Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner | |
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Born | Brooklyn, New York City, U.S. | August 31, 1905
Died | February 2, 1997 Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, U.S. | (aged 91)
Other names | Sandy |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1924–1997 |
Spouses |
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Partner | James Carville |
Sanford Meisner (August 31, 1905 – February 2, 1997) was an American actor and acting teacher who developed an approach to acting instruction that is now known as the Meisner technique.[1] While Meisner was exposed to method acting at the Group Theatre, his approach differed markedly in that he completely abandoned the use of affective memory, a distinct characteristic of method acting. Meisner maintained an emphasis on "the reality of doing", which was the foundation of his approach.[2]
Early life
Born in
He found release in playing the family piano and eventually attended the Damrosch Institute of Music (now the
After graduation from high school, Meisner professionally pursued acting, which had interested him since his youth. He had acted at the
Sanford Meisner graduated from Erasmus Hall in 1923 and attended The Damrosch Institute of Music (now Juilliard), where he studied to become a concert pianist before talking his way into a job in a Theatre Guild production of Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted. He realized then that acting which really "dug at him" was what he was looking to find.[7]
Group Theatre
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Group-Theatre-1938.jpg/310px-Group-Theatre-1938.jpg)
Despite his parents' misgivings, Meisner continued to pursue a career in acting, receiving a scholarship to study at the Theatre Guild of Acting. Here he encountered once again Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg. Strasberg was to become another of the century's most influential acting theorists and the father of method acting, an acting technique derived, like Meisner's own, from the system of Konstantin Stanislavski. The three became friends. In 1931, Clurman, Strasberg, and Cheryl Crawford (another Theatre Guild member) selected 28 actors (one of whom was Meisner) to form the Group Theatre. This company exerted an influence on the entire art of acting in the United States. Meisner summered with the Group Theatre at their 1936 rehearsal headquarters at Pine Brook Country Club in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut.[8]
Meisner, along with a number of other actors in the company, eventually resisted Strasberg's preoccupation with affective memory exercises. In 1934, fellow company member Stella Adler returned from private study with Stanislavski in Paris and announced that Stanislavski had come to believe that, as part of a rehearsal process, delving into one's past memories as a source of emotion was only a last resort and that the actor should seek rather to develop the character's thoughts and feelings through physical action, a concentrated use of the imagination, and a belief in the "given circumstances" of the text. As a result, Meisner began to focus on a new approach to the art of acting.[9]
When the Group Theatre disbanded in 1940, Meisner continued as head of the acting program at the
The Actors Studio was founded in 1947 by two ex-Group Theatre actors Elia Kazan and Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford. Strasberg initially had not been asked to join the group, while Meisner was among the first instructors to teach at the studio. However, by 1951, after Kazan moved to Hollywood to focus on his directorial career, Strasberg became the group's artistic director. In the following years, many students of the Actors Studio became well known in the film industry. Strasberg's later insistence that he had trained them distressed Meisner enormously, creating an animosity with his ex-mentor that continued until Strasberg's death.
Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre
This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2016) |
In 1935, Meisner joined the faculty of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and continued as the Director of the Acting Department until his retirement in 1990, and served as Director Emeritus until his death in 1997.
Notable students and alumni of The Neighborhood Playhouse under Sanford Meisner's instruction include:
Meisner/Carville School of Acting
In 1983, Meisner and his life partner James Carville founded the Meisner/Carville School of Acting on the Caribbean island of Bequia. Students from all around the world came every summer to participate in a summer intensive with Meisner. The Meisner/Carville School of Acting operated on the island and, beginning in 1985, also in North Hollywood. Meisner split his time between the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and the two school locations. In spring of 1995, The Meisner/Carville School of acting was then succeeded by The Sanford Meisner Center for the Arts, a theater company and school in North Hollywood[14] established by Meisner, James Carville and Martin Barter.[15] Graduates from Meisner's 2-year program could audition for the company. The company became a fixture on the Los Angeles theater scene for several years after Meisner's death.[16] Meisner attended every rehearsal and every performance until the very end.
Notable students
This section needs additional citations for verification. (August 2015) |
Throughout his career, Meisner worked with, and taught, students who became well known. Sydney Pollack and Charles E. Conrad served as Meisner's senior assistants. The technique is helpful not just for actors, but also for directors, writers, and teachers. A number of directors also studied with him, among them Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer, and writers such as Arthur Miller and David Mamet. At least 37 of the students who studied with Sanford Meisner were nominated for or won Academy Awards.[17]
List of notable students
- Aaron Eckhart
- Alec Baldwin
- Alexandra Daddario
- Bob Fosse
- Christoph Waltz[18]
- Christopher Lloyd
- Christopher Meloni
- Connie Britton
- David Duchovny
- David Rasche
- Diane Keaton[19]
- Dylan McDermott
- Eileen Fulton
- Eli Wallach
- Frances Sternhagen
- Grace Kelly
- Gregory Peck
- Illeana Douglas
- Jack Lord
- James Caan[20]
- James Doohan
- James Franco
- James Gandolfini[21]
- Jason Priestley[22]
- Jeff Bridges
- Jeff Goldblum
- Jennifer Sky
- Jessica Walter
- Joan Allen[20]
- John Turturro
- Jon Voight
- June Carter Cash
- Karl Urban[23]
- Krysten Ritter[24]
- Lee Grant
- Louise Lasser
- Leslie Nielsen
- Mark Rydell
- Mary Steenburgen
- Michael K. Williams
- Michelle Pfeiffer
- Naomi Watts
- Noah Emmerich
- Paul Sorvino
- Peggy Feury
- Peggy Meredith
Film and television appearances
Though he rarely appeared on film, he performed in
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1959 | The Story on Page One |
Phil Stanley | |
1962 | Tender Is the Night | Dr. Franz Gregorovious | |
1976 | Mikey and Nicky | Dave Resnick |
Personal life and death
Meisner's two marriages, to Peggy Meredith (née Meyer) and Betty Gooch, respectively, ended in divorce. Meisner, who was bisexual,[29] spent the remainder of his life with partner James Carville.
In 1970 Meisner was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent a laryngectomy.[15] After that operation he lived for nearly three more decades, until February 2, 1997, when he died in his sleep at the age of 91 at his home in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles.[7]
The Meisner technique
Meisner's unusual techniques were considered both unorthodox and effective. Actor Dennis Longwell wrote of sitting in on one of Meisner's classes one day, when Meisner brought two students forward for an acting exercise. They were given a single line of dialogue, told to turn away, and instructed not to do or say anything until something happened to make them say the words (one of the fundamental principles of the Meisner technique). The first student's line came when Meisner approached him from behind and gave him a strong pinch on the back, inspiring him to jump away and yelp his line in pain. The other student's line came when Meisner reached around and slipped his hand into her blouse. Her line came out as a giggle as she moved away from his touch.[30]
The goal of the Meisner technique has often been described as getting actors to "live truthfully under imaginary circumstances."[31]
See also
- Ion Cojar (1931–2009), Romanian acting teacher
- Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret, 1990 documentary
References
- ^ Krasner 2000, pp. 142–146 and Postlewait 1998, p. 719.
- ^ Longwell & Meisner 1987, pp. 9–10.
- ^ Jackson 2002.
- ^ Longwell & Meisner 1987, p. 5.
- .
- ^ .
- ^ a b Center, The Sanford Meisner. "The Sanford Meisner Center - History". The Sanford Meisner Center. Retrieved December 27, 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80804-3.
- ^ "Compagnie AZOT - Méthode Meisner". cie-azot.com (in French). Retrieved November 28, 2018.
- ^ Postlewait 1998, p. 719.
- ^ "Our History", Neighborhood Playhouse
- ^ "What is Meisner", Meisner International
- ^ "About Us", Taylor Acting Studio, Burbank, California
- ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- ^ a b "Sanford Meisner, 91, Acting Teacher – Obituary". Backstage. February 21, 2001. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- ^ Carville & Trost 2017, pp. 683–685.
- ^ "Christoph Waltz – Dill Pickle". March 11, 2010. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2013 – via YouTube.
- ^ "5 Famous Actors Who Studied Meisner Technique" by Lauren Carrane, Green Shirt Studio, April 17, 2019
- ^ a b c "Where Did They Study?, Backstage, September 19, 2001
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave (June 19, 2013). "James Gandolfini Is Dead at 51; a Complex Mob Boss in Sopranos". The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved June 19, 2013.
- ^ "Meisner Training". corogues.com. Company of Rogues Actors' Studio. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
- ^ "Clients" (PDF). johnsonlaird.com.
- ^ "Krysten Ritter on How to be A (Likeable) Bitch | Co.Create | Creativity + Culture + Commerce". Archived from the original on December 22, 2013. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
- ISBN 9781841957395
- ^ "Stephen Colbert shmoozes about family deaths". May 16, 2007. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2013 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Susan Blakely Bio". Susan Blakely Official Page. Retrieved December 31, 2016.
- ^ "A post about acting, and the importance of keeping it simple". November 8, 2013.
- ^ Carville & Trost 2017, p. 51.
- ^ Longwell & Meisner 1987, p. 34.
- ^ Silverberg 1994, p. 9.
Sources
- Carville, James; Trost, Scott (2017). De Tree a We, The Remarkable Lives of Sanford Meisner, James Carville & Boolu. Los Angeles: GR8 Books. ISBN 978-09993327-9-5.
- ISBN 978-0-684-80663-1.
- Krasner, David (2000). "Strasberg, Adler and Meisner: Method Acting". In Hodge, Alison (ed.). Twentieth Century Actor Training. London and New York: Routledge. pp. 129–150. ISBN 0-415-19452-0.
- Longwell, Dennis; Meisner, Sanford (1987). Sanford Meisner on Acting. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-75059-0.
- Postlewait, Thomas (1998). "Meisner, Sanford". In Banham, Martin (ed.). The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 719. ISBN 0-521-43437-8.
- Silverberg, Larry (1994). The Sanford Meisner Approach: An Actor's Workbook – Workbook One. New Hampshire: Smith and Kraus. ISBN 978-1-880399-77-4.