amdram.co.uk

The Meisner Acting Workshop

“Acting is not an imitation of life, but a greater truth.”
-Sanford Meisner

Instructor: Carole Zucker
Meisner Technique Class
Consists of 3 intensive weekends:(Total hours of instruction: 30 hours).
Times: Daytimes to be determined
Total Cost: £250
Dates: February 21, 22, February 28, March 1 and March 7th and 8th
Location: The New Cut Arts Centre, Halesworth.
Contact: Aaffke Groeneveld at 01986-873285, or workshop instructor at carolez [at] alcor [dot] concordia [dot] ca

THE TECHNIQUE:
Sanford Meisner was an American actor/teacher who began his career with the
Group Theatre in the 1930s. He eventually formed the Neighborhood Playhouse
in New York City, considered to be one of the finest acting schools in the
world. Meisner created a technique that develops the actor’s instincts, sharpens their sensitivities, and enriches the actor’s most important tool, their imagination. The technique begins with ‘the repetition exercise’, a deceptively simple improvisatory exercise based on listening and responding to your partner in the moment. In each class, different elements—circumstances, character and location, and the performance of various ‘activities’ (such as handling objects) are added to the basic structure of the exercise. Meisner work is an excellent technique for increasing an actor’s spontaneity, essential to actors working in any medium—film, theatre and television. You do not need experience as an actor to take this workshop. The workshop is designed for those 16 and older. Private and semi-private coaching for auditions is also available.

THE INSTRUCTOR:
Carole Zucker has been called “The Actor’s Guru” (Montreal Mirror). She has
taught Cinema Studies at Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) for over thirty years, and her area of expertise is performance. Dr. Zucker was the first university professor in Canada to design a course specifically devoted to film acting, a course she continues to offer regularly at the university. Dr. Zucker is also a trained actor, having studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and with Uta Hagen at the HB Studios, both in New York City. She has performed in numerous off-off Broadway productions and in regional theatre throughout North America. She is the author of six books, including Figures of Light (Plenum, 1995) , which features interviews with 21 American actors and directors. This was followed by In the Company of Actors (A & C Black, 1999), a collection of interviews with 16 British and Irish actors including Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Alan Bates, Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw, Janet McTeer, Simon Callow, Ian Richardson, Eileen Atkins, Janet Suzman, Sir Antony Sher, Penelope Wilton, and Miranda Richardson. She has spent the better part of three decades studying and teaching acting in North America and the U.K., and is considered one of the foremost authorities on the acting process. Conversations With Actors on Film, Television and Stage Performance, a collection of actor interviews (Heinemann Drama, 2002). Most recently, Zucker published The Cinema of Neil Jordan: Dark Carnival with Wallflower Press (London, 2008). She is the winner of numerous arts grants from the Canadian government for her work on performance.