Resources
Meisner & Beyond
Resources for Meisner & Beyond Students
Resources to continue learning for Meisner & Beyond students.
Check out these general resources, then scroll down to find more recommendations broken down by monthly topic!
A list of recommended podcasts for actors from Backstage.
Casting directors from Feldstein|Paris Casting. They discuss finding actors for Atlanta-based shows, such as Ozark and Stranger Things, giving a look inside the world of casting in the “Hollywood of the South”!
The Actor’s Lounge on Stitcher
The Actor’s Lounge is a podcast where actors can share their stories, with highs, lows, and lessons learned along the way!
The Podcast for Actors from a New York Casting Director with Jeffrey Dreisbach
Interviews with actors and other creatives, hosted by Denise Borraz Trepat
***Some podcasts require discretion-Explicit episodes are marked on podcast platforms with an “E”
An actress talks to film industry professionals for their stories and advice
Actor Aesthetic is a blog with resources for those pursuing a career in the theatre industry. These are short, helpful, and tangible ways for actors to continue growing!
The StudioBinder Blog isn’t specific to actors but does give insight into pre and post-production. Here you’ll find info on technology, movie rankings/analysis, and industry info about job descriptions, salaries, and more!
The Atlanta Film and TV Blog has information on free virtual events, interviews with creatives both behind and in front of the camera, and solid career advice for industry professionals.
StageMilk offers a wide range of acting articles to do with every aspect of the acting craft. We endeavour to offer articles on a range of topics, and from various perspectives.
A list of resources for actors, broken down by region
- @arvoldofficial– Erica Arvold is a long-time casting director and educator who hosts a feedback Friday every week on Twitch where the team reviews submitted tapes and questions from people in the film community.
- @atlantaactorscollective is a resource for actors looking to build community online. They invite followers to participate in film discussions as well as discussions about people’s artistry and experience, post motivational quotes for actors, and include clips from stellar performances in movies.
- @rhavynn Rhavynn Drummer is a director, producer, and casting director who delivers weekly advice to actors on Instagram through her Actor Minute Monday. Drummer answers questions submitted from members of her online community through the IGTV format.
9 Casting Directors to follow on Twitter
An article by Backstage.com
Facebook:
Tik Tok:
A digital magazine for actors
A digital magazine for actors
A digital magazine for actors
Class Resources
Ready to dive deeper into your TAS curriculum? These supplemental resources are intended to give you a deeper understanding and more well rounded view of your TAS education. While these are not meant to replace your TAS classes, they are provided to enhance what you are learning in class.
**All resources are from 3rd party sources which are clearly listed. Any questions about the material can be directed to your TAS acting coach. TAS does not endorse the people or products in the articles, and suggest that students use discretion in their studies.
Meisner: Repetition (Acting is Reacting)
An article by City Academy
An article by An Actor’s Playhouse
A Guide to Meisner’s Repetition Exercise
An article by Backstage.com
The Role of Repetition Exercise in Acting Within The Meisner Technique
An article by Maggie Flannigan Studio
How Does the Repetition Exercise Make You a Better Actor?
An article by the Impulse Company: Australia
What Does the Meisner Technique Teach?
An article by Elizabeth Mestnik Acting Studio
Advanced Meisner Students Demonstrate A Scene Using The Meisner Technique
(Video: Youtube) Houde School of Acting
(Video: Youtube) Sophie Sardi
Sanford Meisner Master Class: Repetition
(Video: Youtube) Contemporary Arts Media-Artfilms
Meisner-trained actors Allison Janney and Sam Rockwell doing the repetition exercise
(Video:Facebook) Meiner in Music
Elizabeth Mestnik talks about the strengths of the Meisner Technique
(Video: Youtube) Elizabeth Mestnik Acting Studio
***Needs Two People
One person says a phrase about how the other person looks or behaves, for example, ‘you are wearing a black top.’ The other person responds by repeating the phrase but they replace the word ‘you,’ with I; so they say, ‘I’m wearing a black top.’ The conversation carries on like this, with one person making observations and the other repeating the observations back to them. Some phrases can be repeated. Here’s an example:
‘You’re wearing earrings.’
‘I am wearing earrings.’
‘You’re wearing earrings.’
‘I am wearing earrings.’
‘You scratched your eyebrow.’
‘I scratched my eyebrow.’
‘You have blonde hair.’
‘I have blonde hair.’
By doing this, the actor stops thinking about what to say and do and responds to the other actor more freely and spontaneously. Meisner’s principles of listening, responding and being in the moment are key to this exercise. One thing to note is that there shouldn’t be judgment in the observational phrase, for example, ‘you look tired,’ wouldn’t be appropriate as this is a judgment and not a fact. Once again, Meisner’s purpose was to remove the obstacle of ‘lines’, so don’t allow words to trip you up. Instead, be truthful to what is happening and to what is said.
Observation
Observe someone that you regularly see in your life, how they physically move, how they talk, how they react when hearing different news/when they feel certain emotions, etc. Take a couple of notes on how they move and behave and see if you can imitate that to create a character. Observation is an important skill for actors to regularly use, not only in their work but throughout daily life.
By Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner was one of the best known and beloved teachers of acting in the country. This book follows one of his acting classes for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, it is essential reading for beginning and professional actors alike. Throughout these pages Meisner is a delight—always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges.
Applied Meisner for the 21st Century
By Kevin Otos and Kim Shively.
Applied Meisner for the 21st-Century Actor develops Meisner’s core principles for the contemporary actor and presents a Meisner-based acting technique that empowers practitioners to take ownership of their own creative process.
Meisner: Acting is Doing
Meisner Acting and Emotional Preparation
An article by City Academy
Introduction to Sanford Meisner and Advice
An article by Dramatics.org
An article by Tablework
Viola Davis on the Role of Actors
(Video: Youtube) Build Series
Connie Britton Discusses Studying Acting with Sanford Meisner
(Video: Youtube) FoundationINTERVIEWS
Acting Advice: What are Benefits of The Meisner Technique in Everyday Life?
(Video: Youtube) The Meisner Technique Studio
Meisner suggests a simple exercise where you can sit on a chair and just try listening to your surroundings.
Try to listen to everything through your senses.
Make the mental picture of everything that is happening outside. Maybe you can hear a car going by or people talking.
You can also observe the walls of the room where you are sitting.
Try to get a feel of the temperature or wind that surrounds you.
Actually LISTEN, don’t PRETEND to listen.
Directions For Emotional Preparation:
Before getting to the instructions, you must understand what you should strive to achieve with this exercise. You have to imagine circumstances to a point where it starts to feel real. There are many ways to do this Meisner acting exercise because it solely depends on character you want prep for.
Start by picking a character that you are going to play. And if you don’t have any gig in the present, pick a character that you usually do during auditions.
Once you have picked the character, spend some time becoming familiar with the circumstances that dictate the life of the character.
For example, imagine the situation of a character who is out of work and doesn’t have money- even to buy bread!
How do you imagine this circumstances that takes you close to the emotions involved?
By doing it!
You read that right.
You must do to experience the emotions.
For our ‘out of job’ character, you must try to go a whole day without spending any money.
And also go out looking for jobs at few places.
This will give you enough experience of the emotions that are involved in it.
One more thing, it’s important to imagine in your mind that these circumstances are real. Pay attention to your mindset.
The more you live these fake circumstances truthfully, the more emotionally prepared you will be.
The Actors Guide to Creating a Character
By William Esper
William Esper, one of the most celebrated acting teachers of our time, takes us through his step-by-step approach to the central challenge of advanced acting work: creating and playing a character.
Esper’s training builds on Sanford Meisner’s legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.
Meisner and Mindfulness: Authentic and Truthful Solutions for the Challenges of Modern Acting
By Royce Sparks
The twenty-first century has created an entirely new set of demands and pressures on the working actor, This book combines a modern rethinking of the Meisner technique with a complementary set of tools from mindfulness meditation to offer profound solutions to these growing challenges, addressing the demands of a post-coronavirus industry as well as the pressures of acting in the digital era.
Stanislavski: ‘The Magic If’
An article by The British Library
An article by BroadwayEducators.com
Magic If with Story Applications
**Minor Language Warning. Read with discretion
An article by Theater Group
An article by Acting Magazine
Stanislavski Updated: The Magic If
(Video: Youtube) Dr Gareth Somers: Acting Coach
(Video: Youtube) Christopher Farlow
An article by Stanislavski’s Method
What if?
Taking what you learn in class, continue practicing the Magic If to work on the following.
Use your memory to recreate these senses:
Walk around the space as (if) walking through water.
Walk around the space as (if) walking through fog.
Walk around the space as (if) walking through mud.
Walk around the space as (if) walking on ice.
Walk around the space as (if) walking with a sprained ankle.
By Constantin Stanislavski
An Actor Prepares explores the inner preparation an actor must undergo in order to explore a role to the full. In this volume, Sir John Gielgud said, this great director “found time to explain a thousand things that have always troubled actors and fascinated students.”
By Constantin Stanislvaski
Building a Character discusses the external techniques of acting: the use of the body, movement, diction, singing, expression, and control.
Stanislavski: Units and Objectives
Actions, Objectives, and Super Objectives
An article by The May Days
How To Find Your Character’s Objective
An article by Stagemilk.com
What Happens to an Actor’s Brain When Acting
An article by Backstage.com **Link from Class Week 2
Objectives, Intentions, Actions
An article by Backstage.com
Different Acting Styles Notes from Class
A breakdown of the various acting styles
History Sheet from Class Notes
Some Objectives for Acting : Acting Tips
(Video: Youtube) Expert Village
***In this video, Lori Wyman discusses tactics to 2 Objectives
How To Be “On Your Objective” In A Scene
(Video: Youtube) Jane Moffat
Character Goals:
Rewatch an episode of a TV show you’ve seen before. Choose a character, and throughout 3 different scenes, ask yourself what their goals, tactics/actions to get what they want, and their obstacles are. Write them down in strongly worded statements that give CLEAR goals/tactics/obstacles. Imagine you are the actor making the same choices they’ve made in the piece you’re watching-phrase these as though YOU are playing this character. Then, after you’ve watched the episode, reflect on the show as a whole. What is this character’s super-objective for this episode, for this season, for the show as a whole?
Journaling Exercise:
Reflect on a time that you wanted to accomplish something important (extended curfew, raise at your job, getting a puppy, etc.). Answer the following questions: What was your goal/objective? What steps did you take to accomplish it (these are your tactics)? Did the other people involved in the situation want the same or a different outcome (did you have any obstacles)? What was the outcome/did your tactics work? Would you do anything different if you were to try and have this objective again?
By Constantin Stanislavski
Creating a Role is the culmination of Stanislavski’s masterful trilogy on the art of acting.
This third volume examines the development of a character from the viewpoint of three widely contrasting plays: Griboyedov’s Woe from Wit, Shakespeare’s Othello, and Gogol’s The Inspector General. Building on the first two books, Stanislavski demonstrates how a fully realized character is born in three stages: “studying it; establishing the life of the role; putting it into physical form.”
Uta Hagen: Substitution
What is the Substitution Technique?
An article by Acting Magazine
The Application of Substitution in Real Life
An article by Ivy Exec
Master Class with Legendary Acting Teacher Uta Hagen
(Video: Youtube) TheWorkingArts
Kate Winslet Shares Her Acting Secrets
(Video: Youtube) BAFTA Guru
Emotional Recall Practice
Step 1: Let’s start by working on laughing. Think of a time when you laughed really hard at something. What did that feel like emotionally? What did it feel like in terms of sensory experience? Now, let’s try laughing.
Step 2: Now let’s think of a different type of laughing, one that isn’t as hard and intense. Can you think about a time when you felt that? What did it feel like emotionally? What did it feel like in terms of sensory experience? Let’s try that laugh.
Step 3: Now let’s think about abstract experiences. Do the same activity, but this time, think of a time when you felt the following words:
Freedom, dislike, love
- How was your experience different and similar to our exercises on sense memory?
- Was it easy? Why or why not?
How would this help you make believable choices?
Psychological Acting: Emotional Recall
An article by BYU Theatre Education
This was written for a classroom setting, though it can easily be adjusted to do at home.
By Uta Hagen
This fascinating and detailed book about acting is Miss Hagen’s credo, the accumulated wisdom of her years spent in intimate communion with her art. It is at once the voicing of her exacting standards for herself and those she [taught], and an explanation of the means to the end.
Uta Hagen: Physical Destination
Theatre Actors on Pre-show Rituals
An article by BANFF Centre for Arts and Creativity
An article by Science of People
Hagen Physical Destination Exercises
(Video: Youtube) Brad Sisk
***Minor Language Warning.
Don Cheadle on ‘The Work” For Actors
(Video: Youtube) The Off Camera Show
Task: Fold Laundry. That’s right. Fold Laundry. Just like the Broadway actors in NY do when they study with Ms. Hagen at HB Studios. The simple is the profound. I dare you to be truthful in the simple. Without the accumulation of simple truths in the work, how can you be truthful in the “big, dramatic” moments of the work? How? You can’t. You will not have engaged the audience along the path of dramatic life, and they will not accept your “great conflict”, your tears, your screams, your heroic fight at the end of the movie. The audience will not trust you.
Truth in the Simple is the foundation of Truth in the Conflict. Each student will rehearse at least 1 hour for a 3 minute presentation. Set aside a 1 hour period for rehearsal. Set your alarm clock for five minutes. Then, fold. When the alarm rings, stop, and answer The Six Steps of Investigation, (from page 134 in A CHALLENGE FOR THE ACTOR by Uta Hagen).
Answer each question. Then, set the alarm again, and rehearse. Do this alternating Task Action and Task Investigation for 1 hour. Answer the Six Steps as each Investigation reveals new thoughts that fill you according to the Circumstances i.e.., Time, Place, Objects, Relationships, Objectives, Obstacles, which lead you into the clarification of Action, the Specificity of Behavior. Keep a journal of advancing understanding.
Bring the basic object requirements, i.e.., your clothes, your clothes basket or bag, your books, magazines, pictures, which are aspects of the work that you will clarify through The Six Steps. The Six Steps when answered truthfully will leave no stone unturned in terms of reality. They will establish the internal and external facts of your moment in Truthful Behavior.
This is professional investigation, not a parade or charade or a performance or show and tell or opportunity to “look at me”.
(CREDIT: Roadside Theater)
The Fourth Side (Purpose):
The purpose of this exercise is to discover and test ways of creating the imagined fourth side of the playing space, one that is logical to it even as it embraces the audience area. This will ultimately help the actor to feel comfortable on stage, embracing the audience while maintaining the reality of the environment.
Presentation of The Fourth Side: Use a telephone call as the premise for your two-minute exercise. After settling on the nature of the phone call, be sure to include all aspects of a basic exercise: time, place, circumstances, objectives and obstacles. Whether you are discovered at the phone in the beginning of the exercise, or decide to make a call after entering, or receive a call while otherwise occupied is unimportant. Make certain that the balance of the exercise concerns itself with a phone call. During the phone call, engage in the fourth side.
Keep in mind: Rehearse the call; don’t improvise it. While you shouldn’t write out the dialogue, you must know exactly to whom and about what you are speaking, as well as the content of what is being said to you.
(CREDIT: The Course Hero) ***The Course Hero provides a sample of their articles for free. For access to the full article there is a requirement to join the Course Hero community.
By Uta Hagen
From the prologue- Theoretically, the actor ought to be more sound in mind and body than other people, since he learns to understand the psychological problems of human beings when putting his own passions, his loves, fears, and rages to work in the service of the characters he plays. He will learn to face himself, to hide nothing from himself — and to do so takes an insatiable curiosity about the human condition.
Stella Adler: Size
The Stella Adler Acting Method
An article by Stagemilk
An article by Acting Guide
8 Acting Techniques (And the Stars Who Swear By Them)
An article by Backstage.com
STELLA ADLER: Realism, Text, and Actor Size
(Video: Youtube) Princepe Turandot
Holland Taylor on Working with Stella Adler
(Video: Youtube) The Kennedy Center
(Video: Youtube) Principe Turandot
Taken from an article by Acting Guide.
Pick an object and describe it. The goal is to get very specific (shades of colors, texture, etc.) but to communicate what the object looks like in a direct simple way that speaks to your audience. The more you do this exercise, the more objects will speak to you and the quicker your imagination will kick in onstage. Then take the exercise to the next level by letting your imagination run free (Adler calls that “traveling”). For example, a green couch can remind you of emerald earrings a woman wore at a party you went to which reminds you of the music that was playing and so on and so on.
Inner Justification
Randomly pick a simple line from a play you don’t know and bring it to life by imagining in details the reason why you’re saying that line. Try to make a strong choice, something that stirs you and creates conflict. This exercise helps actors experience their lines instead of just saying them.
By Stella Adler
Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century’s greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.
Alexander Technique
An Acting Teacher’s Take on What the Alexander Technique Can Do for You
An article by Backstage.com
Acting: Alexander as a young actor discovered the Alexander Technique to improve his performance.
An article by STAT
Taken from an article by Mark Josefsberg
On your next exhalation, whisper a long, slow, controlled ahh… When comfortably emptied out, let the air come in through your nose, silently.
Repeat as you read on.
There is no definite starting point when you whisper ahh. It’s a whispered ahh, not a whispered haa. You’re riding on a wave of air.
As you exhale, let your jaw comfortably open. Releasing your jaw can be its own exercise of releasing habitual, excess jaw tension.
When you inhale, your lips gently touch—lips together, teeth apart.
Think of something funny, or pleasant as you do this exercise. This adds ease, openness, and raises your soft palate.
The whispered ahh is an Alexander Technique exercise that is relaxing, calming, and stress-reducing. You can do this exercise anytime and anywhere. It’s great to do when you’re feeling nervous or stressed. Some people use it to ease themselves into sleep. There is never a wrong time for the whispered ahh.
Constructively Resting
Here’s an easy Alexander Technique exercise—just lie down. That’s it? That’s it.
You don’t do constructive rest on a bed, or a couch. It’s done on a hard surface—a floor is good, and there’s usually one right beneath your feet. A carpeted floor or any floor with a yoga mat will do. Instead of using a pillow as you would for sleeping, put a few paperback books under you head. Your hands can be by your sides, or on your stomach.
Bend your knees, and have your feet flat on the floor. Let gravity take over, and your torso will lengthen and widen.
Constructive rest pairs nicely with the whispered ahh.
Just 10-15 minutes per day of constructive rest can help greatly.
By Bill Connington
A tight throat; held breath; stiff muscles; stage fright: impediments to performance come in many guises, but they all spring from the same source-tension.
In Physical Expression on Stage and Screen Bill Connington, a renowned teacher of the Alexander Technique, shows you how to recognize and release the tension that keeps you from performing at your best. If you’re ever not certain of what to do with your hands or how to make a meaningful gesture, or if your movement feels fine in daily life but then you suddenly become self-conscious when onstage or in front of a camera, this book is here to help.
More than one hundred clear, accessible exercises-including many filmed tutorials available online-will enable you to
• Move more naturally and easily
• Breathe more freely
• Speak more clearly
• Free your creative impulses
• Play a character with an unfamiliar physicality
