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 with the character.

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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 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.”

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Learn to live in the moment as an actor, and let go of any idea of the 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”.
 

 "Your responsibility as an actor is to live more truthfully than you dare in real life.”
- Ashlie Walker

"Nothing more magical than the courageous moment a person drops down their mask and steps into their authenticity. Nothing more empowering for them and nothing more appealing to anyone in their presence."

- Nita Arpiainen

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Our voice training is a practical exploration of how to free the emotional, creative and expressive potency of the human voice. It develops this further by helping the actor access an embodied relationship to language that is shaped by the intellect but not controlled by it. By combining a free voice and a deeper connection to language a meaningful exchange emerges between speaker, listener and audience.

 

Our voices have the capacity to reveal our needsinorder to connect withand be understood by others. Over time, the potency of our voices are submerged under layers of conditioning. If we are to play characters whose lives extend into the full range of extra-ordinary human experience…can our voices support that depth of expression?

The training will help to undo the psycho-physical blocks that inhibit the human instrument and strengthen the natural power of the voice. Through a carefully considered selection of exercises, personal work, imaginations, play and improvisations… a voice will emerge that reveals nuance, range, sensitivity and presence and power.

 

The areas of focus will be broken down into elements that include Physical Awareness, Voice, Resonance, Range, Articulation and Text. While these terms could be used to describe pure vocal dynamics, what’s important is that the person is heard through the voice!This is the focus of the training. To free the voice is to free the person. Actors must understand themselves, their instrument, and then the needs of the character so intimately that they can vibrate with a charge that affects the other actor and resonates in the audience also. This is more than projection, it is connection!

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Our movement training is a deep,personal exploration into embodied awareness and presence. From this holistic standpoint we then apply that to emotional fluency and a psycho-physical approach to rehearsal and performance.

 

Our life story is written into our body. Every laugh, cry, stumble, cut, hurt or pleasure is felt through our body. It is the means through which we learn, relate and perceive. Our behaviour, conscious or unconscious, is expressed in the way we move, breathe, feel and relate to the world. By bringing these habits into the foreground we can develop more choice as to what feels right for us personally…and make an authentic connection to the life story of the character.

 

The movement practices offered are ways to use the body to communicate, find ease, poise, balance and inhabit space. They will cultivate imagination, awaken the senses, allow vulnerability to occur, feel comfortable with uncertainty, open the  breathing, and understand how intention is carried out by the body and voice. Students will develop an increased ‘felt sense of self’. Acting will feel less ‘heady’ and access to emotion will become easier.

"A naturally resonant and expressive voice is the by-product of the freedom of emotional expression. Clarity of speech is governed by clear thinking. The two must work in harmony."

- Ben Joiner

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Please note:
The movement and voice training draws heavily on the learning principles embedded in Feldenkrais, Linklater Voice and Contact Improvisation and other like body- minded somatic learning systems.

 

This practice has the potential to be transformational work. It will gently challenge habitual behaviours and suit those who want to develop more connection with others when communicating. It is a respectful and holistic training with authentic dialogue at its core. It does not champion one type of ‘voice’over another and welcomes all ‘bodies’ regardless of age, gender, cultural background or ability.