Open Forum

This year in my honors theatre classes I began doing weekly workshops on the Meisner approach. I used Larry Silverberg's book: The Sanford Meisner Approach: An Actor's Workbook. It was a great way to walk them through the technique with a weekly lesson. The author offers a summer intensive on Meisner for theatre teachers. It is quite costly. Has anyone ever attended his summer intensive in Oregon? If so, how did you like it and was it worth it? ------------------------------ Charlene Thomas Fine Arts Teacher Covenant Day School Matthews NC ------------------------------

If you want to study Meisner and have a summer to do it, I strongly urge you to do the summer intensive at the William Esper Studio in New York.  Bill Esper was Meisner's hand-picked successor, and the school is ranked one of the top ten in the world.  It's also costly (plus the expense of living in NYC for six weeks), but well worth it.  I did it a couple of years ago, and it was, quite literally, life-changing.  I completely changed my approach to teaching acting, and I've gotten much stronger performances.  My own acting has improved as well.   And yes, you can get accepted to the summer program.  I did, and I'm not trying to make a living as an actor.  I was fortunate that my school paid for a good part of it, but it would have been worth paying for it myself.  The bonus is the six weeks in NYC - that was fun.

 Allan

------------------------------
Allan Dodson
Tucker GA
------------------------------

I used the book this year also in my Advanced class, and felt it was a fantastic exploration for my students.  I don't think I could afford a summer in NY although that sounds fantastic.  If you do go to the Oregon event, I would be interested in hearing more about it.  Thanks!

------------------------------
Debbie MacKinney
Theatre Teacher, CTE Technical Theater, Troupe 7334 Advisor
Tanque Verde Unified School District
Tucson AZ
------------------------------