Where Cindy Tanas’ Acting Approach Meets Meisner Technique
Meisner technique is a potentially powerful acting approach that teaches actors to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances through an exercise called repetition – where actors listen, observe and respond.
I’ve developed an acting exercise that for many actors could help deepen their Meisner training and I’d like to share the idea of the exercise with you. It has become a foundational training exercise at my studio for beginner actors through to advanced actors – because it is profound in bringing the missing piece that so often alludes actor training – which is deep receptivity.
Acting is not only about developing the instincts to react. Acting begins with learning how to be receptive – how to let what the other actor is saying or doing “enter in” so that you can experience the feeling, the vulnerability under the reaction – before the reaction.
If we want to really receive – deeply – we have to stay with what’s true in our bodies – the quiet intelligence of receptivity, the courage to “be with what is” – before we react.
The Calm Beneath the Reactivity
As actors, we long for that sense of aliveness – that escalation of energy through the body that brings along with it – a heightened moment of reactivity. But what if the real foundation for that escalation of energy isn’t speed or intensity, but stillness?
Our nervous system holds the key. When the sympathetic nervous system gets triggered, it sends an impulse through our bodies making us respond – to fight, to flee or to protect. This is the system that gets activated in Meisner training and causes the actor to react.
But before we can meet that heightened moment truthfully, we need to have learned the ground beneath it. Otherwise, the reactivity will lack depth because we haven’t yet fully received how the other actor is impacting us before we’ve reacted.
The parasympathetic nervous system supports with the ground to receive. It regulates the nervous system so that we can trust ourselves enough to feel the vulnerability underneath the reaction.
Actors immersed in emotional truth — embodying the Meisner principle of living truthfully under imaginary circumstances, as taught at Cindy Tanas Actors Studio
The Bridge to Meisner
Once the nervous system can handle receiving the other actor, and open to what’s happening in our body – Meisner technique becomes truthfully alive.
The actor feels safe enough to feel the vulnerability, and the arousal without being hijacked by it and doing a superficial knee jerk reaction.
The parasympathetic nervous system isn’t in opposition to the actor’s fire. It’s the ground upon which the fire can burn longer and more intensely.
The Actor’s true Readiness
The actor’s deeper readiness isn’t about being “charged up” emotionally – it’s about being open and available.
When you pause, you let your body catch up to your heart and gut so you can feel what’s really there. You can breathe into the intelligence that lives underneath your impulse.
With this deeper layer of training – this quiet intelligence – the actor’s reactivity can become universal and compelling.
ABOUT THE AUTHORActing Teacher / Mentor / Life Coach Cindy Tanas, has run a highly reputable and successful Toronto acting school for over 25 years. She teaches Acting Classes for beginners and experienced actors. Cindy is a member of ACTRA, former Chair and member of TAAS (Toronto Association of Acting Studios) and member of Theatre Ontario.
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio teaches a holistic approach to acting for Theatre and Film in Toronto, the GTA, and worldwide.
www.torontoactingstudios.com
www.actratoronto.com
www.theatreontario.org
