Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Reiki for Actors Class Description - Maggie Flanigan Studio - Call (917) 789-1599
Watch video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/ej19IWk1LEI
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via Reiki for Actors Class Description - Maggie Flanigan Studio - Call (917) 789-1599
by Maggie Flanigan
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Why Many Actors Struggle with Emotions and Acting
Charlie Sandlan is the head of acting at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. Here in this video, Charlie discusses why many actors struggle with emotions in their acting. Emotion, as it pertains to acting can be very elusive, and a misunderstood part of the art form. A big problem that many aspiring actors have is that they don’t possess an instrument that is pliable and vulnerable enough to access the full gamut of human emotion. Also, most actors misunderstand emotion in acting, often falsely believing that quantity is more important than quality. So actors struggle, often their entire careers, trying to figure out how to bring more depth to their work. How can you be more vulnerable? How can you find the ease to allow for a simple, fluid emotional life? How can you connect emotionally not only to text but the other actors on stage/on set? These are the problems that actors confront when dealing with emotion. It can be frustrating to read a scene, and understand the emotional arc of the character and the depth of the experience intellectually but struggle to bring that forth in your behavior. If the actor is not vulnerable, the emotional connection can get blocked. Breath is vital in an actor’s ability to process deep, rich experience. The problem for those of you that want to be genuinely open and available in the imaginary world is that the parenting, socialization, and education that you have endured has built up walls that keep you protected and safe. These are all important to be a well-functioning adult but are a detriment if you want to be an emotionally sensitive actor. An actor must chip away at these defenses, so that your empathy, your humanity, and your vulnerability can come to the surface. I have found the Meisner Technique, created by Sandy Meisner in the 1930’s, to be the most effective way to accomplish this. If you are an actor who has a very tense body and voice, an actor who may be up to this point has never seriously trained and worked on your craft, you probably have found yourself frustrated by the lack of depth in your acting. You must develop the capacity to feel pain, hurt, heartbreak, embarrassment, shame, grief, joy, silliness, humiliation, ultimately the entire gamut of human experience. That resides in you because you are human, but the great roles, the profound characters require actors to function from parts of themselves that they spend most of their lives repressing. We do not go through our days searching for conflict or have much experience performing from our rage or engaging in soul exposing intimacy. An actor must develop their instrument so that human emotion becomes their pallet. It takes a flexible body, a resonant voice, and a versatile temperament. It takes years to develop, and won’t be accomplished in a scene study, film & tv, or improv class. And emotional availability isn’t enough if you want to be great. You must also be ascetically pleasing to watch. In life, intense experiences cause us to tighten up, stop breathing, and often flee. But an actor doesn’t have that option. An actor must be able to release into intense emotion so that it’s not locked up. If you are serious about becoming a more versatile actor, than you must come to the understanding that serious training is the first big step in removing yourself from the pool of mediocrity. It’s the first door to open if you aspire to take on significant characters and lead parts. Learn more about the actor training and the acting programs that the studio provides, which are based on the principles of the Meisner Technique. Actors who are interested in applying for admission to the studio can call 917-789-1599 to learn more about the admission process. Maggie Flanigan Studio 153 W 27th St #803 New York, New York 10001 +1 917-789-1599 www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/ goo.gl/maps/oxqqExybwL32 plus.google.com/112291205845820496849 https://flic.kr/p/29hPUA8
via Why Many Actors Struggle with Emotions and Acting
by Maggie Flanigan
Meisner Technique - Getting Out of Your Head
Getting Out of Your Head - www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/meisner-technique/getting-ou... Charlie Sandlan - Maggie Flanigan Studio 917-789-1599 Charlie Sandlan is the executive director and head of acting at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. In this video, Charlie discusses how the Meisner technique helps actors to get out of their head and act with spontaneity. When I interview prospective students for my studio, I find a common concern. Perhaps you can relate to this, maybe you’ve graduated from a BA or BFA program, you came to NYC to pursue your career, and have been told by your past and current teachers that you need to get out of your head! You need to function from your spontaneity! These are ubiquitous teacher notes, but they have real meaning in terms of determining the quality of your acting. What most acting classes and teachers can’t provide is an actual concrete process to make this happen. This is why many serious, aspiring actors look to the Meisner Technique as a way to solve this problem. It was designed by Sandy Meisner to fix this fundamental issue directly. It is an actor problem that Meisner training works on every class for two-years! So how do you get out of your head? The Meisner Technique addresses this immediately. There is a core set of fundamentals that the first year of the Meisner training instills in students, the first is your placement of concentration. The key to freedom and spontaneity in your acting must begin with getting the attention off of yourself and onto the other person or onto what you are doing. Concerns about being liked, worried about how you look and what others may think of you, and the fear of embarrassing yourself are the issues that all of my students confront when they enter my acting class for the first time. It’s very understandable, as these worries follow us throughout our life in many different social and work settings. These insecurities however, are exactly what keep you in your head, unable to be fully free and spontaneous. The freedom and authenticity you crave in your acting starts with your ability to “act before you think”. This is a famous Sandy Meisner quote that was so important to him that he had it hanging on the wall above his teaching desk. When your placement of concentration is rooted on the other actor, when the present moment is all consuming, and you rid yourself of the pattern of editing, judging and withholding the truth of you, then the acting instrument opens up. If not, you will continue to hesitate in your acting, which crushes your ability to be impulsive. And when you lack the ability to be impulsive, you cannot then be spontaneous. And spontaneity is everything. It is the key to your authenticity, it is the essential skill that will allow your uniqueness to come to the surface. This cannot be learned in a scene study, improv, or film & tv class. It is why you are still frustrated by getting the same note over and over….get out of your head. The Meisner Technique can fix it. Getting Out of Your Head | Charlie Sandlan | Maggie Flanigan Studio 917-789-1599 The acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio are considered by many actors and industry professionals to be the best acting program for serious actors who are committed to professional training. Call the studio at 917-789-1599 to apply for the upcoming two-year acting program. #actingprograms #meisnertechnique #actingclasses Maggie Flanigan Studio 153 W 27th St #803 New York, New York 10001 (917) 789-1599 www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/ goo.gl/maps/JTA9n7oHbNT2 https://flic.kr/p/NxAeY7
via Meisner Technique - Getting Out of Your Head
by Maggie Flanigan
Saturday, September 1, 2018
consistency meisner technique charlie sandlan
Charlie Sandlan teaches in the acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. In this video, Charlie discusses why many actors have trouble being consistent in their acting and how the Meisner technique helps create the skill set that actors need. Maybe you can relate to this as an actor. You do a scene may be in a play or class, or perhaps you're on set, and something magical happens. You're out of your head. You're on your spontaneous impulses. You're fully emotionally alive. Something happened, and the director calls cut. You walk off stage, and you feel like you've been hit by a Mack truck. Then you say yourself, "How can I do that again?" and you don't know how. It's lost in the ether. That could be very frustrating, because you've got a sense of what it feels like to be present, but you don't know how to do it. The reason why you don't know how to do that consistently is because you don't have craft or a real technique that gives you a way of working, that's going to support you every single time you grab material, whether going in for an audition, you're going into rehearsal, going on set. You need to learn how to craft. It is essential. I think that the Meisner technique that was created by Sandy Meisner in 1930s is the most brilliant way to instill actors with fundamental skill. You've got to be able to get the attention off of yourself onto the other person or onto what you're doing. You've got to know how to listen, how to hear intently, how to go from anticipated moment to unanticipated moment. You need to be able to be surprised in every moment about what's being said to you, about what's happening to you at the moment, being played upon and changed by a notion of being. You need to know how to answer some particular questions. You need to know how to respond and pin down very individually and personally with the previous circumstances what the acting relationship is, what's your objective. You need to know how to do actions. Those all ultimately need to be second nature. Then you need an instrument that is open and pliable, that's capable of processing emotion that will allow your empathy, your humanity, your vulnerability to be able to operate. When you have that instilled in you, when you have a craft, when you have something that is just second nature to how you work as an artist, then those fleeting moments of being alive on stage or camera become consistent. Learn more about Charlie Sandlan and the acting programs and acting classes at the Maggie Flanigan Studio by visiting the studio website or calling the studio front desk at 917-789-1599. Maggie Flanigan Studio 153 W 27th St #803 New York, New York 10001 +1 917-789-1599 www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/ goo.gl/maps/oxqqExybwL32 plus.google.com/112291205845820496849 https://flic.kr/p/LV4MFv
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by Maggie Flanigan
Becoming Alive with Meisner Training
The two-year acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio introduces professional actors to the Meisner technique. First-year acting program student Julia Gu, talks about coming to the studio without having any experience with the Meisner technique.
Becoming Alive with Meisner Technique Training: Julia Gu Interview
Q: Julia, why did you decide to study at Maggie Flanigan studio?
A: I started acting training without an acting technique. I went to voice class with the Linklater technique and then, also when to take client classes. Then, the teachers feel like as a talent, I’m too raw, regarding I don't have acting technique. Then, they recommended- both teachers recommended Maggie Flanigan at the same time. They think, Charlie's tough and sets a high bar in terms acting technique. The studio overall has a high level of integrity when it comes to training actors. They both tell me I will be in good hands coming here. That's why I am here.
Q: What did you think the Meisner technique was before you came to the studio since you didn't have any experience with it before?
A: I’m Chinese, I don't see a lot about American acting masters. I know several guys trained based on the method--
Q: Stanislavski?
A: Stanislavski. They are like Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and then Sandy Meisner. I thought Sandy Meisner was the guy who does repetition, that's all I know. Repetition. I thought the truth would come up during the repetition exercise.
Q: Now, you've finished a whole year of the Meisner work, what do you think the Meisner technique is now?
A: To be honest, I just finished one year. I don't know the whole thing- how the entire thing is, but I would say repetition was indeed a minimal amount of the beginning. It's not what the whole thing is about. Right now, my understanding is more like being specific in each aspect of acting regarding our emotional lives, concerning our relationship with other people in the play, our daydream, what happened. We have to create that daydream as specific as possible to form the reality when we're acting. That's where I am right now. That’s here may change.
Q: What did you learn about yourself during this year- this first year of the Meisner technique that was a surprise or that changed you?
A: I think, the first is about learning about ourselves and something surprised me is how much my family plays a considerable weight in my life. That surprised me; I did not expect to feel so much emotion. My emotional life is very much connected to my family.
Q: How did this change you as a person?
A: As a person, not as an actress?
Q: Or, as an actor as well. Given that you didn't have a lot of technique before, it can apply either way.
A: I came here from a business background. In my old world, the business world, usually there is something, and you get it. I don't care about other things. I’m very like go there. After the whole program, I saw- I felt like I have more empathy for the entire world and the people around me. It made me also realize that even if sometimes I think the most direct ways to get it, it actually might not work. There are so many things around it. I care about other people more. In return, somehow sometimes I get things unexpected. I think life surprises me more now; I feel more lively inside me.
Q: In regards to class, what does it like to have a terrible day in class?
A: A horrible day is-- I felt like we have to do things to prepare for class and I felt like, "Oh my God. This thing is so good I'll prepare this.” Wholeheartedly, I want to present this, and I want to do this because I have the emotional connection to it. I did that in class and Charlie was not happy with it. It's just like you try to get fully naked, in front of everybody, with your heart, and they were like, "No, we don't like that. It is not good." It's frustrating, sometimes sad.
Q: On the opposite side, what's it like to have a breakthrough or a great day in class?
A: It's like a lightbulb going on.
Suddenly, something I felt I did not do. Charlie's feedback sometimes is very harsh, but then, at that moment, you know, “Oh my God, it's true.” Now, it’s okay with where I am now. When he says good things, I know it's true, and it's not just to make me happy.
The struggle finally clicks in or finally registers something you've been struggling through maybe.
To be honest with you, well, now I finished the first year, I think back. I feel like some of my failure could be bigger, because sometimes I was afraid of, "I hope this doesn't fail." Then, it will be funnier if I think now back. It will be funnier if I fail more, and I will be like, "Oh my God. What was I thinking?"
Q: I think a lot of it is about failing, and that’s how you learn.
A: I think, I was supposed to try and to put us in a world to tell us this is an empty world and find yourself in this world. Sometimes you will bump into walls. That's how I feel like, “Here's a wall here, but there was an entrance here." We're just going to keep on searching.
Meisner Training at the Maggie Flanigan Studio
Serious actors who are interested in applying for admission to the acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York, can learn more about the studio by going to the acting programs and acting classes page or by calling the studio at 917-789-1599 with specific questions about the acting classes and acting programs http://www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/.
The preceding post Becoming Alive with Meisner Training is available on Acting Classes New York
via Becoming Alive with Meisner Training
by Maggie Flanigan
Becoming Alive with Meisner Training
The two-year acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio introduces professional actors to the Meisner technique. First-year acting program student Julia Gu, talks about coming to the studio without having any experience with the Meisner technique.
Becoming Alive with Meisner Technique Training: Julia Gu Interview
Best Meisner Training – Maggie Flanigan Studio – Call (917) 789-1599
Q: Julia, why did you decide to study at Maggie Flanigan studio?
A: I started acting training without an acting technique. I went to voice class with the Linklater technique and then, also when to take client classes. Then, the teachers feel like as a talent, I’m too raw, regarding I don’t have acting technique. Then, they recommended- both teachers recommended Maggie Flanigan at the same time. They think, Charlie’s tough and sets a high bar in terms acting technique. The studio overall has a high level of integrity when it comes to training actors. They both tell me I will be in good hands coming here. That’s why I am here.
Q: What did you think the Meisner technique was before you came to the studio since you didn’t have any experience with it before?
A: I’m Chinese, I don’t see a lot about American acting masters. I know several guys trained based on the method–
Q: Stanislavski?
A: Stanislavski. They are like Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and then Sandy Meisner. I thought Sandy Meisner was the guy who does repetition, that’s all I know. Repetition. I thought the truth would come up during the repetition exercise.
Apply for Admission – Meisner Training Program – (917) 789-1599
Q: Now, you’ve finished a whole year of the Meisner work, what do you think the Meisner technique is now?
A: To be honest, I just finished one year. I don’t know the whole thing- how the entire thing is, but I would say repetition was indeed a minimal amount of the beginning. It’s not what the whole thing is about. Right now, my understanding is more like being specific in each aspect of acting regarding our emotional lives, concerning our relationship with other people in the play, our daydream, what happened. We have to create that daydream as specific as possible to form the reality when we’re acting. That’s where I am right now. That’s here may change.
Q: What did you learn about yourself during this year- this first year of the Meisner technique that was a surprise or that changed you?
A: I think, the first is about learning about ourselves and something surprised me is how much my family plays a considerable weight in my life. That surprised me; I did not expect to feel so much emotion. My emotional life is very much connected to my family.
Q: How did this change you as a person?
A: As a person, not as an actress?
Q: Or, as an actor as well. Given that you didn’t have a lot of technique before, it can apply either way.
A: I came here from a business background. In my old world, the business world, usually there is something, and you get it. I don’t care about other things. I’m very like go there. After the whole program, I saw- I felt like I have more empathy for the entire world and the people around me. It made me also realize that even if sometimes I think the most direct ways to get it, it actually might not work. There are so many things around it. I care about other people more. In return, somehow sometimes I get things unexpected. I think life surprises me more now; I feel more lively inside me.
Q: In regards to class, what does it like to have a terrible day in class?
A: A horrible day is– I felt like we have to do things to prepare for class and I felt like, “Oh my God. This thing is so good I’ll prepare this.” Wholeheartedly, I want to present this, and I want to do this because I have the emotional connection to it. I did that in class and Charlie was not happy with it. It’s just like you try to get fully naked, in front of everybody, with your heart, and they were like, “No, we don’t like that. It is not good.” It’s frustrating, sometimes sad.
Apply for Admission – Meisner Technique Training Program – (917) 789-1599
Q: On the opposite side, what’s it like to have a breakthrough or a great day in class?
A: It’s like a lightbulb going on.
Suddenly, something I felt I did not do. Charlie’s feedback sometimes is very harsh, but then, at that moment, you know, “Oh my God, it’s true.” Now, it’s okay with where I am now. When he says good things, I know it’s true, and it’s not just to make me happy.
The struggle finally clicks in or finally registers something you’ve been struggling through maybe.
To be honest with you, well, now I finished the first year, I think back. I feel like some of my failure could be bigger, because sometimes I was afraid of, “I hope this doesn’t fail.” Then, it will be funnier if I think now back. It will be funnier if I fail more, and I will be like, “Oh my God. What was I thinking?”
Q: I think a lot of it is about failing, and that’s how you learn.
A: I think, I was supposed to try and to put us in a world to tell us this is an empty world and find yourself in this world. Sometimes you will bump into walls. That’s how I feel like, “Here’s a wall here, but there was an entrance here.” We’re just going to keep on searching.
Meisner Training and Acting Programs – Maggie Flanigan Studio – (917) 789-1599
Meisner Training at the Maggie Flanigan Studio
Serious actors who are interested in applying for admission to the acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio in New York, can learn more about the studio by going to the acting programs and acting classes page or by calling the studio at 917-789-1599 with specific questions about the acting classes and acting programs http://www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/.
The post Becoming Alive with Meisner Training appeared first on Meisner Acting - The Maggie Flanigan Studio New York NY - 917-789-1599.
via Becoming Alive with Meisner Training
by Maggie Flanigan
Best Meisner Training - Julia Gu Interview - Maggie Flanigan Studio - Call (917) 789-1599
Watch video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/llBQpcjh8Kw
via Maggie Flanigan Studio
via Best Meisner Training - Julia Gu Interview - Maggie Flanigan Studio - Call (917) 789-1599
by Maggie Flanigan
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