Sanford Meisner (1905-1997) was first and foremost an American Actor As a teacher he developed The Meisner Technique. This method is derived from early Stanislavski work. Meisner’s focus was on teaching the actor to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances and to use their imagination to bring emotions to the surface rather than to use past experiences, which he felt could be emotionally damaging to the actor.

Some of the most recognized names in the industry have studied this technique, they include but are not limited to James Franco, Amy Schumer, Grace Kelly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Lloyd, Diane Keaton and many others. Here at TAAS classes run on a month to month basis, but it should be noted that The Meisner Technique, in it’s true form, is a method of study where one exercise builds upon the other starting with simple and basic repetition to complex exercises that include but are not limited to
emotional preparation, focus on activities, specificity in what the actor is doing, and being completely aware of their scene partner. 

Once the actor has mastered these skills within the technique, scene study is brought into the art involving some of the following concepts (please note this is not an entire breakdown of the method) breaking down what the scene is about, learning to paraphrase in order to understand the material and to aid in memorization, and developing actions of what your character is doing in the scene.
Please see our class breakdowns for more information or feel free to reach out and contact us
for a larger discussion.

If you wish to learn more about this method, I recommend starting with Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner or anything written by Larry Silverberg.