Sanford Meisner

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Sanford "Sandy" Meisner (born August 31, 1905 in New York City , † February 2, 1997 in Sherman Oaks , Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor and acting teacher.

life and work

Sanford Meisner was a co-founder of the Group Theater , together with Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler , and one of those who adapted Konstantin Sergejewitsch Stanislavski's training system for America. From 1935 to 1990 Meisner taught at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York. There he began to develop an acting technique based on Stanislawski's theory , which is known today as the Meisner Technique . The approach taught by Meisner is shaped by his personal collaboration with Stanislavski and thus comes closest to the modern approach to actor training as represented in Moscow.

Acting as an actor

Sanford Meisner worked mainly as a stage actor. As a co-founder of the Group Theater he was a permanent member of the ensemble and worked as an actor in numerous productions of the theater. The most important productions include: Awake and Sing! , Paradise Lost , An American Tragedy , Golden Boy, and Crime and Punishment . In addition, Sanford Meisner occasionally worked in front of the camera. His most significant film appearances include his roles in The Night Tender , Sensation on page 1 and Mickey and Nicky .

Acting as an acting teacher

From 1935 to 1990, Sanford Meisner taught young aspiring actors at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York in the technique he had developed himself. In addition to the permanently enrolled students, who mostly began their training at the age of twenty, Sanford Meisner also offered advanced training classes for experienced actors who wanted to refine and improve their acting.

The drama school is still based on Meisner's teaching methods. The standard training at the Neighborhood Playhouse therefore lasts two years, with the Meisner acting technique courses still mostly lasting fifteen months. As in Meisner's time, other subjects are also available. a. Singing, dancing, voice training and stage fighting .

Famous alumni include Elizabeth Ashley , Tom Cruise , Barbara Baxley , James Caan , Robert Duvall , Jeff Goldblum , Lee Grant , Lorne Greene , Tammy Grimes , Anne Jackson , Diane Keaton , Louise Lasser , Darren McGavin , Steve McQueen , Gregory Peck , Tony Randall , Jo Van Fleet , Jon Voight , Eli Wallach , Sandra Bullock and Joanne Woodward .

Meisner technique

Meisner was of the opinion that actors and those who want to become actors usually have two basic problems:

  1. They work too much with their heads and are thus mentally trapped in intellectual processes, which prevents them from grasping and grasping the respective game situation emotionally.
  2. They often struggle to really listen to their partner because they keep the focus on themselves.

The Meisner technique is based on a dedicated, emotional outward alignment of the actor. This distinguishes Sanford Meisner's teaching significantly from Lee Strasberg's Method Acting , which is based on an earlier phase of Stanislawski. An actor working according to the Meisner technique does not generate his impulses for the respective game actions himself, but only takes them from his play partners or the playing environment. Sanford Meisner always emphasized “acting means reacting” (“acting / acting means reacting”). In addition, he always explained to his students: “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.” (“Acting is the ability to truly live under given imaginary circumstances.”) This basic attitude results in a new assessment of the importance of talent for the profession of actor. Talent is no longer the all-important skill, but just an essential prerequisite for acting. According to Meisner, actors must be able to react to one another and tap into each other's impulses, as this is the only way to create real emotional states. The meaning of the dramatic text in the Meisner technique also differs significantly from most other acting theories:
As a rule, other acting teachings focus on the text itself and on how it should be best spoken. At Meisner, however, the focus is also here on emotion. He compares the text with a canoe that travels along a “body of water of emotions”. ("The text is like a canoe and the river on which it sits is the emotion.") So the actor never starts from the text itself, but always from an emotional state. As a result, the text experiences an emotional impact and does not appear artificially conceived, but truthful - although it is without a doubt an artistic construct.

The Meisner technique is not only important for the acting profession, but can also be transferred to the work of the director. A director who works according to Sanford Meisner's principle lets the actors develop and offer a lot on the basis of Meisner's acting technique and exercises, and in this way gains the impetus for their own directorial work. The individual staging ideas usually result from previous improvisation by the actors. Direction according to the Meisner technique works in a dialogic manner and is based on close cooperation between director and actor.

Quotes

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  • "Acting is the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances."
  • "The seed to the craft of acting is the reality of doing."
  • "You know it's all right to be wrong, but it's not all right not to try."
  • "There's no such thing as nothing."
  • "Less is more!"
  • "An ounce of behavior is worth more than a pound of words."
  • “Silence has a myriad of meanings. In the theater, silence is an absence of words, but never an absence of meaning. "
  • "May I say as the world's oldest living teacher, 'Fuck Polite!'"
  • “Acting can be fun. Don't let it get around. "

literature

  • Meisner, Sanford et al. Dennis Longwell: Sanford Meisner On Acting . New York: Random House 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Willam Esper / Damon DiMarco: The Actors Art and Craft . ISBN 978-0-307-27926-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Meisner, Sanford
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meisner, Sandy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1997
Place of death Sherman Oaks