I haven’t done an acting workshop for years on the receiving end. I sometimes play with the idea of doing one of those “meet the casting director” affairs, but then I apply my own principles. What would I genuinely think about someone who had paid just to meet me? I might be compassionate, I might offer advice. But I would be much more likely to employ someone I thought I had somehow “found” through being good at my job. We are proud creatures.
Today I went and took a technique class. So terribly American. What can I say? Eight of us, a good mix, I’m the old guy. I got it for free through complicated means. I want to see what this is all about.
Stamford Meisner did for Stanislavski what Nichiren did for Buddhism. He simplified all the dense complicated stuff and boiled it down to repetition. It isn’t Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo but it is in a similar instinct place. It’s another way to flood the mind so the instinct can take over. We mustn’t think with our heads when we are acting, it just makes us look smug and dull. But people like me need to find ways to shut that crap off cos my brain is going bananas all the time with distractions and noises.
I’m clueless really regarding Meisner Technique, but later this summer I’m gonna be thrust into a company including one of the chaps who imported it to London. There’s a shared language, a way of working, a way of being. Best I get ahead of the curve so he doesn’t get all sniffy and shake his stick at me.
Plus it’s fun.
I really enjoyed being in a room with all these kooky humans. Actors are a funny breed, curious actors are lovely. I once before did a three day course in this stuff – won it in a charity auction twenty years ago at the underGlobe. I am still in touch with some of the people from it. It gets intense.
I’m hoping not to just skip over the surface here. I’m pretty chill in my craft these days. There’s two more days of it this week so I’m just gonna try and learn and keep my head quiet and look at the people I’m with.
Lovely strange people in the room. I’m not gonna write about them though. I’m enjoying it. We did precious little technical stuff at Guildhall, it was more about sustaining a safe way of working long term and being a team player. All absolutely golden and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. But this summer is my summer of being curious about Meisner. Like The Factory, there’s a rabbit hole to go down. Like the Factory, I’m gonna bring a ball of twine before I jump in.
