A Very Brief Rant About Meisner Training

Meisner training is all about learning how to be in the moment in scripted theater and respond to your scene partner in an authentic, meaningful way.  I have heard that many Meisner experts recommend approximately three years of training in the technique in order to get the full benefit of the technique.  I have learned a little bit of Meisner as part of acting classes I took in grad school and, I have to say, hated every stinking minute of the training.  The repetition.  The artifice of the exercises.  The fact that the instructor is the only person who can tell you if you've executed the exercise "right."  To hell with Meisner.

Improvisational training teaches students the same principles that Meisner work does.  Moreover, the major improv training programs are approximately a year and a half in duration, effectively halving the students' training commitment.  Add to that the fact that improv training itself empowers the individual student to recognize when they're succeeding in an exercise as opposed to the instructor being the sole arbiter of success.  Throw in the additional fact that audiences actually pay money to watch people improvise (show me anyone who would pay money to see people do Meisner exercises onstage and I will show you a total and complete nutbag with no social skills) and that improv training is crazy FUN and I think there's a strong argument for improvisational training over Meisner work.  

On a personal note, I dislike Meisner in large part because I have had the experience that Meisner teachers are loud, disappointed actors who wear caftans and like to control their students.  I hate caftans and the people who wear them.