Emotional Preparation - Meisner Technique - Maggie Flanigan Studio

The first year of Meisner training includes learning to prepare emotionally for complicated scenes. This video explains the importance of emotional preparation and why this acting method is considered healthier for the actor than other acting methods. One of the most significant pieces of fundamental work you get in the first year is learning how to prepare emotionally. It is what an actor does off-stage, off-camera, to bring themselves to life emotionally to relate to the previous circumstance of the scene. So if you're doing complicated work, significant parts, sometimes you need an intense, vibrant emotional preparation. Whether that's rage, heartbreak, joy, silliness, grief, shame, or humiliation, so that when you hear the action or you walk on stage, boom, you're alive. It's self-induced emotion, and it's a very tricky, very delicate part of acting. This is really where Meisner and Strasberg in the method diverged. Strasberg was all sense memory and emotional recall, and Meisner just thought that the imagination was a healthier place to work from. So what Meisner teaches you how to do is how to use your ability to daydream and fantasize about your craft as an actor to help bring you to life. Your imagination and your ability to daydream are far more potent, far healthier, and a far more creative place to work from. We spend several months getting good at emotionally preparing and getting comfortable being open and available with yourself. How do you work with yourself? This is your instrument. Emotional preparation is something that once you do it, and you continue to do it, and you get comfortable with it, coming to life becomes like stepping off a curb. It's just something that you fundamentally can do. To learn more about emotional preparation and the two-year Meisner training at Maggie Flanigan Studio, visit the website for the acting studio. Actors with and without previous Meisner experience are welcome to apply for admission to the studio programs. Apply online or call (917) 789-1599. youtu.be/1yUB6zjY-SA www.pinterest.com/pin/579205202098164498/ www.instagram.com/p/CrWHaJ7MSnl/ https://flic.kr/p/2ov5FfV

2018 Meisner Summer Intensive - Maggie Flanigan Studio

2018 Meisner Summer Intensive - Maggie Flanigan Studio Q: You were able to do the Summer Intensive and most of your first year in person, and then COVID hit. What was it like both working in-person versus working online? A: OKOK, so COVID. You go through the first part of the quarantine where you're like, "How much wine is too much wine?" You're like, "What are we supposed to do?" Even in the studio, going from this beautiful in-person experience to feeling the energy of other actors and feeling this emotional prep, feeling these circumstances and these relationships, feeling and then going to Zoom, it's where we are right now, you and I. It feels like we're in the same room, but I could click off whenever I want. Nothing is keeping me here, so that's hard. It was hard movement-wise just because I'm sitting, and after a while, you want to get up on your feet, you want to use your body, but our industry is headed in this direction anyway. The industry has realized, "Zoom is awesome for this. I can see them on screen; I don't have to pay for a room, I don't have to pay for space, the time, everything. I don't have to bring a lot of actors physically into a space. It makes more financial sense as a business to do it this way." After I clicked and realized that, I turned a corner. I almost quit because I was afraid. A big thing that I've worked through in this training is fear of success and fear of finishing. I have this ingrained fear of success because of the responsibility it will bring on and the fear of finishing. Because once something's done, it's done, and that's terrifying to me. The training has taught me; Charlie is the main person who's taught me that what is there to be afraid of about success? When you're trained and build on that training, you're ready for that responsibility. Nobody ever feels prepared. Even people who are doing the leading roles everywhere, the most successful actors, number one on the call sheets, still feel that feeling of "Am I ready for this?" That was mainly the reason why I stayed and also money. Money s****, but it's also awesome. It's this thing that we are all striving for, but also we hate. It's what changes did I have to make because it was either quit and save the money and save the money like a bit of squirrel, or do I invest in my future and my career and go for it, make changes for my art instead. Instead of not? Go back to where I was before auditioning and not being prepared or making changes in my financial life. I moved from New York down to Florida to be near my family. I took two part-time jobs, and I teach voice lessons online. I live more frugally, and I couldn't be happier. Having extra money, not spending money on the studio for this training for how many months it would have been versus living more frugally, making the changes, and striving for the art and the training, it's a no-brainer now. Money is money, and I hate it's still cliché, but it does come and go. What's money at the end of the day if you're not fulfilled as an artist and if you never see where your potential will take you? Yes, things are expensive, but so is our business. You think about headshots, reels. The quality has to be so high nowadays, so why wouldn't the training need to be there? You're only going to get so far if you don't train. The stories of successful people without real training and maintaining long careers are primarily myths, so why not invest in your future and your career and your art? Q: I'm glad you keep using that word to invest because we often don't see it that way as actors. "It's too much money. I'm too old. I shouldn't be doing this. I'm not 23, so I shouldn't be training." A: The best Acting looks effortless, and so a lot of people think, "Acting is easy. I can do it. I don't need to go to class for that. I'm just really talented, and it'll show in work. A lot is going on inside of me. I have a lot of surface emotion, and it's going to come across. I'm going to cry here. They're going to love it." Then you get into the room, and it just doesn't happen, and you're like, "Why isn't it happening?" Then you're like, "Maybe they just didn't like me because I remind them of their ex." It's just like a total mind game, and in reality, it's just because you're not trained. Also, a lot of undergrad programs, there's such a variety that there isn't special training in Acting. Especially if you go to a musical theater, their job is to teach you different ways of choosing the method that works for you. Why not try a very focused, specific training style and see if it works for you, like in the summer intensive as I did for six weeks? Why not go for six and focus on the craft instead of doing a six-week workshop where nobody knows what it's for? Casting director workshops are helpful, but I think they're practical, not as a teacher-student situation. I think it's just like going to that baking convention I was talking about, about taking your brand of cupcakes to a way, your brand. "Here is my brand for you to see," finished. Maggie Flanigan Studio 153 W 27th St #803 New York, New York 10001 (917) 789-1599 www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/new-york-ny www.google.com/maps?cid=17904951966372592922 twitter.com/MeisnerActing www.facebook.com/MeisnerActing/ meisneracting10001.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/index.html maggieflaniganstudio.business.site/ www.pearltrees.com/maggieflaniganstudio https://flic.kr/p/2kXLXw4

2018 Meisner Summer Intensive - Maggie Flanigan Studio

2018 Meisner Summer Intensive - Maggie Flanigan Studio Summer Acting Programs - Brody Redman Interview - Best Summer Acting Programs Summer acting programs at Maggie Flanigan Studio introduce actors to the Meisner Technique. In this video, Brody Redman talks about how he first heard about the Meisner Summer Intensive, how the acting program changed his audition experiences, and what it has been like training online with the studio. Learn more about the Meisner summer acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio by visiting the website for the studio [URL]. Actors interested in applying for acceptance into the acting programs at the studio can call the studio at (917) 789-1599. Maggie Flanigan Studio 153 W 27th St #803 New York, New York 10001 (917) 789-1599 www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/new-york-ny www.google.com/maps?cid=17904951966372592922 twitter.com/MeisnerActing www.facebook.com/MeisnerActing/ meisneracting10001.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/index.html maggieflaniganstudio.business.site/ www.pearltrees.com/maggieflaniganstudio https://flic.kr/p/2kXQo86

Summer Acting Classes in New York Turron Kofi Alleyne 01

Best Summer Acting Classes in New York - Call Maggie Flanigan Studio (917) 789-1599 Many professional actors and working actors chose summer acting classes in New York to study the Meisner Technique with Maggie Flanigan Studio. In this recent interview, Turron Kofi Alleyne talks about what it was like studying Meisner again after many years of working professionally. Q: Turron, what did you think it meant to train as an actor before starting the Six-Week Summer Intensive? Oh, well, I knew it was hard work. It wasn't easy. It's funny. You caught me off guard with that question. Can I talk about my history a little bit? Q: Yes, please. Okay, cool. All right. I did go to Rutgers University before I came here. I went to study at Mason Gross School of the Arts. When I first experienced like, "Whoa, I thought the acting was just memorizing lines." Then it just blew me away about technique and all these different instruments and different tools that come into acting. That was a while ago. I graduated with my BFA, did great in my audition, and still working and things of that nature. However, over time, I have a family now. I'm married with three kids, and I don't get to work on my instrument as much as I used to do so. I got an email about the Maggie Flanigan School, and I saw the summer intensive. When I came here, I thought that I would be able to brush up and get my feet wet again and get back into it because it was going over the fundamentals. Boy, was I wrong? Charlie kicked and is still kicking my b***. Like, "Oh man, it's a tough process." Crafting, and well, coming up with circumstances, for those who may not know. I'm not even talking about just seeing me at first, understanding who you are. This opened me up again to understanding; you have to be in tune with who you are to be alive and be open and available for whatever human condition you have to process or live out and get rid of all the gunk, and the nonsense was in me. Do you know what I mean? Be able to live again was great. This just reminded me how-- It's funny, how hard acting is, and it's not easy. If you want to be active, if you're going to be an outstanding artist, you have to put in the work. That's one thing about this conservatory that taught me-- what reminded me, I should say, about how important putting in work is. I went into acting like this, but what I would say being an actor is putting in the preparatory work before you even touch a stage or get on camera or whatever it is. You have to be specific, and as Charlie would say, he says, "Simple." When I first heard him say it, he said, "Do an exercise and just make it simple and specific." I said, "Okay, he wants it simple." I'll do something simple, [laughs] not knowing that simple is not easy. Charlie's definition with simple is, simple is very complicated, but it's still simple. It's always simple, but it has to be very specific. Acting for me is putting in the work behind the scenes when no one's looking so that you're just open and available to whatever condition you're going to be living out when you're there. Q: What's something that you learned these past six weeks that changed your acting? The biggest thing for me, I already know, that was my answer is-- How do I articulate this? I would say not allowing my daily behavior to interfere with my acting life, my experience because over the years and even-- I grow habits. I'm not the person that I am in class all the time. I don't fully live out my emotional life, whatever that is, all the time. The biggest thing for me was allowing just being able to open that up and not caring about whoever or whatever thinks about you in those moments of just living out whatever your experience. That was the biggest thing for me, just overcoming that hurdle and still overcoming, not that I've arrived. I'm just trying to live out whatever life that's going on with me unapologetically. I'm not allowing my daily worldly life of suppressing, whatever that is, getting in whatever experience I'm living on that stage or in that classroom. Q: You've been fortunate enough to study the Meisner technique before at Rutgers. What would you say that draws you to the Meisner technique the most, as an actor? Well, for me, it's when I had the conversation of the day. Meisner was the first introduction to acting that I got. I didn't have any acting background before going to Rutgers. When I went to Rutgers, I was taught, and all with other different techniques, but the focus was Meisner. About Meisner, what I do love, and I'm not sure if other methods do this or not, but through the teaching that I've learned at Rutgers and here again, it gets you in touch with yourself. It allows you to wrestle with any demons you may have and not necessarily throw them away. It's more so, "I didn't know that about myself." Meisner, it's set up to pick at whatever-- You can't hide anything. If you continue with the work, you cannot hide. You cannot continue to do this Meisner technique and protect who you are. You would have to eventually break and open up and reveal all the gunk, all the history. I have a friend of mine who uses and talks about how this technique is so very therapeutic. It's so therapeutic. These weeks have been very therapeutic for me in my life. I'm able to express myself a lot more now. I didn't realize how much I was suppressing myself and speak my mind without it being this hard thing to do. Do you know what I mean? Being grounded with my opinion and my perspective about something, and this Meisner work, I believe, really taps at that. It taps those things out. The best thing for Meisner that I've experienced is getting in tune with yourself and knowing who you are. Then also realizing that it's not about you. Do you know what I mean? It's not really about you. It's about your partners and what you're doing, and it allows you to listen and take in. Take in and give. Take in and give out. It's something that you are allowed to flow in. It's not robotic. You don't have to be in character all day or things of that nature. You don't have to be robotic. It's very fluid. It's very open. It's very vulnerable. If you don't like being vulnerable, then it's not for you. You know what? I would encourage anyone to, even if they are afraid of being vulnerable when you're doing Meisner, you're not vulnerable to be judged. You're not vulnerable to be picked on or made fun of. You're really vulnerable to access things you never knew about yourself. You're also vulnerable so you can begin to stand up for who you are unapologetically, and the work does that. It's so funny how it just reflects life. Nina Simone said something like, "Art should reflect life." I'm not sure if I'm quoting that correctly, but this Meisner work does that exactly. Actors who are serious about developing the work ethic required to be a professional actor, are encouraged to enroll in the summer acting classes at Maggie Flanigan Studio. To learn more about the acting classes and summer acting programs at the studio, visit the studio website, or call the studio with enrollment questions (917) 789-1599. https://flic.kr/p/2jpZZti

New York Summer Acting Program - Andrel McPherson - Maggie Flanigan Studio

New York Summer Acting Program - Andrel McPherson - Maggie Flanigan Studio www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/summer-acting-programs/andre... The New York summer acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio includes the Six-Week Meisner Summer Intensive. The acting intensive is based on the training that Sanford Meisner created to teach professional actors. Here in this video, Andrel McPherson discusses the acting program. Learn more about the New York Acting Program at the Maggie Flanigan studio by visiting the acting program and acting classes page on the studio website. Actors who are interested in the programs at the studio should apply online and call the studio with questions by calling (917) 789-1599. Q: Andrel, what did you think it meant to train as an actor before you started the Six-Week Summer Intensive at the Maggie Flanigan Studio? A: I thought it was about taking your own time to read as many plays as possible, studying other actors and then getting on stage and just figuring it out for yourself and hoping that a moment happens or you feel something by yourself. I had no idea nor did I ever imagine that it would take so much of myself to bring it out there then, which makes sense. Before you started doing work like this, you think that you're doing that and then when you start doing it, it's like, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot more work than I thought it would be." Q: Well, what do you think it means now to train? A: Making everything so personal for yourself and being able to focus tremendously on, not yourself, but what everyone else is giving you in the moment, which is hard because you're always in your head. You're trying to make sure that you're giving the best to them, but then you have to feel it and be in that moment, paying attention to every single detail which is exhausting when you're starting off this type of training. I guess just the most significant thing I've taken away from this is trying to pay attention to my point of view and how I'm feeling in a moment and how I can express that improv through whatever. Q: What happened throughout the six weeks that changed your perspective on acting and training? A: Charlie going off on me. It was exactly what I needed. Not because I didn't realize, I did not know that it would take that much out of me until someone was just like, "You're giving us a lot of bull, let's not do that anymore." Then there was this moment where I'm like, "Crap, but no, I want this. I want to try." Then you continue to dig deeper and deeper in yourself. That's when you find one little nugget of something, and it's like, "Okay. I see it now. I see what he was talking about." A lot of those good moments. Q: What did you learn about yourself, that was a surprise or that changed you? A: How willing I am to be open? I wasn't expecting myself to allow so much of someone else to come into me just because that's not how the world works. We're huge on trying to protect everything that we have. To know that I have it in me to pay attention and to experience what someone else is feeling and giving me was honestly just-- It's so exciting. Q: I know you haven't studied the Meisner technique before but now that you've just trained for the past six weeks, what do you think is the thing that you've learned that will resonate with you the most? A: Process, really and truly, knowing that there has to be one and there's just no way around it because everything else in life has a process. I don't know why I thought that I couldn't be any different. I'm so mad about myself. I've wasted so much time, but it's okay. Q: A lot of people do have that misconception about being an actor. A: Exactly. Yes, the process would be it for me. It's so exciting to know that there is one and it's working for me. It's not just something I made up on my own. It's like there is tradition behind it. There's the reasoning behind it. There's an explanation for everything as to why you should do it and why you shouldn't. It's literally like you're given a map to go out and have fun. Q: You're also a writer. How has what you've learned throughout these six weeks helped you as a writer and not just an actor? A: I don't write about what I don't care about anymore if that makes sense. It's straightforward to get caught up in writing what you think you should be writing about. If anything, I learned in Meisner that what I think I care about and what I care about are two completely different things. It's been nice to see myself be a lot rawer and honest with what I'm writing and not being so afraid to put it on the page and being comfortable with all ugly sides of myself, all pretty sides, just like every form that there is in me. Q: You've also studied at other studios with other teachers. What's been the most significant difference between Maggie Flanigan and other studios? A: The attention and the dedication to not caring about ego and just being there and putting in the work to make sure that I'm putting in my work. It's easy at other places that I've trained at to get lost in the crowd there. Charlie was just so adamant about giving everyone their time and making sure that you had what you needed. He wasn't trying to do it off of the whole class. It's an individual. It helped you grow in the way that you needed to build, and not necessarily in what other people may need. Here, there has been so much attention, so much specificity as to what I needed which is what I came here for. It's been great just having someone and a group of artists, able to hone in on what I could bring out of myself. Q: What about the sense of community within your class? A: They're my family. I love so many of them now. It's been- oh, gosh. I love them. I do. I can't believe-- For one, it's bizarre now that we can talk about whatever we want to because you break down so many of the walls. In the first two weeks, you'll cry [laughs] for whatever reason. That was just like, "You know things about me that my own family doesn't know about me." It's been so rewarding to be a part of this environment, which is another reason why I love acting. You're always steadily building a new family. I have another one now. Q: How would you describe Charlie as a teacher? A: Charlie is fantastic. He is so tough. You will walk away from some classes feeling down, but you have to remember that it's never out of place of malice. He's just really not going to give you any crap about what he thinks that you need. The man knows what he's doing, I think, at least from my perspective. He's been so tough when needed, but also so soft when I needed him to. It's almost scary where he knows the line. Like right when I'm like really getting into my head, that's when he'll say something that I need to hear. He is good at balancing, and I would say — a great, great person to learn from. Q: What would you say to someone who says, "Oh, I don't need more training," or, "It's too expensive? A: If you think you don't need class then I'm sorry for you. You always need to be training. Always. Even the greats say that. You can't ever stop, ever. If you don't think you have the money, that's such a hard thing, but it's worth it. I guess, really worth it. I know in the beginning, I was like, "Oh my God. Am I doing this? Am I about to drop this money?" Now, here I am and I would drop it all over again if I had it and if I could. Every time, I would. It's been so giving to what I'm trying to work towards. It's been more so an investment thing like, "Is it worth the money?" Q: And you're moving to LA in a few weeks? A: Yes. Q: How do you feel going out there? Do you feel more confident than you did six weeks ago? Interviewee: I feel excited, very excited to know that now I have this other part of me to bring over there. I also have the knowledge that I want to keep training. I'm going out there, and I'm not just going to be doing what I was doing before and just sitting around and waiting for a blessing to fall on my lap. It's a good feeling to know that I'm going over somewhere else with all this energy, all this excitement, and I'm pumped. Yes, I'm excited for sure. https://flic.kr/p/2eev779