Die Meisner-Technique

Strasberg insisted, as they all did, on real emotion on stage, and pushed actors to use any means to achieve it. But he seemed to especially favour memory recall as a way of making this happen. He took this to the extent of encouraging actors to trigger a memory in the middle of a scene in order to be gripped by the appropriate feeling at the correct moment. The principle of this seems fine, but in practice Meisner's objection to it was simple: if the actor has to work on his own emotions whilst on stage, how can he be present in the moment of the scene? Such a practice may produce tears, or anger etc, but it must inevitably dislocate the actor from the events around him. This didn't begin as a pedagogic debate - it was the experience of being directed by Strasberg in the Group Theatre of New York that made Adler and Meisner and others object. Of course Strasberg must have worked for a lot of actors, or they would have dropped it very quickly.

It is absolutely crucial to understand Meisner as a teacher, and his techniques as training techniques rather than acting techniques. He was teaching for over sixty years, trying to lay down some clear foundational principles. He wasn't trying to create a new technique for acting. He wasn't even teaching "The Meisner Technique". Only from around the early Fifties did his ideas emerge as exercises in the form we see today. Meisner was working in a drama school - the Neighborhood Playhouse - and all his students were studying at the same time with other teachers (Martha Graham was the movement teacher!). He could concentrate on his core principles because many technical skills were being learned elsewhere in the building. I would say that a broad range of skills, especially in voice and movement, are essential to any actor, particularly for stage-work.

I have found German actors to be phenomenally committed and talented in class, so there is no problem with their work ethic! I do hear them say things that sound very familiar, much like in the UK. Sometimes it seems to them that they have to be like puppets, and that it is difficult to really own their performances. But if the actor gives in to that frustration, then the director is forced to become didactic because the actor becomes too reliant on direction. It is often a matter of ego, of course, but actually it's exhausting for a director to have to think of everything! Many directors, some without even knowing it, are desperate to work with actors who can bring brave and unexpected choices to their work. Of course for TV and film work, rehearsal is hardly an issue, except for the technicians and camera operators! So an actor needs to be able to make powerful creative choices with a minimum of external guidance and really trust their instincts. In rehearsal for stage the problem can be very big; many actors and directors work throughout the rehearsal period as if the idea was to gradually refine the play down to a fixed and definitive performance. This actually limits the creative imagination and prevents the possibility of surprises in rehearsal. It can also kill the eventual result - the actors reach Opening Night hoping that everything is perfect. Meisner would argue that the actor should throw him or herself into the central action of the play and let the moment be discovered freshly each time.

Ich empfinde einen großen Sprung in der Freiheit mit meinem Partner, in der Szene und mit meiner Figur. Ich lasse quasi alles offen, weiß aber dennoch immer was ich tue. Man lernt wieder aus Impulsen heraus zu spielen, nicht vor oder während des Spiels zu werten oder gar zu "zensieren" á la "Das würde meine Figur jetzt aber nie machen...". Es ist sehr spannend, sich völlig vom anderen Partner leiten zu lassen, auch wenn es am Anfang sehr ungewohnt erscheint. Aber gerade das macht das Erlebnis aus. Auch empfinde ich, dass ich mich tiefer in die Realität der Szene bzw. der Situation "hineinfallen" lassen kann.