18 Month Acting Program - Allison McHugh Interview

The 18-month acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio prepares professional actors for enduring acting careers. In this interview, Allison McHugh talks about how the Meisner Training has helped her get past emotional blocks. Katie: Before you started the 18 Month Program, what did you think it meant to train as an actor? Before I started the 18 Month Program, I had honestly no idea what it meant to train as an actor. I've taken comedy classes; I did all the Upright Citizens Brigade training. I've done a couple of one-offs like, "This casting director is teaching an intensive." I did a few of those. I've always wanted to act and then I never really, indeed, dared to say it out loud until the pandemic. Once I finally got that courage and was doing these one-off casting director intensive classes, I realized how much I was missing the fundamentals of acting. I've been on stage before, I do comedy, but there's so much more. In those short four-week courses, I learned that I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I was missing a huge chunk; I didn't know how much I was missing. Q: What do you think it means to train as an actor now that you're about halfway through the program? Now that I'm halfway through the program, I truly realized that I had no idea how freaking hard it was. The levels of vulnerability you have to get to in first-year, you break down all of these barriers, I guess, is the word. All these emotional blocks that we've learned throughout our entire lives, which I didn't even know I had, and then in the first couple of months of the first year, Karen would bring out specific just ways that our body would tense and all these things. I was just like, "Oh." The things I've done my whole life, and I didn't realize that I had been doing them until you have to start unlearning those things. There's just so much that goes into it emotionally and physically that when you're in it, you begin to understand it, but before that, honestly, you have no idea. Q: Since this is your first time committing to a training program, was this your first time explicitly working with the Meisner Technique? Yes. This is my first time working with Meisner. When I was looking at classes, I had gone to a couple of one-offs places that I talked about. They had talked about specific techniques; I met friends through UCB who had talked about particular methods and read a couple of books. Meisner was the one that stuck out to me the most. I may be, without understanding it at all, understood it the most, or so I thought. There was a bit of a gravitational pull towards it, and then I had a perfect friend who pushed me in this direction. Q: What about the Meisner Technique that you've learned so far from the first year and the first few months of the second year resonates most with you as an actor? I think emotional preparation is the wildest journey. It's so crazy that you go so many different places. I have this tendency to go back in time, and then I imagine things differently from how they happen. It's a mix of reality and fantasy. I genuinely have no idea what my brain is doing when it's doing it, but it's crazy. A lot of my emotional prep in the first year for my scenes was devastation. I do comedy, I've always been a light-hearted person, and I try to laugh everything off. So prepping for devastation, I had to dig and hurt my feelings, which was hard to do, but also when you're just having an emotional release like that, it was so cathartic. 18 Month Program Interview - Allison McHugh Interview - Maggie Flanigan Studio (917) 789-1599 Learn more about the Maggie Flanigan Studio by visiting the studio website. {URL] Actors who are interested in interviewing for acceptance into the studio acting programs should apply online and call the studio at (917) 789-1599 with enrollment questions. Maggie Flanigan Studio 147 W. 25th St. 5th Floor New York, NY 10001 (917) 789-1599 www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/... www.google.com/maps?cid=17904... www.youtube.com/channel/UC9vY... www.youtube.com/user/Maggiefl... twitter.com/MeisnerActing www.instagram.com/meisneracting/ maggieflaniganstudio.tumblr.com/ www.linkedin.com/company/magg... www.facebook.com/f/ s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/me... maggieflaniganstudio.business... www.pearltrees.com/maggieflani... acting classes NYC, acting classes in NYC, maggie flanigan studio, actors, maggie flanigan, Meisner technique training, Meisner technique, Meisner training, Meisner, Meisner work, Meisner acting, Meisner acting classes, acting conservatory, best acting studio in NYC https://flic.kr/p/2mUdLEs