Sanford Meisner on Acting

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 show more 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 show less

This book was the recommended textbook for an introductory acting class that I took at the Cambridge (MA) Center for Adult Education (taught by Stan Edelson). I enjoyed the book and found it very useful because it is not a prescriptive "this is how to act" book, but rather explores a more natural approach to acting that is grounded in fundamentals of psychology. In this way, the book is useful for exploring the nature of emotion and temperament, and learning how to channel your own emotional experience into building human relationships, both on and off the stage.

Great book for beginning and seasoned actors who have never heard of Meisner's technique. There is a strange structure of loyalty among New York actors in regards to which technique they choose. Everyone's got their own favorite but when I was studying acting, Meisner got the most out of me and I got the most out of it. Helps to know a little bit about the development of craft started by Stanislovsky.

On Acting is a great resource for students who have already trained using Meisner's technique. It journals a group of students through the two year course, illustrating the techniques and exercises of the program through the student's examples. I wouldn't recommend it as a substitute for the training itself, but I think it works as both a good refresher and a coursebook to help make sense of some of the technique.

"Meisner, a member of the Theater Guild and the Group Theater, has devoted most of 50 years to teaching acting and is one of the great unsung resources in American theater. This book is not an acting text, but a journal of a 15-month course taken by 16 adult actors. We follow them as they progress from early exercises through preparation to detailed scene work. Meisner emphasizes emotional truth and acting as the reality of doing. His students find the course difficult, but most improve markedly. Not all survive. Though Meisner is not well, he is a superb teacher and his enthusiasm is undiminished. This is required reading for all actors and those interested in acting." Thomas E. Luddy, English Dept., Salem State Coll., Mass.
Copyright show more 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Anya, Amazon.com: "As far as Meisner's theory and technique goes - as an aspiring actress, I think it really hits home. The basis of his theory is that you should focus on what your fellow actor in the scene is doing, and react truthfully and spontaneously based on what you sense - as opposed to being in your head and trying to force emotions inside yourself as you're playing the scene. Meisner aims to get you out of your head, and into what's happening around you moment by moment. It's the most accurate, practical, and learnable theory on acting I have ever come across. As you learn it, you get that eerie feeling that you've hit upon the truth." show less