I always thought Meisner was just a technique actors use to bring out their emotions. I've discovered that this preconception of mine wasn't wrong (yay!). It's just a little incomplete. After participating and observing Meisner classes, I can see that it also teaches an actor how to react truthfully. That means actors must react without the standards of society weighing them down.

Picture yourself in a scenario where you bump into a person at the mall. The person passes a rude slightly rude comment, "Hey watch yourself". I would assume most people would ignore it or might snipe a comment back just to even the playing field, but there wouldn't be a big fight. Now picture the same scenario but between to Meisner Actors in a scene. Here the possibility of a big fight is much higher because Actors are supposed to truthfully let the words "Hey Watch Yourself " inspire them. They're meant to truthfully react knowing that in a scene, society does not exist to judge their actions. 

When I first started taking improv classes, I wanted to make myself more confident in the face of adversary. It definitely worked. When on an improv stage, you're constantly tackled by problems that need to be overcome in order for a scene to be continuous. Sometimes the answers to those problems require a bold move. Sometimes they require complete silence. How can improv actors continually find these answers without being mentally worn out.

Well, it turns out they're not thinking at all. Rather improv actors live in the scene. They play everything to the top of their intelligence. It's not acting, but living. How does living produce funny material? Well it turns out that life itself can be very absurd. But since we live in it everyday, we just don't realize it. 

My views of acting have changed over the past three months. But this change happened in a weird way... It wasn't as much from reading the meisner and improv books as it was from just watching people grow and develop as actors. 

Yesterday's Film/TV class was super interesting. For one, I started on my final project. I filmed all three of the classes for that day and I started to draft the interview questions. The second thing in my opinion is a little more interesting. In the 16+ Film TV class in a scene between a criminal and a federal agent, the angry emotions and tensions between the two actors got to such a high level that the police officer actor actually smacked the criminal actor right across the face. The whole room went silent after a gasp. The amazing thing was that neither of the actors broke their composure and the scene went on. It was an amazing thing to watch also because these people were beginner actors as well. 

Monday March 13 Film/TV Classes

If I had to describe Monday's Teen Film/TV class in one word, it would have to be... crazy. The funny part is that all the craziness happened when the teens were focusing on seemingly bland memorization techniques.

Typically, when people have to memorize a script, they read the words over and over in their heads to really remember it. But in order to act effectively, your mind can't waste time trying to remember. The words in a script have to be a part of you.

That's why when the students were reciting their monologues to the camera, the entire rest of the class was throwing foam balls at them (nobody got hurt I promise). The craziness of the whole situation forced the students to pay attention to the balls and not the script. But all the while, they were still saying the words. It was a very fun way to spend the class, and also a very fun way to do something as bland as memorizing.

Update March 8, 2017

Over the past month, I have begun my internship at the Dearing Acting Studio and have started to collect the data necessary for my research project. The following post will provide more specific details in these categories.

My duties as an intern at the studio can be classified into two parts. The first encompasses daily routine at the studio. Upkeep, inventory checks, and preparation for shows or casting events are all part of the job. The second is participating in every single acting class in the studio. That means that I get to work with and learn from people living in retirement, children taking kindergarten classes, and everything in between. It's fascinating to see so many different people interested in acting.

In addition to making sure I complete all my duties as an intern, I also find time to conduct data collection for my research project while I am in the studio. But before I get into the specifics about data collection, I would just like to spend a moment to describe my project in more detail. What I am trying to do is specifically find the varying affects different acting classes have on the people taking them. How does someone taking a film/tv class grow differently from a person taking a Meisner or Improvisation class? In order to do that, I have been monitoring and keeping notes on student's development over the past month and will continue to do so over March as well. I have also been giving surveys and tests to the students to understand how they feel they've been developing as well. Today (March 8, 2017) I will be giving out my second test... a self - reflection form that ranks the students top 3 learnings they received from the class they took.

After I compile the data and find the results I will move on to the second part of my project: see which acting class would best enhance a young child's school curriculum. You could say that this part of my project could be classified as "applications". Currently I am doing reading papers on education and child development to better educate myself on the topic.

Hello! This blog will follow the research of Arjun Sahai on how differing Acting Techniques differently affect confidence levels