By Doug Long
 Sanford Meisner |
Partner A: "You’re smiling at me."
Partner B: "I’m smiling at you."
Partner A: "You’re smiling at me."
Partner B: "You’re blushing."
Partner A: "I’m blushing?"
Partner B: "You’re blushing…"
If there is one recognizable aspect of the Sanford Meisner "technique," it’s the repetition exercise. Acting partners face each other. One responds to something in the other person that prompts them to speak. The other partner reflects the sentence back. This continues until one of the partners changes the repetition based on spontaneous observations. This is the foundation for dozens of exercises to follow.
Meisner considered his technique to be non-intellectual approach to truthful acting, and based on the number of Chicago theatres and schools currently offering Meisner (or "Meisner-based") classes, it works for many actors. For many teachers, it was the key to their own acting breakthroughs.
Dale Calandra, who teaches a series of Meisner workshops for Fourth Wall, said, "I was a good actor, but there was always something missing. I was missing myself in the work."
This was echoed by Syd Moore, who teaches privately: "I was a very good actress, but there was something missing," she said. "It came from not being present in the work."
Meisner’s Rise
When realism took over as the predominant American acting style in the 1930s, Meisner was there. In 1931, Meisner was a charter member of the Group Theatre, modeled on the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) which had toured to New York in the early 1920s with realistic, ensemble productions. Some MAT members stayed in New York and taught some of the Group founders. Much of the training was developed by MAT’s Konstantin Stanislavsky, whose books, including "An Actor Prepares" and "Creating a Character, "continue to be used as acting primers.
Of the many notable acting teachers from the Group Theatre–including Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler and their conflicting interpretations of the Stanislavsky "method"–Meisner seems to have the greatest following.
Eileen Vorbach, who has taught Meisner for 17 years at the Actors Center, has a couple of theories about why. "Things run in trends. When I was in college it was all about Stanislavsky," she said. "Also, [Meisner] works. Actors say 'Oh, now I get what acting is, now I understand!’ Actors are constantly being told by directors to 'Be real.’ Meisner teaches you how. Meisner work teaches you how to respond truthfully in the moment and connect emotionally."
Also, she added, Meisner work "makes acting a ton of fun." The Stanislavski "system" is "very solitary research."
"Meisner" vs. "Meisner-based"
So what is the difference between a "Meisner" class and a "Meisner-based" class? Is there such a thing as a "pure Meisner" class in Chicago? Vorbach tells of a former student who spoke with Meisner in New York. When she told him that she had studied his technique in Chicago, he said she did not–only Meisner can teach "Meisner."
Vorbach says her teaching style has evolved over the years. A recent experiment, for instance, involved partners wearing blindfolds during the repetition. Moore sometimes creates an activity (an outgrowth of the repetition) around a scene when actors are having trouble finding the truth.
Calandra, too, said his approach is a hybrid, mostly a combination of Meisner and Stanislavsky.
"We’re a generation removed from his actual work," Calandra said of Meisner, who died at 91 in 1997. "Whatever we’re doing now, we bring our sensibilities."
Vorbach agreed: "No matter what I teach, I can’t lose my entire self," she said of her variations on the exercises. "I have to have (the class) serve the actors."
Moore said she sticks closely to the teaching methods as originally developed. "I teach straight Meisner exactly the way he did it," she said, "and it works."
Calandra and Vorbach were among the Chicago actors exposed to Meisner in the late ’70s and early ’80s by, among others, Edward K. Martin, whom Meisner trained to teach his exercises. Calandra was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois in Urbana when Martin taught there as a visiting artist. After graduating, Calandra and some of his fellow alumni invited Martin to teach in Chicago in 1980-81. Several Chicago artists, including Jeff Ortman and Robert Falls, created the Wisdom Bridge Training Center, which focused on Meisner training. Martin, who died in 1990, taught many of Chicago’s current Meisner teachers, including Caitlin Hart, who co-founded the Actors Center with Kyle Donnelly and now teaches at Act One Studios; Kathy Scambiatterra from the Artistic Home; and Vorbach, now at the Actors Center.
Currently, most of the Meisner training is done in a series of workshops.
At Fourth Wall there are four levels, said Calandra, who has taught Meisner since 1982, many of those years at Center Theatre before it closed in February. The first level is "the uncovering process where actors learn to know themselves as a unique entity." The second level introduces given circumstances (of the play) and character work. The third and fourth levels are advanced work in the first two areas.
Caitlin Hart’s classes at Act One have a similar framework, plus she offers a free repetition class Friday mornings to current students. Vorbach’s and Moore’s classes also progress from exercises to scene work.
And yes, all of the Meisner teachers interviewed for this article said they begin with repetition.
"Everybody who does the repetition says they do Meisner," Calandra said. "That’s not the be-all and end-all of Meisner."
The teachers agreed that there are not as many Chicago actors who seek long-term Meisner training as those that trek to New York to study at Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse.
"Most people don’t come to Chicago for that," Vorbach said.
"It’s very difficult to learn," Moore said. "It’s more commitment than a lot of Chicago actors have for their training.
"Sometimes they think one class is a quick fix," Calandra said, adding that most successful Chicago actors are proficient in many areas–serious drama, comedy, musical. He said all actors need truthfulness in their acting, "whether they’re selling floor wax in a commercial or playing Shakespeare."
They said, too, that Meisner training is not for everyone.
"It’s simple, but it’s so complicated," Moore said. "Once you get it, though, once that light goes on, it’s like they’ve just experienced euphoria and I’m thrilled. I go through it with them."
Meisner Tomorrow
Will Meisner continue to rule the roost of acting techniques? Some of that has to do with whether or not realism continues as a primary theatrical style. Also, say the teachers, the technique will change to further serve actors.
Both Calandra and Vorbach mentioned a merging with a more physical theatre. Calandra cited Lookingglass and Redmoon as two Chicago theatres that emphasize the physical, and that that kind of training could well merge with Meisner. "Why can’t there be both?" he wondered.
There is already a merging at the Actors Center, Vorbach said. There, they teach a movement technique developed by New York-based Lloyd Williamson. Vorbach described it as a physical counterpart to Meisner, "and the results are really magical. It’s not like dance movement. You learn how to get your instrument as responsive as it needs to be."
Doug Long teaches at DePaul University and Victory Gardens, where he taught an introductory Meisner class last summer.