Meisner Technique: Best Foundation for Shurtleff Technique

Meisner Technique: Best Foundation for Shurtleff Technique

Overview Before we continue with GP2: Conflict, I wanted to share which acting system works best with the Shurtleff technique. The Shurtleff acting technique covers twelve guideposts that serve as the basis for good acting; of these, the major guideposts are emotional commitment and motivation (also referred to as objective). The supplemental acting systems researched are as follows: Meisner, Stanislavski, and method acting.

Best Technique: For myself, I have found the best technique to be the Sanford Meisner acting system (Who?). One must remember that this conclusion may be different for different people. To learn more about Meisner's system, you can click here and continue to read on!



Meisner: Acting System #1 

• Description: The Meisner technique is the best foundation for using the Shurtleff technique because, although it requires a lot of concentration, it forces the actor to stay in the “moment” with his acting partner. It is about studying and responding to one’s partner’s behavior in a scene. Meisner teaches that one must allow his partner and all of his partner’s actions to affect him, an exercise that produces a realistic and honest performance.
• Positives: By employing the Meisner technique and by allowing his partner’s behavior to affect him, the actor is able to create complex emotional aspects that develop an honest performance.
• Negatives: This system requires a lot of preparation by means of daily and extended repetition exercises. It is a slow process that eventually trains the actor to stay in the moment. It is a rehearsal technique only and therefore should not be employed during performance.
• Source: http://www.completeactorstraining.com/about.html

Stanislavski: Acting System #2

• Description: The Stanislavski system requires paperwork preparation that answers only factual questions, such as who, what, where, and why.
• Positives: The answers to those questions are important in developing a relationship between characters. Even Shurtleff admits that knowing the facts is the first step to developing emotional relations. By answering these questions, it strengthens the scene rather than making up “facts” that may not make sense within the scene.
• Negatives: With Shurtleff, factual information is required, but the foundation of creating good work is the question “Where is the love?” Such an emotional complexity cannot be discovered through reason or endless text analysis. One can research his background history and given circumstances as thoroughly as possible, but it will not be sufficient to tell him how he feels about whomever he is talking to in the scene.
• Source: http://homepage.smc.edu/sawoski_perviz/Stanislavski.pdf

Method Acting: Acting System #3

• Description: Method acting is a system that relies heavily on memory: sense memory, affective memory, and emotional memory. It is derived from the Stanislavski method.
• Positives: Sense memory allows an actor to pantomime actions accurately (i.e., holding a full glass of water requires care and a certain weight, not limp or flimsy hands). Emotional memory allows an actor to feel certain emotions based on personal experience, which can add an element of honesty to the performance.
• Negatives: Because the application of sense memory requires much concentration, it removes the actor from the “moment” of the scene and, like the Stanislavski technique, does not allow the actor to explore the emotional content of the scene with his scene partner. It becomes an internal and almost closed-off emotional tactic.
• Source: http://www.theatrgroup.com/Method/