to be looking
for the
next thing or trying to make the repetition change. you see, this
is all very ner,v to you right now, so you will be missing
moments, not getdng all that is coming your way. your work,
asyou keep doing the repetition, is to become more fully available to each momenr as it happens.
How do you do that? Let me tell you something, you cannor
MAKE yourself more available, you can only invite it and
encourageit to occur. The repetition is your vehicle. It will take
you there if you do the things I have told you. Again, work
consistently and "Don't do the repetition, let the repetition dd
you", which, right now means: Repear immediately and keep
your attention on your partner. In this way you cannot ger
ahead of yourself and you will discouerwhen the reDeritioo
must change rather than trying (efforting) ro find the things to
cnange rt to.
38
nota.
Chapter
0ne
That's a big deal for us actors, isn't it. Let's include acting
teachershere as well, becausethis is precisely where many
teachers are crippling, even damaging their students, by
encouraging various forms of psychological warfare in the
classroom. In my experience of working with actors and
acting students around the country, the "emotions" are certainly an area of confusion as well as a sorrce of tremendous frustration.
'$7e
course in this aspect of the work becausewe are specifically isolating this thing called emotion and putting it under
the micfoscope. Unfortunately, many actofs don't then
deal with the more advanced and esSentialaspectsof interpfetation, and they become trapped in a haze of emotional
self-consciousness.(ffhich is why this is book two of my
four book serieson the Meisner Approach. Books three and
four will be dealing with the acting tools of working with
text and interpretation.)
And let's face it, you and I are emotional beings. We afe
born fully alive emotionally. As infants, we are not only
uttedy expressive of what's going on with us, we are much
mofe aware of and responsive to the inner state of the people around us - what's actually going on with them - than
the words they speak. As adult actors, we must re-open
ourselvesto that kind of emotional availability becauseit is
tfue on stage as well, that the words are never really telling
the whole story. If th play is to live , we must be aware of
and responsive to what's really going ofl with our partnefs
on stagein each momeflt.
4 chapter one
C h a p t e r
Tw
about emotional
preparation
Let's say that you arc in a play and you are playing the
p rt of L married gal who is coming home from a bowling
toumament. It is the first scene of the play and you have to
make your entrance. You are walking into your living room
whr you discover your husband dusting the fumiture.
The director has told you that he wants you to do a little
celebration danc asyou enter. Here are the first three lines
of the play:
Wife (you): Honey, you are looking at a bowler herel
Husband: Vow, you are on top of the wodd!
'W'ife:
We won, babe, we won the toumament big time!
Now, after reading those three lines it is cleaf and obvi
ous that, as the wife, you are going to be required to make
your entrance in an emotionally atve place that will not
only make sense of what you say and do when you come
6
in, you must also make it possible for your partner on stage
to say his line, "WoLt,,you are on top of the uto d!" You
have got to come into the scene ON TOP OF THE IrORID!
Ifell, how do you go about getting yourself into that kind
of triumphant, joyous state while you are off-stage?
Remember, in our work, we don't pretend and we don't
fake. This means that when you make that entrance, you
must not be acting triumphant and loyous - you must actually BE tfiumphant and ioyous.
This is what emotional preparation is all about. It's
what you do before you enter so that when you do enter,
you afe emotionally alive. And as you see from my example, the nature of the preparation you do is dictated by the
demands of the play. "Bur" you say, "I don't giue a d,amn
about bozuling or ulnning a bouling tournanxent. How
am I going to get truly excited about that?" Great question! You have brought up an amazing and fantastic paft of
the acting process.Here I am the actor and over there is the
plal'wright's play. It is now my iob to take the words given
to me by the play'wright and invest them with life. You get
that? INWST THEM WITH LIFE! Now there's a juicy statemeflt that tums me on. And invest them with whose life do
you think? The character's life? V/hat character? Is the character going to act this part? No, you are. You will invest the
words with your life! Now, I get excited when I think
about sinking myself into the puzzle , the mystery of creation as an actor. And you know, that's what it's all really
about. Do you think all this acting technique stuff is so that
you will end up with some sort of "one plus one equals
two" kind of formula? Forget about it! All technique is
about one thing: making you strong and willing and able to
allow the mysterious to occur. Remember, great acting
only occurs in th teffitory of the unlnown. Us actors must
a b o u t e m o t i o n a lp r e p a r a t i o n 7
T H EE X E R C I S E S
In our work on emotional preparation, we will begin by
doing some new exercises in which you work without a
partner. Then we will come back around to the kind of
exercises you learned how to do in the first book on this
approach using repetition, activities and relationships. As
we retum to those exercises.we will add new elements. as
well as raise the emotional stakesin the way you set up the
exercise. You will also see that the activity, which in the
previous exercisesalways had a physical difficulty, takes on
a new dimension.
I chapter two