Class Structure

The foundational acting skills of really listening and answering are practiced through the beginning repetition exercises, much as musicians practice scales or dancers work at the barre. Activities are added to help ground actors in the reality of doing. The additional elements of objectives and expectations complete the first level of Meisner training. These well-practiced skills are applied to final scenes from classic film/theater which the teacher carefully selects for the students.

The beginning exercises give way to a more realistic improvisational structure and the opportunity for a deeper exploration of the actor's emotional range as the repetition is dropped but the connection with your partner remains. Emotional Preparation and Activities in the extreme help prepare actors for more complex work as the stakes are raised and students begin to understand more fully their unique emotional palettes. Imaginary Relationships are carefully crafted and practiced to allow for more fully realized improvisations. These new skills are applied to more challenging final scene work selected for them by the teacher.

With the addition of Physical Impediments to the improvisations, students begin the journey into CHARACTER work. This area is concerned with the illusion of reality rather than the reality itself as actors practice accents, conditions of pain, drug and alcohol effects, imitations, etc. These well-practiced skills help actors expand their ranges by keeping to the tenets of specificity to create truthful and convincing characterizations. The final scenes involve application of these new skills to even more challenging material individually selected by the teacher.

This final level of Meisner training begins with an examination of Spoon River Anthology to help actors find emotional truth and make specific character choices in monologues as they explore various advanced styles and forms of acting. Nursery Rhymes are a fun approach to justifying text and help prepare advanced actors in their interpretation of challenging material. Final Scene work involves application of the accumulated, practiced skills to all styles, including Shakespeare, which students select with the assistance of the teacher. 

Each level of Meisner training is covered in 12 weeks, meeting twice weekly, for a total of 24 class sessions. Students interested in an Advanced Scene Studies class must have completed at least a beginning level Meisner class.

Private coaching sessions for auditions are available @ $40 an hour.

Total cost of each level is $750, payable monthly in (3) $250 installments.