The essential practical guide to the Meisner Technique, written by an expert in the field.

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. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, who worked with Meisner for five years. "This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods."—Arthur Miller "If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book."—Gregory Peck

Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner: Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training offers a comprehensive analysis of the Sanford Meisner Acting Technique in comparison to the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique. This compilation reveals the connections as well as the contradictions between these two very different approaches, while highlighting meaningful bridges and offering in-depth essays from a variety of sources, including master teachers with years of experience and new and rising stars in the field. The authors provide philosophical arguments on actor training, innovative approaches to methodology, and explorations into integration, as well as practical methods of application for the classroom or rehearsal room, or scaffolded into a curriculum. Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner: Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training is an excellent resource for professors teaching Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced Acting Technique as well as acting program directors and department chairs seeking new, impactful research on actor training.

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. In this book, the authors present the best, most applicable foundational components of Meisner’s technique in a clear, pragmatic, and ethical manner, and advance Meisner's core principles with their own innovations. Drawing on the best practices of consent-based work, they outline a specific approach to creating clear boundaries for the actor and establishing an ethical acting studio. Filled with practical exercises, useful definitions and explanations of foundational principles, and helpful advice on how to recognize and overcome common acting traps and pitfalls, this book provides a replicable and flexible technique that puts the actor at the center of their training. Applied Meisner for the 21st-Century Actor offers actors and students of acting courses a workable technique that will foster growth and discovery throughout their career. The text also includes links to the companion website www.21CActor.com, where readers can engage with the material covered in the book and with Otos’ and Shively’s most up-to-date research, supplemental materials, and training opportunities.

William Esper, one of the leading acting teachers of our time, explains and extends Sanford Meisner's legendary technique, offering a clear, concrete, step-by-step approach to becoming a truly creative actor.Esper worked closely with Meisner for seventeen years and has spent decades developing his famous program for actor's training. The result is a rigorous system of exercises that builds a solid foundation of acting skills from the ground up, and that is flexible enough to be applied to any challenge an actor faces, from soap operas to Shakespeare. Co-writer Damon DiMarco, a former student of Esper's, spent over a year observing his mentor teaching first-year acting students. In this book he recreates that experience for us, allowing us to see how the progression of exercises works in practice. The Actor's Art and Craft vividly demonstrates that good training does not constrain actors' instincts—it frees them to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.

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 first book, The Actor’s Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor’s Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper’s second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. 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.

An inspiring new approach to acting from a respected drama teacher.

The first comprehensive survey and study of the major techniques developed by and for the American actor over the past 60 years. Presented side-by-side, each of the 10 disciplines included is described in detail by one of today's foremost practitioners. An invaluable resource both for the young actor embarking on a career and for the theatre professional polishing his or her craft. ''successful acting must reflect a society's current beliefs. The men and women who developed each new technique were convinced that previous methods were not equal to the full challenges of their time and place, and the techniques in this book have been adapted to current needs in order to continue to be successful methods for training actors. The actor's journey is an individual one, and the actor seeks a form, or a variety of forms, of training that will assist in unlocking his own creative gifts of expression.''

In this extraordinary new book, Silverberg demystifies the emotional demands of acting and leads the actor through a process aimed at tapping into and deepening the emotional instrument. Not only will actors gain insight into the realm of the emotions, they will see very clearly the traps most actors fall into when it comes to "being emotional" on stage. A healthier and more effective way of working will be taught—a way of working which brings the actor's powerful and unique creativity to every part.

The long-anticipated teen guide to the Meisner technique by Larry Silverberg, leading Meisner Technique author and teacherSELLING POINTSMeisner for Teens, the first book devoted to exploring the Meisner Approach with teens, includes:- Individual and group exercises- Journal prompts- Writing, listening, and observing assignments- Thoughtful, inspiring quotes throughout- Perfect material to incorporate into High School Drama classes- Excellent text for Introduction to Acting college-level courses- Relates the craft of acting to the truths of lifeBOOK SYNOPSISLarry Silverberg, the author who introduced the Meisner Technique to actors through his acclaimed four-volumeworkbook series, has now written a Meisner guidebook for young actors. A perfect text for high school drama teachers,Silverberg provides clear and easy to understand instruction to guide young actors toward simple, meaningful, authenticand passionately alive ways of working. He speaks directly to the teenage actors, guiding them step-by-step through thedemanding and thrilling exercises of the Meisner Approach.In this workbook and acting journal wrapped in one, students keep a journal in which they define their desires and refine their skills of observation: learning to listen carefully to other people and pay keener attention to their own responses. Through dialogue work in pairs, young actors learn to engage immediately and directly with their partners.True acting develops through this increased sensitivity and fearless response to others.Meisner for Teens: A Life of True Acting, based on Silverberg¿s highly praised workshops for teens, will help teenactors to free themselves from self-consciousness and the pressures of performance to achieve truth on the stage¿andin life.LARRY SILVERBERG, director of the True Acting Institute, is an actor, acting teacher, and author of many books on acting. He is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he studied with legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner, and is considered one of the foremost authorities on the Meisner Technique. He has written an internationally acclaimed four-volume series on the Meisner Technique called The Sanford Meisner Approach: An Actors Workbook. Silverberg teaches acting in his world-renowned professional actors training program, The Meisner Intensive Training Program, which he holds at universities, colleges, and acting studios around the world. He is also the founder of the True Acting Institute Association and is on the teaching faculties of The International Institute of the Performing Arts in Paris and European Act.