I LIVE I
All-level Meisner Technique
with Dominic Kelly
February 6 - 7, 2027
Helsinki, Finland
Saturday 10:00 - 16:00
Sunday 10:00 - 16:00
Space is limited.
This intensive two-day workshop with Dominic Kelly is designed for both beginners and actors with previous experience in the Meisner Technique.
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to deepen your practice, this course offers a focused exploration of Sanford Meisner’s core exercises—helping you access and express your most truthful impulses in response to your partner’s behavior.
With a developed imagination there's no place you can't go.
– Stanford Meisner
About The Event
This workshop will help you cultivate your craft in the most important way, through different Meisner Technique based exercises. Teaching will be tailored to each participant’s level of experience. Beginners will gain a solid introduction to the Meisner Technique through the famous Repetition and other core exercises, while advanced practitioners will explore improvisations, emotional preparation, independent activities, and relationships to bring the work into deeper practice.
On the second day, advanced participants also have the option to work on a short self-chosen scene. Please let us know by email in advance if you would like to do this.
This workshop is both a training ground and a safe space to challenge yourself, explore truth in performance, and deepen your connection to others and the imaginary world of a scene.
.
Who is this Workshop For?
-
Actors (both advanced and beginner)
-
Performers and directors
-
Writers and artists
-
Coaches and anyone curious about understanding their emotional life and authentic human connection more deeply
WHAT DO YOU GAIN?
Through this workshop you will:
• be introduced to all core exercises in Meisner Technique
• explore and deepen your capacity to work with all core exercises in Meisner Technique
• strengthen your capacity to really listen and connect with your partner
• deepen your emotional expression and understanding
• enhance your capacity to drop down masks and live in your authenticity
• strengthen your sensitivity and awareness of your partner’s emotional life and expression
• strengthen your instincts and capacity to take risks
• find healthy and organic ways to let go of fear and pressure with other people and on stage
• create more freedom to be present and live in the moment
• get many useful tools to 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
INFO
• Price: 325€ including VAT 25.5%
• Class time: Saturday & Sunday 6 - 7 February 2027, 10:00 - 16:00
• Location: Pursimiehenkatu 26H, Helsinki
• Place is limited and will be filled on 'first-come first-serve basis'.
• The booking for all events and workshops is binding. You can cancel 30 days prior 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 in this link here.
Space is limited and spots fill quickly. Book early to secure yours.
ABOUT THE COACH
Dominic is an acting coach with over twenty years of experience in theatre and film, specialising in the Meisner Technique, and as a creative consultant, advising writers, actors, and producers on idea development, and dramaturgy. He is also the artistic director of the salon:collective, hosting actors training and producing creative projects for theatre, film, festivals and corporate clients such as British Council for Rio Olympics, Harvey Nicholls, and Wilderness Festival. Dominic teaches Meisner Technique internationally, and has created an online actor training programme. He has assisted top Meisner coaches, Tom Radcliffe (Actors Temple) and Martin Barter (Sanford Meisner Centre). His focus in actor training is to embolden actors to question fully and rigorously the definition of Meisner’s quote, ‘living truthfully under imaginary circumstances’. His work encourages actors to question their habits and explore the power of their vulnerability. He recently was awarded the Olwen Wymark Award from the Writer’s Guild for his work with emerging playwrights. Dominic's previous clients have appeared in Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Avengers: Infinity War, The Avengers: Endgame, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Crazy Rich Asians, Ex Machine, Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror, I May Destroy You, The Crown, The Witcher, Casualty, Silent Witness, Holby, EastEnders.
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
MEISNER WORKSHOP IN NOVEMBER
Guided by Ashlie Walker (UK), whether you’re returning to Meisner training or encountering it for the first time, this workshop provides a focused and supportive space to rediscover authentic emotional connection and freedom in your work. A space that encourages you to listen deeply, respond truthfully, and rediscover the joy of spontaneous play. Click here for more info.
ONE YEAR TRAINING HELSINKI
International acting training brought to your doorstep! With London’s top teachers, you’ll dive deep into the Meisner technique, gather hands-on experience from the field, finishing the year with an industry-ready toolkit, including a professional showreel, headshots and voice reel, all produced by industry professionals. Click here for more info.