Introduction Week

Our Introduction and Selection courses are the starting point for anyone wishing to take our two-year full training course and, in most cases, those wishing to take on our monthly studio membership.

The week long course covers the first steps of what is commonly described as the ‘Meisner Technique’ however it must be understood that Sandford Meisner taught actors over a fifty year period and therefore to say that such a definitive thing exists is simply not true. The principals behind Mesiner’s teaching however are simple and consistent across the board, and it’s these principals, which form the foundation from which our work has been, and continues to be, developed.

We are all born perfect actors with a full range of behaviours to cover any possible theatrical scene that may present itself. The problem is that the experience of living life tends to narrow us down to a limited and repetitive series of responses to our day to day living, where we dutifully ‘play the characters’ imposed on us by ourselves, our peer’s and society as a whole.

For an actor to be able to do their job they have to break free from these constraints and that’s where our work has to start. You will be guided through a step-by-step process, through a series of gradually progressive exercises specifically designed to achieve the ultimate goal of producing authentic and truthful human behaviour under the given circumstances of a scene.

This requires a ruthless examination of our own behaviour in response to life’s situations as well as that of others. At the end of the Introduction and selection week you will be left with a very clear understanding of how this works and the path you need to take to ultimately achieve the ‘freedom to act’.