This workshop helps you to dive back into your craft and reconnect with the emotional truth of the scene through Meisner technique exercises. We will challenge our acting muscles and deepen our ability to connect to truthful impulses and emotions under imaginary circumstances. You will be paired up with someone working at a similar level as you.

 

TO WHOM IT IS FOR
For actors, performers, directors, writers and artists with previous experience in Meisner Technique. You should be familiar with Repetition and ready to work with Independent Activity and Emotional Preparation.

 

WHAT YOU GET

Through this workshop you will:

• strengthen your ability to connect with your partner.

• learn to express and be yourself more freely and bravely

• create more freedom to be present and live in the moment

• strengthen your self-confidence and connection to your intuition

• strengthen your capacity to really listen and connect with another

• deepen your emotional expression and understanding

• warm-up your acting muscles

• revisit the core exercises of Meisner Technique

• broaden your ability to incorporate the Technique into your craft

• deepen the connection to your craft 

• be challenged creatively

• enhance your capacity of finding authentic emotional expression to any performing platform

• as a director get highly applicable tools and approaches on how to gently help actors connect to their authentic emotional life

• as a writer get exercises for developing scripts and understanding creating dialogue with emotional truth and complexity.

​

​​

 

INFO 

• Price: 265€ 
• Location: Actors Academy Finland, Pursimiehenkatu 26H, Helsinki

• Time: 17. - 18.5.2021 / Monday & Tuesday 16:00 - 21:00

• Place is limited and will be filled on a 'first-come-first-serve' basis.

• The booking for all events and workshops is binding. You can cancel 30 days prior to the event and receive a 50% return of your payment or you can pass on your spot to another person without an extra fee.

• Teaching language is English (Please keep in mind that you do not need to have perfect English skills, and you do not need to worry about accent and pronunciation).

• All rights to changes reserved.

• You can find the event on Facebook here.

​

​

ABOUT TOM SAWYER

Tom has trained and worked extensively both in the UK and the US. Training in London includes The Poor School, The Actors Centre and The Actors Temple and the Margie Haber Studio In the US among others. 

He has worked as a professional actor for over 20 years on stage and screen at the highest level for institutions such as BBC (Eastenders), Channel 4 (Hollyoaks), ITV (The Bill) and on stage has worked at the famous Edinburgh Festival and with companies such as Pilot Theatre Company (Sing yer heart out for the lads) appearing in some of the UK’s most prestigious theatres including Hackney Empire, Salisbury Playhouse, Soho Theatre and York Theatre Royal. 

He is a founder and tutor at the Screen Actors London and a tutor at The Actors Temple where he specializes in the Meisner Technique, and also works with actors at Mountview Academy, International School of Screen Acting and the London Film Academy.

​
 

​

TESTIMONIALS

"I found that the workshop was very inspiring and gave some incredibly useful insight. It was a great pleasure to work with Tom. You can tell that he is a professional but at the same time very approachable and relatable which makes the classroom a stress-free environment. The workshop gives much needed clarity to many questions and reminds us that acting is supposed to be fun. Any actor or anyone working with actors can benefit from it. 5/5 stars.”
- Rasmus Blomqvist

​

“I liked this workshop very much. It has given me a lot of new angles on how to look at things, all round a good experience. I learned that we don’t have to overprepare or overthink it, we have a lot of information in us already. I would definitely recommend Tom’s workshop, it was a lot of fun, informative and insightful. I would give this workshop five out of five stars, it was an overall great experience and I also loved the Actors Academy Studio space, it’s amazing and cozy."
- Meri Lindblad

​

“I found the course really useful and Tom gave me so many good points on how I can improve my acting, so now I know how I can work on myself. One thing I learned was how to take everything extra off and act from simplicity rather than trying too much. Tom was a really good teacher, he really knows what it is to be an actor, and what is professional acting. He was empathic and kind when directing and I feel that he hit the spot when directing the scene. He has a lot of knowledge and funny stories about the actors' life. Overall his knowledge combined with approbative attitude and great humor made the workshop fun and useful. I'm really happy I invested in it. Actors Academy has exceeded my expectations now both two times I've attended a workshop. I would definitely recommend it, it was a very good workshop for me. I would give it 4,5 stars, it was really good.” 
- Anna-Katriina Kyykkänen

​

“The workshop was really good. It was very insightful and I learned something new that I wasn’t expecting. One of the biggest revelations was how can I use silence and let space tell the story, also learned something completely new about myself. Tom is very thoughtful, supportive and kind, and has great ideas on how to improve and what to do. It was also very easy to understand him. I would absolutely recommend the workshop. I think that even if you are not an actor, this workshop can help you in your expression and confidence. I would definitely give the workshop five stars."
- Mimi Alén

​

“The workshop was very exciting and I learned a lot of new things. Tom's way of teaching was very nice and very enjoyable overall. Tom is very knowledgeable, very supportive and encouraging, great to work with. I would definitely recommend Tom's workshop. Anyone who is interested in camera work would benefit a lot from the workshop. I would easily give this workshop five stars.”
- Juhana Stolt

​

“Tom is really fun, I felt really relaxed in his classes. I would give five stars to this workshop. Good teacher, great people, loved it!"
- Hope Achan

​

“I really liked Tom Sawyer’s workshop because it was very authentic and he really talked from his own experience and was able to bring those really good examples which we were also able to take into the exercises during class. I found his tips super useful on how to really connect with your partner rather than just staring and the paper and focusing on the words. I would actually recommend this workshop to anybody whether you are in acting or not because you actually exercise the muscles on how you act and react with other people. I would give it five stars as it was a very nice four days, a very relaxing atmosphere and there were time and quality put into the exercises.”
- Anna Schoults

​

"I really really liked it. Tom guides his students very gently, but also very clear and he is fun to work with. I was amazed at his endless energy, and him always giving so much. I learned a lot. It was a really valuable experience for me and I would love for him to come back. Also if you are new to this it will help you a lot. I would give the workshop 4,5 stars our of five!”
-Hosanna Megumi

​

"I felt cozy. For me, the workshop was very inspiring and helpful. I feel that I want to go further and further. Usually, when I want to take part in the movie and be a background actor I send only some horrible pictures and hope that somebody notices them. Tom Sawyer is a very magical teacher. I don`t know how he did it, but he injected me with confidence. Thanks for that, it was like a therapy session and I need it more. This journey was amazing and from the heart, I really recommend this workshop to others. I give 5 stars out of 5.”
- Chris Kuningas

​

"This workshop with Tom Sawyer was an absolutely incredible experience. Actors Academy Finland is truly a treasure here in Finland that everybody should check out! Tom is a brilliant teacher. Such a genuine and down to earth guy! He really takes into account each student and finds something new to work on. He’s able to create this relaxed, open and safe environment where it is easy to create and try something new. I feel like I could write an entire book about the new things I learned from this workshop. 100/5 stars.”
- Julia Nurmi

​

“I’m kind of new in this, so he helped me a lot on how to express your emotions and how to understand how you put the script to the screen and how to live fully and be in the moment. Tom helped me a lot in these days, he helped me to understand myself in an artistic way. I like him a lot as a teacher, he gave me a lot of tips. I hope to work with him soon again. I would recommend this workshop to anyone who is interested in acting. I would give this workshop 4,5 out of five stars.”
- Sanjay Shrestha

​

“Tom is very nice, a down to earth guy. He is very inspiring and doesn't take authority. I felt immediately I can really relax in the class. He has a lot of experience and really knows what he talks about. I would definitely recommend the workshop to anyone who is interested in acting. I would give this workshop five stars out of five. It provided a lot of clear concrete and practical information, something you can start to use immediately.”
- Laura Faarinen

​

​

​

ABOUT MEISNER TECHNIQUE
The Meisner technique is an approach to acting which was developed by the American theatre practitioner Sanford Meisner. The focus of the Meisner approach is for the actor to "get out of their head", such that the actor is behaving instinctively to the surrounding environment. To this end, some exercises for the Meisner technique are rooted in repetition so that the words are deemed insignificant compared to the underlying emotion. In the Meisner technique, there is a greater focus on the other actor as opposed to one's internal thoughts or feelings associated to the character.

Meisner Training is an interdependent series of training exercises that build on one another. The more complex work supports a command of dramatic text. Students work on a series of progressively complex exercises to develop an ability to first improvise, then to access an emotional life, and finally to bring the spontaneity of improvisation and the richness of personal response to textual work. The techniques developed the behavioral strand of Stanislavski's. The technique is used to develop improvisation skills as well as "interpreting a script, and creating the specific physical characteristics of each character the actor played”.

Sanford Meisner said that his approach to training “is based on bringing the actor back to his emotional impulses and to acting that is firmly rooted in the instinctive. It is based on the fact that all good acting comes from the heart, as it were, and that there’s no mentality to it.”

Learn to live in the moment as an actor, and let go of any idea of result. Learn what it means to really “do” and to respond truthfully to a given moment based on what you get from your partner. Through improvisation, emotional truth and personal response learn to resonate authenticity within a given circumstance. Only in this way will you begin to understand the definition of real acting, which is “to live truthfully under the imaginary circumstances”.

​

“If you want to reach every person in the audience, it's not about being bigger, it's about going deeper.”
- Sanford Meisner