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Improv In Action

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Improv Actors

IMPROV IN ACTION: THREE GREAT ACTORS WITH STRONG IMPROV ROOTS

Improvisation is all about spontaneity, and existing within the moment. You have to work from the impulse rather than planning what will happen.  Put simply, improv is about listening, acceptance, and authenticity. In improv comedy, it’s easy to find great examples these days of master improvisers. Steve Carrell, Will Ferrell, Sascha Baron Cohen, Amy Poehler, and Jim Carrey have each made their careers as comedic improvisers. Entire TV series have begun from improvised scripts like “The Office” , “Workaholics” , and “Parks and Recreation.” But improv isn’t just for comedy. Some the best improv masters are highly respected for their dramatic roles, including some of the greats: Robin Williams, Bill Murray, and Robert De Niro.

Robin Williams, who attended Juilliard for acting, was performing comedy in nightclubs when he was discovered and asked to audition for what would become his breakout role as the alien called Mork, from “Mork and Mindy.” Williams is said to have improvised almost entirely on the dialogue for this character from the very beginning, leading writers to stop writing dialogue for him entirely. Williams also improvised most of his dialogue as the genie in “Aladdin” as well as an entire scene in his Academy Award winning performance in “Good Will Hunting.”

Bill Murray actually began his career in improv as a young man in Chicago’s Second City improv comedy troupe. Later on he took his comedic talents to the National Lampoon Radio in New York City, which led him to be discovered and brought on to Saturday Night Live. Most famously, he created almost all of his own dialogue in the cult classic, “Caddyshack,” including the “Cinderella Story” bit in the film. He also improvised his entire Peter Venkman character for “Ghostbusters” and an entire scene of dialogue for the movie “Tootsie.” Now Murray has been acclaimed for his dramatic work as well, showing that the honesty he found in improv has given him great range.

Robert De Niro was only 17 when he dropped out of high school and auditioned for Stella Adler’s Academy in New York. Most well known for his dramatic roles, De Niro is a fantastic example of incredible improv coupled with Meisner-style acting. The Meisner Technique is an improvisationaly based training which demands that the actor respond from their instincts rather than their intellect.  He is most well known for his entirely improvised scene talking to himself in front of a mirror during “Taxi Driver.” He is also said to have improvised most of the script and dialogue ideas for “Goodfellas” with his fellow actors in rehearsal.

Improvisational skills can improve any actor as it requires the actor to respond spontaneously in character. This spontaneity is a fundamental philosophy in acting- to be so deeply in character that your thoughts and actions are fluid and authentic. Even when adhering to a script, the best actors will use the impulses they have developed in improv to keep the scene spontaneous. While improv lends itself well to comedy, a true master can utilize improvisation in all types of roles and genres.

At Elizabeth Mestnik’s Acting Studio, we strive to foster this spontaneity and engagement in  our students.

What You Do Between Auditions Matters… A LOT!

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When actors are just starting out, there can often be a long time between auditions.  What are you supposed to do with yourself as you wait for that next opportunity?  I am here to tell you that what you do between auditions will determine your success at the audition.  Too many actors wait forget this and wind up NOT showing what they are truly capable of.

So what should you do while waiting for you next audition?

Be in class
If you don’t know this by now, you should… acting is like a muscle, and if it is not exercised, it gets weak.  If you are auditioning, you should already have a strong foundational technique, but there is no harm in learning new approaches.  Or, you can get yourself into a good scene study class where you can put your skill set to a weekly workout.  Just be sure any class you join, you work every class and you rehearse in between.  You must be at the top of your acting game so you are ready when the big opportunities present themselves!

Learn a new skill
As an actor – the more you know, the more you have to bring to any role.  Take ballet, enroll in a history class at the local community college or learn to cook.  It doesn’t always have to be something performance based…you just need to keep expanding who you are and what you know, expand what is interesting to you. This also makes you a more 3-dimensional person, which makes you more attractive to those who can hire you.

Volunteer to be a Reader
A reader is the person that reads opposite the actor who is auditioning. Even though you aren’t auditioning for the part, it’s a great way to have someone see what you are able to do as well as to create a more personal relationship with the Casting Director.  Call Casting offices that cast the shows you are right for and ask if they need any volunteers.

Go to see plays
Movies are wonderful, but plays really allow you to study other actors.  Good plays or bad, each experience is a great way for you figure out why a performance works, or doesn’t.

Study movies
Be familiar with today’s directors and their styles – from the Coen Brothers to Kathryn Bigelow, you need to be familiar with their work.

Read plays
You need to be familiar with plays and playwrights.  Playwrights like Neil Simon were the origin of our modern sit-com.  Writers like John Patrick Shanley and Theresa Rebek now write for film as well as television shows like Law and Order and Smash.  You also need to know the iconic writers so when they are referenced (ie; this is very Pinter-esque, or this has a Tennessee Williams quality) – you know what that means.

Go to Casting Director Workshops
This is a great way to start meeting the casting directors (or their assistants).

Stay mentally healthy
If that means daily exercise, meditation, getting a pet or going to church… do it.  You need to stay positive, optimistic and happy to get through the slow times.

What you do in between those precious auditions can make or break what you end up doing in the room – so stay busy and be prepared for your big break.

The Decision

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ELIZABETH MESTNIK ACTING STUDIO ALUMNA CHARLES MICHAEL DAVIS

The decision, no not “The Decision” as in the televised announcement by LeBron James on ESPN on July 8, 2010, but the decision that we as actors made. The decision TO BE an ACTOR… (to be or not to be, sorry I just had to). A decision that actually does have some parallels to King James of the now World Champ, Miami Heat. Both decisions required for many an actor and Lebron to embark on what Joseph Campbell called The Hero’s Journey. Where the chosen one must depart his or her old world to journey into the new world in search of their inner and outer prize. For Lebron that journey meant leaving his home city of Cleveland, Ohio for that of the uber hip city (especially by comparison) of Miami, Florida. The outer prize was the NBA championship, and the inner prize was one from self validation to growth as man. For many an actor our journey means leaving the comfort of our home state for that of the upside down world of Los Angeles or New York. In search of the outer prize of money, fame, oscars, and the inner prize of self actualization and self validation.

This was a decision I made over 8 years ago. When like Lebron I decided to take my talents out of Ohio. However, packing up my car and moving to Los Angeles was not enough to win the spoils of a successful actor. Much like it wasn’t enough for Lebron to be the number one draft pick and take his team to the finals. There was still a little more that needed to be done. A few more decisions that one must make. Tony Robbins says

“It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

“A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there is no action, you haven’t truly decided.”

I find these quotes to be very empowering, because as an individual the simple act of making a decision and taking massive action can bring you the inner and outer awards you’ve been longing for. Yet, like myself and Lebron, we must truly asses where we’re at and make the next decision that will shape our destiny. Lebron made his “Decision”, took action, and it earned him a coveted NBA Championship. I made my decision to shine as bright as possible and it awarded me a beautiful role on an amazing pilot and a life as a working actor.

My decision was made after losing out on a pilot a year ago. After being sent home from my first ever studio test I had to sit with the disappointment of missing out on a what seemed to be a dream job acting on a series with Kevin Bacon. To think I would have been only one degree away from Kevin Bacon! The loss was too much. I cried alone at night and held resentment as I watched my peers book pilots and feature films. My girlfriend at the time found it tense to be around me, and helped somewhat to pull me out of the fog. But the real tipping point came months later. The girl I was now dating was coping with her mother dying of stage four pancreatic cancer. I asked her what it was like and what her mother had shared with her. She started her story off with memories of the good deeds her mother performed. And told me if anyone knew about death it would be her mother given the fact that she ran a funeral parlor as a profession. She told me how she flew back to her mother with pen and paper in hand ready to scribble down the life lessons like a court stenographer. But she said there were no gems… Only anger and resentment. Anger and resentment at never leading the life she wanted to live, and to be the person she knew she could be. Later after hearing this story I would hear through a church sermon that “unfulfilled dreams left unexpressed manifest as diseases of the body”. I remember thinking about the emotions I would have if my life were knowingly cut short. Thinking about the unexpressed dreams within me that were yearning to break free. And the responsibility to my body as a temple to express those dreams. And it was at that point that I made a decision to change my destiny.

“The whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going”.

Once I made my decision I began to really focus and apply myself. I found that things just started to click. Many of the lessons I glossed over from my years at Elizabeth Mestnik’s Acting Studio started to solidify and make perfect sense. It was like that decision was the missing puzzle piece that connected all four corners of my puzzle. I noticed how my preparation deepened. How the casting directors favorably responded to me. And how my mentality shifted from thoughts of “why can’t I”, to “yes I can”. It was literally a decision that changed my destiny. I didn’t need to change agencies, get new headshots, or find a new acting coach. I just needed to use my god given power of free will!

So, to those who can be honest with themselves, I say to tell it like it is and have a talk with yourself. Ask yourself how you want to feel about your decisions at the end of your life. Just be honest. Then make the big decision and reap the rewards. Go forth and shine!

What I’m Learning in First Year Meisner

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From student Junot Lee

Vulnerability is power. When you go to Yahoo.com or any other website that gets a lot of daily traffic, mixed in with current events and sports sound bytes, you see articles all time with “How to” titles: “How to nail that job interview,” “How to make a great impression on a first date.” but how do you become vulnerable?

With Facebook and the decreasing frequency in which we see our friends face-to-face or meet new people, there’s this compulsive demand in our minds that we always carry our best impression so that we can affect people with a positive image of ourselves. What you get is one big, polite, passive aggressive Pleasantville devoid of conflict or emotional life, devoid of vulnerability. All those things that make our heart pound (intimacy, joy, sorrow, rage, fear), they add the distinct hues and substance to our personalities that make us the individuals we are.

The Meisner technique taught me how to draw from my own personal emotional life by shutting out the contrived intellectual element. To truly feel, you can’t be scared of getting hurt or embarrassed or even thinking about any of those things because the technique puts you in a state where you exist purely in the moment to take in the person sitting across from you. It demands that you put your attention squarely on the other person. The byproduct of reacting to your partner’s behavior and emotional responses is that you allow yourself to inhabit your own emotions without the convenient and shallow judgement that we picked up from the “rules” of making good impressions. There’s no one to please, no one to entertain. Just you, your scene partner, and the beautiful back-and-forth where you each tap into those things that make your heart pound just by you being you; heart pounding vulnerability. And that’s where great stories begin and live: where our hearts pound and where we can interact truthfully with each other because we know that what we each bring to the table is already enough. Acting is simply meant to be a canvas of life, and the beauty of the technique is that it trains you, beyond the craft, to exist in the moment and to clear your mind so that you can truly receive the emotional life that surrounds you. This awareness allows us to understand and convey what we truly feel, and this remarkable ability to get out of our own over-analyzing heads is real power because there is so much emotional life around us to inspire us and to expose what’s actually important to us individually. And the first step to this power is to be vulnerable.

Junot Lee

WHAT THIS WORK MEANS TWENTY YEARS LATER

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2nd Year Instructor Ken Weiner reflects on his journey with
The Meisner Technique

Twenty years ago I hopped in my car and sped away from LA across
country to New Jersey to study with William Esper at Rutgers University.
The three following years of conservatory were so dense with experience,
learning and hair-pulling that I still believe no matter how busy, tired or
burnt I am; I survived Rutgers, I will make it through the day.

I went there to study Meisner. I loved the performing arts, the theatre
and acting. I would be a performing artist until the day I die and I didn’t
want to “guess” anymore. I didn’t want to rely on passion or luck. I wanted
technique and principles I could count on that would help me work the ‘right
way’ for the rest of my life.

Bill Esper and Maggie Flanigan taught with such conviction and
authority I swore, “I will never teach this. Not if I live to 103 will I be able
to teach this.”

I was there to become an artist not a teacher.

One of my peers was a young, thoughtful actress named Elizabeth
Mestnik. She was the first student to “come to life” during an exercise. We
stared with head-nodding revelation as Maggie turned to us and said, “That’s
coming to life!” Now it was up to us to follow in Elizabeth’s footsteps.

Sixteen years later, Elizabeth asked me if I would co-teach her
nd year Meisner class. Two decades later, I still feared being a teacher.
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Thankfully I agreed and am now in my 5th year teaching at EMAS.

The principles behind Meisner’s work are simple. To mention a few –
the actor must be in contact with their partner, be emotionally related to the
circumstance, be living/doing truthfully through the imaginary
circumstances of the play. Sounds easy, right? Ah…now try it.

As an actor I always sought to simplify and demystify the work.
Acting and performance is a powerful and often enigmatic experience
but the act and process of creativity should be crystal clear. Every time I
work in the studio I search for the simplest way to educate and encourage
the students. What worked? What didn’t? What was unclear? And most
importantly, how do they fix it?

Because I act and I audition (which is what an actor does much of the
time) teaching reminds me what the actor must DO to create truthful and
authentic behavior.

I think of myself as an actor as I sit behind that exalted desk in class.
If I were onstage how would I approach this scene, this moment, this

circumstance? It’s my job to make you better. If you have no talent, no
commitment, no instincts you would not be in my class. Teaching is a way
of staying close to the “work” I am still so in awe of. It’s a way of
reminding myself everyday of the principles and technique that lead to
brilliance, transformation and truth.

If I can make your work better, I have made your life better.
I am not 107 years old. My middle name is not “Master”. I cannot
walk across rice paper like a Kung Fu prodigy. But I studied this work 20
years ago, I practice it daily and I still fight to emulate Elizabeth’s grasp of
the work just like I did twenty years ago when she was the first one to bust
down the walls that protect us and get to the truth, the heart, the soul of
being an artist.

Giving An Audience A Tear-Jerk Reaction

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How can the art of audience engagement be achieved?

This can be done by studying the character being played, and acting as if you’re living in those circumstances.

Hearing an audience’s reaction shows how well the script was written, and how well the actors mastered the emotions of the characters involved.

How can you keep audiences on their toes in a series of tension, then relief?

If you think that only seasoned actors can master this. Think again. Everyone and every actor starts from somewhere. Many actors shape their skills in acting with different techniques, and one solid starting point is the  Meisner technique.

The Meisner technique can be adapted for both film and on-stage performances. An acting studio will teach the significant differences in both spheres. Also, what if it were a one man show? Would you be able to capture differing voices in one single act? Through a series of training, the Meisner technique ultimately showcases how to master acting into  different settings, by being fearless with your imagination and emotions.

We all know that acting is an art form, and a skill that involves much passion. So how can your message be delivered in the best way?

Answer:

Through improvisation  and capturing believable emotions, one can convey the message in stunning fashion, to allow viewers to feel the same emotions that you are acting out.

How to Train for the Meisner Technique

Get Meisner trained with the summer intensive Meisner series at Emasla.

The summer class can be thought of like a workout session, whereby the muscles of acting are trained and built up, to be the most show-worthy after a series of training.

Following the summer program, actors can then choose to continue the extended two year Meisner training. Flexible schedules are offered, to include day and night classes.

Acting Techniques – The Meisner Technique

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The Meisner technique is just one of the many acting methods that can be learned at an acting school. This acting method was named after its creator, Sanford Meisner, a professional actor and acting coach at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.  It was incepted in the 1940s and is still popular today. It’s also inspired by the Stanislavski’s system – a Russian-born acting method.

The Meisner technique involves a series of repetition by the person performing the exercise. It helps an actor make a scene more believable, as they get into character. As an actor, the technique is essentially asking you: How does it really feel to be in this person’s shoe? (the character you’re playing), and how can you draw upon your own experiences to connect with this character at an emotional level?

Benefits of the Meisner Technique:

The most beneficial aspect of this lesson is that actors will be able to adapt to a scene or circumstance, by living truthfully in the moment. It also helps actors learn more about and master improvisation.

Examples of famous actors who’ve benefited from this technique include Sandra Bullock, Grace Kelly, Dianne Keaton, and plenty more.

An acting school – a good one – can help actors in various stage of their acting career, master the technique, to ultimately be a better candidate for a role.

Course length times will vary from school to school, but as students, it’s important to do your own research to find an acting coach that teaches the Meisner technique the way the originator did.

Preparing For An Audition

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You may already know what to take with you on an acting audition, but do you know how to mentally prepare yourself for it?

What does it take to stand out from the countless numbers of individuals that are vying from the same position that you are?

An acting school can help to train your thoughts, gestures and mind to focus on the task at hand. An acting coach can also give you knowledge to win in all types of acting genres.

Here Are A Few Tips:

• Be confident – when you believe in yourself, it’s easier for others to do the same
• Smile – It helps connect with directors and break the ice (for you at least)
• Build your stage presence – this can be learned through an acting coach
• Practice – it makes the monologue or dialogue run perfectly
• Project your voice – doing otherwise comes off as timidity

Other Considerations:

• Bring a head shot and resume, this shows preparedness
• Dress for a job, but not for the part, costumes are usually provided
• Early birds catch the first worm, so get there 20 minutes early

Whether you’re going to an arranged audition, or an open casting call, these tips should better prepare you to land the role you’re trialing for. Get the full actor’s checklist at an acting school in LA, who will teach and practice with you.

Emasla is a top-acting school in the heart of Los Angeles. To learn more about class schedules and tuition for the Emasla studio, go here.

And on a final note, believe in yourself, do your best, and everything else will fall into place. Remember, with time and practice, all things become feasible to those who think they can.