What is the Meisner Technique ? Free Class with Anthony Montes, part I

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Acting coach Anthony Montes introduces the Meisner Technique.
This is the first part of three videos of the same class, where are presented the history and principles of the Meisner Technique, as well as the basics of the repetition exercise.
Sanford Meisner was one of the greatest actors and acting teachers of all time. His technique is about listening and reacting truthfully, moment after unanticipated moment. It is used by most serious actors these days, as one of the fundamental approaches of this craft.
Anthony Montes is an award winning actor, writer and producer. He is also an acting coach who studied Sanford Meisner's acting technique (at Playhouse West) and the Strasberg Method (at the Actors Studio).
Among his teachers were Sandy Meisner, Charlie Laughton (Al Pacino's friend and coach), Bill Alderson, Susan Peretz, Barbara Bain, Bob Carnegie and Shelley Winters. He has been teaching in many places around the world, including James Franco's Studio 4 in the recent years.
To learn more about him, you can go to his website or his Facebook Page :
www.anthonymontes.com
themontesmethod.com/
/ anthonymontes56
This course what given at the Paris Meisner Studio. To check out their work or attend the next course, check out :
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Filmed by Gilles Trinques
Edited by Octave Karalievitch :
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WHO AM I
🤓 I'm Octave, a former cognitive science student and musician living in Paris. I got back into acting to improve my stage performance when I was singing at Open Mics, and ended up creating an acting school around my research (Paris Meisner Studio). I also studied different approaches of therapy and coaching, especially NLP and ericksonian hypnosis in which I am fully certified, and now in a long Gestalt therapy training. I got into film production firstly to document the work we were doing at the school and to produce students scenes. I have now just produced and co-directed our first short movie which will be out in the summer 2022. I do photography as a hobby and to practice composition and colour correction.
PARIS MEISNER STUDIO
🏫 This is our acting school & research center in Paris. I developed it over the years, at first in order to train for free, and fly acting teachers (Meisner technique in particular) from all over the world to bring quality training where we were. It now hosts an original research program called "Meisner & systemic coaching" that mixes Meisner approaches and other acting techniques with tools from therapy, coaching, meditation, and scriptwriting and production principles.
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👇 Feel free to ask your questions in the comments below so I can try to respond to them in our next videos.

[@NallahBrown]

"What I do doesn't depend on me, it depends on the other person." "I'm allowing myself to be really affected by my partner." "I'm not acting by myself." Love it

[@NallahBrown]

"I can't get nervous because I'm not watching myself, I'm not judging myself." This is so good for LIFE in general... thank you for this insightful video

[@shaymary5247]

Acting isn't JUST ACTING. It's an alter ego inside of u coming out to play for the best or worst, a layer of u untethered, unstudied, possibly unfound. As this man's said, u have to consciously do what others are so subconsciously. Once that's learn, u become more & more pro at it- it's a psychological but also artistic field.

[@kratijoshi1587]

Are you getting acting training??

[@shaymary5247]

@@kratijoshi1587 I went to college for it & plan to go back & finish. :)

[@kratijoshi1587]

@@shaymary5247 which university

[@shaymary5247]

@@kratijoshi1587 community actually. I have yet to finish that then get in2 the University. ;)

[@Stephensorrentino]

I love your style of explanation. So many people are garbled in the way they lay this out. Well done.

[@theperformerofficialhindi9539]

Great job sir...please keep uploading lectures.....your explanation is amazing...thanks million times for all your acting lectures

[@wesleyjansen729]

absolutely agree!

[@SlashrsCorner]

This is the best I have seen or read on Meisner' technique

[@yunusquddusofficialactor]

thank you so much, took this course year ago and this video is starting to bring it all back....powerful

[@Virinchi54]

Positively brilliant. Please keep uploading Sir.

[@mikhailtal8119]

Well done Sir This is really helpful. I am eternally grateful to you.

[@DxBerkowitz]

excellent clarity!

[@smallpoly10]

Great demo! Seemed odd to me that some people seemed to have trouble picking up on the rules but maybe that's just one of those things like improv that looks easy until you actually get up on stage and do it.

[@Tracks777]

Nice video! Keep it up!

[@TheEarthCreature]

The problem with Strasberg is that emotional memory is not only potentially traumatic but it doesn't stay the same over time. Something that embarrassed you and made you angry 10 years ago could be something you laugh about today. It's better to have a refreshed new scenario that brings the emotion from the core of your being rather than from an external experience. In that way, Strasberg was not acting from the inside out, he was taking external experiences and transforming them into internalized ones which is fatally flawed. Not only did Meisner disagree with this, but that was also the conclusion Stanislavsky came to as well which he directly told Stella Adler when she went to talk to him about the flaws of those things and found out he had already long abandoned the idea of emotional memory. Strasberg heard this and he basically dropped out of acting because he knew it wasn't effective but continued to teach "the method" for a long time afterwards despite knowing it wasn't helping anyone. Meisner considered Strasberg to be a fraud who would look for people who already had greatness in them and invite them to study with him just so he could say he taught them and credit himself for their already blooming success in acting.

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

exactly 🤓

[@garyglaser4998]

Strasburg was basically teaching emotional masturbation.

[@trueactinginstitute]

moving, inspiring, thank you!

[@RosieBrownie]

Your channel is so inspiring!!! 👏❤

[@MrTheatre2]

Ecellent clip!

[@wellwhatdoyakno6251]

X

[@zeinanicolaskazan2780]

Informative thanks

[@aryaman7142]

Great content

[@terrywatts1060]

Love it

[@marisolpadillasanchez656]

And yes I just wanted to clarify! I love your teaching and your take of Sandy Meisner🤍

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

thanks for your input !

[@leena4861]

It’s Sanford Meisner

[@ScribblebytesWorldwide]

I love your approach. How is it working with non-native English speakers? Does the work translate any differently?

[@juliawang2154]

Could you upload Part 2 please? Thank you so much

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

yes ! coming in a few days, thanks for your patience

[@ladyretiree]

@@PlayGroundsChannel: Greetings....was Part 2 ever posted?

[@sxzyn4541]

I gotta do this for an online assignment cuz of corona but this was actually interesting.

[@No1Notice]

I’m also watching because of Corona, but for my own personal research! Enjoy the class! I wish I would’ve taken it while in school!

[@jonettolivier1965]

Me too🤣 Me and my partner are doing a viewing for a scene today

[@didi7680]

where did part 2 go?

[@deepaksonawane7249]

Next video plz

[@user-bb8re7nf5o]

Where can I find about one of the acting coach called poonchock topjor

[@catherinebisset72671]

Very very helpful, but how does this apply to a Shakespeare monologue where you have no partner?

[@aaronhuskyman4509]

I’m a bit of a novice so take this with a grain of salt, but I believe in that scenario, the audience would be your “other person/scene partner” that you would have that connection with.

[@jayprodigy2720]

Actors are self conscious and don’t listen!!!

[@marisolpadillasanchez656]

You left mr Richard Boloslovsky and Maria Ouspenscaya our. In September 1922, he made his way to New York City, where, now known as "Richard Boleslawski" (the English spelling of his name), he began to teach Stanislavski's 'system' (which, in the US, developed into Method acting) with fellow émigré Maria Ouspenskaya. In 1923, he founded the American Laboratory Theatre in New York. Among his students were Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Harold Clurman, who were all founding members of the Group Theatre (1931-1940), the first American acting ensemble to utilize Stanislavski's techniques. ?

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

Thanks for your message. Indeed that is true, but Boleslawski and Ouspenskaya weren't teaching the "system" properly, as Stanislavski was developing it. Hence Stella Adler's trip to Paris with Harold Clurman where she met Stanisalvski who clarified everything in terms of his approach of acting.

[@marisolpadillasanchez656]

@@PlayGroundsChannel My dear teacher Tony Greco, who studied and was Asistent to Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio had a different opinion. I also studied with Stella Adler in her living years at her class in LA my class mates where Benicio del Toro (whom I did Traffic with), amongst others and Stella spoke Highly of Richard Boloslovsky. You have a beautiful gift as a teacher and so did Mr Boloslovsky, Chekhov and Meisner whom I was able to study only for a very short while as I was to young and impatient to understand his gifts, but also I was working a lot in between Films and Theatro but he read my soul with those tiny eyes of his and a piece of my heart when with him to eternity, where I know he is an Angel sending light to those who dare to teach this new world generation that it’s a piece of hope for our humanity! Love to speak with you. I teach in Mexico, I was born in LA and was raised in between this two worlds. Abrazo

[@sbvera4743]

To live in the now

[@earthbndmissfit]

So glad emoting fell out of fashion. It's really only useful in silent films.

[@yeetbra9485]

What happens if you don't have a scene partner?

[@marcogiorgini8566]

Why so few videos? This channel is otherwise amazing.

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

thank you ! I was overwhelmed with running the school in Paris and teaching and it takes a lot of time and / or money to produce good content but we just published a long interview and hopefully will create more regular content soon 🤓 Thanks for your support 🥹

[@marcogiorgini8566]

​@@PlayGroundsChannelI hope you will find time. Keep up the good work and good luck!

[@giulioagosta9913]

what accent does he have ? where is he from?

[@tic1tac2toe]

He didn’t do it right he didn’t set it up

[@digitalearbeit]

How can anyone get on a stage and start setting it up and draw curtains aside, whilst someone is holding an intense Lecture on that very stage? Meisner is about getting into contact, and not ignoring whats going on. Why isn't Mr. Montes telling that dude t get fuck of that stage? Thats what Meisner is all about. Its about being very aware of your sorroundings and reacting and interacting to them. Very good lecture though. I am just sitting here in complete disbelief, that this dude's in the background.

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

Hendrik Martz It's just the sound guy fixing up the mics on stage so you can hear the students properly in the next video ! (part II) 😄

[@digitalearbeit]

PlayGrounds Channel I figured that out myself. That was not the point Ibwas trying to make. When Anthony talks about being aware of your sorroundings and working off other human beings, that's actually what he means. You have the choice of getting on the stage and disturbing someone who is talking intensely to an audience or you can wait till that somebody is finished. So it's not ' just' a soundguy. I do teach Meisner for 10 years now and Anthony is among the best I've seen. Very respectful to the actors.

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

Hendrik Martz thanks ! where did you teach ? yes, Anthony was aware that we were fixing the sound, there were 4 2hours classes in a row with no break, so there was no other choice... and the final video here is an edit from these 4 different groups, which might also be why you don't see the full interaction of that particular event.

[@digitalearbeit]

I was taught by Meisner in the 80s. Then I formed my own classes and I teach at various schools throughout Germany. Anthonys Principles are right on, and a joy to watch. Congrats to this great video series.

[@dejpsyd0421]

Ya think Brad Pitt took a Meisner acting class…No

I am annoyed that he walks in and out of the light

[@Diamond_tip]

Stay annoyed for your whole life bih

@@Diamond_tip I am not annoyed anymore.

[@leena4861]

LMAOO

[@manishthakurofficial3200]

Focus on words n listen

@@manishthakurofficial3200 this isn’t a podcast. Theater has to be seen, thank you.

[@davidpatrickgreen5319]

Ah, the Meisner technique as explained by someone who is not Meisner. Unless you actually studied under Meisner, you wouldn't really know what his technique was because it was constantly Morphing as he taught it as he was trying to improve upon it (as he should have been). Unfortunately, Meisner is dead and so is his technique. He would undoubtedly roll over in his grave if he knew how much people were using his old worn and not complete lessons 50 years after his passing. Strasberg, Adler and Meisner all were trying to perfect and simplify acting based on their understanding of Konstantin Stanislawski's technique and so to carry on teaching exactly what they taught years later without any attempt to improve or further simplify is just superficial plagiarism at best, and simply exploits the incomplete works of dead people based on their reputations since most of today's acting teachers are too lazy or scared to come up with their own technique.

[@PlayGroundsChannel]

Hi David, thanks for your message. We actually are specialised in the Meisner technique as it is the main technique of acting we researched and worked on at the Paris Meisner Studio, without dogmatism for specific teachers or approaches (as indeed there are now many different approaches of this beautiful technique) and with a curiosity for its history and functions, step by step. We will soon have much more content on this subject on our new website that should be up in a week or two. And more videos on this channel too. Please feel free to share anything you might feel is relevant on the subject, or ask any question you want that we'll try to answer in the clearest possible way. This video was uploaded a while ago, but Anthony Montes also learnt with Meisner himself, although he now teaches his own approach, the Montes Method. And doesn't claim to be "Meisner" only. On our end, we now work with many different Meisner teachers who also knew Sanford Meisner very well and until the end of his life. There are maybe half as many teachers in the world who give the same speech you just gave in order to promote their own approach and take on the Meisner technique, despite not necessarily having researched others, or its full history. Having know Meisner is great and can be a good thing but it is neither enough nor necessary, as he indeed experimented with it his own life, sometimes doing away with some of the exercises he had previously developed. I agree with many of the points you made, but people also improve on techniques like Meisner and Adler researched the Stanislavsi system and its evolutions. Strasberg is another story. Thanks for your comment