The art of "doing"

To be a good actor you have to have a lively temperament, an able and limber body, and a voice. According to Mr. Charles Goforth, my Meisner teacher,  acting is "doing" truthfully under imaginary circumstances.  Well, it's a revision from Sanford Meisner who says acting is to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.  The Meisner class  I started taking  this past week is fascinating.  As soon as the first class was over I was so intrigued and interested I went and bought the book called Sanford Meisner on Acting . I've already learned more than I could have imagined and it's only the first week.  Let me give you a recap of my first two classes.  
Class #1
Of course, I was seriously nervous about my first class because I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I would have to do things I don't do or have never done.  I was okay with that and ready for an exciting three hours.  I met a girl in the class, named Athen, while I was sitting in the lobby waiting because I was early. She said that Charles is a great teacher and three hours goes by really quickly.  That was a relief to hear.  At precisely 1:30 our class began.  It was a small class of five ranging from 20 somethings to 40 somethings and consisted of two girls and three boys plus Charles.   He laid out his expectations and then we immediately began the most famous exercise in this training called the Repetition exercise.  This is where your partner makes an observation about you and you have to repeat it back and forth until the repetition naturally or organically changes in one of three ways. A simple change is the pronoun.  If my partner says "you look really young" I would say "I look really young."  Easy right?  Well, then the second change comes when the repetition just plain piles up.  Say my partner and I have repeated the same phrase at least 10 times back and forth, eventually one of us is going to say something to change it based on how we feel about what we are saying or the partners' reaction. The third change comes when you observe a behavior change from your partner.  I have just said to my partner "I am upsetting you"  my partner says "Yes you're upsetting me"  I would then say "Oh my gosh! I didn't mean to upset you."  I know, it doesn't really make sense and it is really hard to explain but the exercise is designed to make you have true, honest, real, naturally organic responses to what is happening.  Charles started the Repetition exercise with each one of us before we were left on our own and I have to say with him it was easy and natural.  I'm sure that's because he knows what he's doing.  After we were left on our own with a partner he would stop and correct us and tell us why our repetition didn't work or what could have been said etc.  He also made it very clear that the classroom was a safe place and there were no wrong answers.  I love that! After a good long practice with repetition we discussed as a class that giving an honest response in real life is not the norm but for an actor it means everything.  That's why when you're acting you're not pretending to be someone you're not, you're acting as you under imaginary circumstances.  That was a real eye opener for me. Charles said over and over in the first class "take in your partner" meaning what behaviors are you observing from him?  What does his body language say?  How is he responding to you?   If I'm honest, it's hard for me to read someone especially if I don't know them.  Charles summed up the class with the words "you can't think about what you're doing, you have to act on your impulses."  He gave us official partners and homework to practice the repetition with our new partner for at least forty-five minutes to an hour before Thursday. The first class was a breeze compared to the second one.  
Class #2
I did my homework with my partner named Afrim.  He is very nice and lives in Brooklyn and I felt way more comfortable doing the repetition with him outside of class instead of in class.  It just felt a bit freer and a little more forgiving because we both have not clearly grasped the concept yet.  On Thursday we had a complete class of eight.  Two more boys joined us and one more girl.  It created a whole new dynamic to our class that will definitely make the interactions way more interesting.  The classroom was set up a little bit different  and Charles acted more like a teacher.  He hid behind a desk in the corner instead of rolling around on his rolly chair like he did in the first class.  He was definitely down to business today and later I found that he does not put up with peoples little games.  Afrim and I were called up to do the Repetition excersice first and like last time Charles stopped us every now and then to ask "what are you getting from him?" "how are you feeling about that?  or say "Crystal, make a subjective observation to start," or  "Afrim, you're too mechanical, let her response land on you and take her in."  We were up there a good 15 minutes or longer just practicing.  I confessed to Charles that I see a behavior change from Afrim but have no idea how to put that into words. Once I confessed most of the other class members agreed with that statement when they were up there practicing too.  I found it very interesting to watch the others and I found it even more interesting to watch Charles.  I can always tell when he is going to start the repetition with someone because he literally looks you up and down and stares right into your eyes for a good three seconds and then says something like "you seem very pensive today," and the exercise begins. He literally takes you in.  The new students had to catch up very quickly but they seemed to pick it up very well.  I did observe that Athen will be the teachers pet and one of our new students (I wish I could remember his name) is going to drive me crazy because he is all over the place and asks questions that have already been answered.  Joseph, is older and he gets on my nerves too because he's a little bit full of himself and has the same exact expression every time his partner makes an observation to begin the exercise.  Everyone else is just as interesting but those three definitely stood out to me this week.  We were reminded during our class, once again, to take our partner in and stay in the moment because the unit of acting is a moment and we don't want to miss one.  He reminded us to act on our impulse and to treat the exercise as a reality.  Charles told us  another change that can come in the repetition is a point of view change and that the principle of acting is don't do anything until something makes you do it.  
By then end of class we had all practiced the repetition and Charles gave us another exercise to do that will help us read our partners behavior a little better.  It's called the Three Moment Exercise.  In this exercise you sit in a chair across from one another and ask a provocative question.  Your partner is supposed to repeat it and then you tell him what behavior came from that question.  So, my partner and I had to go first and I freaked out a little bit.  I am not a question asker normally and especially not provacative questions with someone I don't even know!  So, I squirmed in my chair for a good while and then looked over at Charles  and said "a provocative question? Like, do you have a list?"  He laughed as well as everyone else and then asked me the dirtiest question ever that I had to repeat!  This class is a whole new ballgame for me.  I'm so not used to those kinds of questions.  Then it was my turn to ask Afrim and I couldn't.  I had no questions...my mind was literally blank becasue I was so terrified! This is when I found out Charles isn't going to put up with anything because he looked at me really stern and said "Crystal, put your feet on the floor, get over the fact that you are not comfortable and do it!" So, I took a deep breath and asked the stupidest questions and then my turn was over. Whew, that was clearly not an easy task for me.
  Everyone else did not have a hard time with that exercise and I realized a few things in that moment.  First of all, I'm so used to getting my way and getting out of things and that's definitely not going to happen in this class.  Secondly, I am very reserved and have not had the same "life" experiences as the people in my class so that makes a huge difference.  Third, I'm gonna have to push through the fact that asking provacative questions makes me very, very uncomfortable.  I need a list...so if any of you have good questions to ask please share :)  Last but not least, this class is very good for me and the teacher is good for me as well.  I know I will grow, I will learn, I will be taken into unfamiliar territory and stretched to my limit.  I hope when it's all said and done I  will be a better actress and will be able to read people better.  I can't wait to see what this weeks classes hold.  


Love,
A very uncomfortable Meisner student,  Miss Gulley in Manhattan