A pinch of Meisner

Meisner method: eliminate actor from stage leaving character that lives completely within the moment. You must fully understand what the character wants. 

Act upon spontaneity and impulse  In order to create an organic situation that has a variety if possibility rather than a fixed conclusion therefore not allowing the audience to expect the possibilities which can cause disruption .

Meisner Quotes: 

"Ounce of behavior is more than a pound of words."

"Silence of words never an absence of feeling." 

What is the difference between acting and role play?

Acting: conscious connection with character

Role play: unconscious connection with character

In order to transcend from simply pretending to be a character or playing the stereotype to becoming a role, actors should focus on living and breathing their role onstage. Some of the key things that an actor should focus on is their commitment to the role and the given circumstances. Moreover, you should be sensitive to the behavior other actors/characters around them and responding to them accordingly in an instinctive way and keep an honest portrayal of character whilst making offers to the other characters on stage. Most importantly one should be unconsciously using the script to create the scene otherwise it would be lifeless due to the lacking of natural human behavior.  

The Repetition Game

In order to play the Repetition Game, two actors must face each other in complete neutral in order to give completely natural responses rather than acting them. 

The aim of the exercise is to emotionally connect with your partner in order to  determine the other’s behavior in the moment.

ACTOR 1: You feel nervous.
ACTOR 2: I feel nervous.
ACTOR 1: You feel nervous.
ACTOR 2: I feel nervous.
ACTOR 1: You feel nervous. 

I was partnered with Jesse in this exercise and as partners I feel we effectively connected our focus to one another. However, at some points the focus was lost due to nerves etc.

The next stage of this process is to use the repetition exercise in a scene. Repeating the lines to each other without consciously thinking about how to deliver the line within a duologue helps one make a more instinctual and natural approach to the script whilst additionally creating an abundance of ways in which lines can be delivered. 

In conclusion, I believe that the Meisner technique allows an actor to unconsciously act on stage. Nevertheless, the primary weakness of this method all comes down to what the actor take away from it. Creating a number of ways on how to deliver of lines can cause an actor to focus too much on the emotion therefore making their performance in short, rather robotic.