SANFORD “Sandy”
MEISNER
(1905-1997)
and the Meisner Technique
The core principles
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“Living truthfully under imaginary circumstances…is my
definition of good acting.”
To achieve this, Meisner emphasizes that actors must:
 First and foremost, fully understand and develop
character
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See the script as an outline of the emotional reality
and commit to the objectives within a play and a
scene
 actors should throw out stage directions and
emotional descriptions
 “What’s my motivation?”
 Move the scene forward, pushing toward your
objective
The core principles, cont.
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memorize and practice the text in a completely
neutral, non-judgmental, cold, uncalculated,
expressionless fashion (no line readings).
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Don’t pick up cues; pick up impulses
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Eliminates tensions, the actor is relaxed with the lines and open to
any influence (esp. those presented by the scene partner):
emotional flexibility.
Only respond when the imaginary circumstances/ scene partners
genuinely prompt a response
Don’t just wait for your turn to speak!
LISTEN and respond in character

“Be in the moment.”
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Don’t project; don’t indicate, embody
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Focus on emotional detail above all else
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i.e. instead of focusing on visualizing snow outside a window, focus
on an objective (“If it doesn’t stop snowing, I’ll never get back to
New York and I’ll lose my job”).
LESSON ONE
 “The
foundation of acting is the
reality of doing…The foundation
of acting is the reality of doing. The
reality of doing.”
LESSON TWO
 “Don’t
do anything unless
something happens to make you
do it…What you do doesn’t
depend on you; it depends on
the other fellow.”
Emotional Preparation & Particularization
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“The purpose of [emotional] preparation is so that you do
not come in emotionally empty…It’s simple. Don’t come in
empty.”
“When you prepare, go into a dark corner if you can find
one.”
“Preparation lasts only for the first moment of the scene,
and then you never know what’s going to happen.”
Particularization - it's "as if"…“your personal example
chosen from your experience or your imagination which
emotionally clarifies the cold material of the text. a
particularization is similar to preparation only that it's for a
specific moment, chosen, and rehearsed.
Meisner wisdom
“It takes twenty years to become an actor.”
 “How does an actor think? He doesn’t
think—he does.”
 “No acting please…Be a human being who
works off what exists under imaginary
circumstances. Don’t give a performance.
Let the performance give you.”
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