About the Meisner Technique

The Technique

The Meisner technique is an acting technique which:

• Teaches the actor to listen and respond truthfully in the moment.
• Brings great spontaneity to any performance.
• Gets the actor out of their head.
• Teaches the actor how to make strong, exciting choices.
• Trains the actor to DO, rather then pretending to do.
• Dramatically expands the actor's emotional availability and range.
• Relies more on the use of the imagination then dredging up personal, potentially damaging, psychological pain.
• Teaches the actor how to work from their gut and instincts.
• Builds confidence.
• Results in HONEST, compelling performances.
• Trains the actor to bring the single greatest, most compelling, most original component to any performance or audition: themselves.

About Sanford Meisner

A leading acting teacher who trained some of the most famous performers of the stage and screen, Sanford Meisner was a founding member of the Group Theatre. The Group Theatre, a cooperative theater ensemble, became a leading force in the theater world of the 30s. While still a member of the group, Meisner became the head of the acting department of New York's Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater. After the Group Theatre dissolved in 1941 Meisner devoted himself to teaching, appearing only occasionally on Broadway and in films (most notably, in Clifford Odets' 1959 The Story on Page One).

Actors who have studied the Meisner technique include:

Joan Allen, Kim Basinger, Andrew Benjamin, Sandra Bullock, James Caan, Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, James Gandolfini, Jeff Goldblum, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anjelica Huston, Allison Janney, Diane Keaton, Grace Kelly, Christine Lahti, David Mamet, Dylan McDermott, Christopher Meloni, Gregory Peck, Sydney Pollack, Mark Rydell, José Angel Santana, Mary Steenburgen, Jon Voight, Michael K. Williams, Joanne Woodward.