The Meisner Showcase.

Spotify? ‘Canvey Island’ by British Sea Power. This band is hit and miss, I think, but when they hit, they’re great. This song hits.
LoveFilm? Mulholland Drive. Really can’t wait to watch that. I’m also working my way through the first season of 24, which has been fun so far.
Amazon? Lord Of The Flies by William Golding. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read it. So far, so good!!

*****

THE MEISNER SHOWCASE

I know a little bit about the Meisner technique, mostly through occasional conversations on exhausted train rides home, but I don’t know a great deal. Same goes for those other drama kids Brecht, Stanislavski, et al., to be honest. I know the basics, sure, but I’m usually the one who sits there nodding along, pretending I’m clever. But it is all fascinating, that’s not in dispute. I do enjoy talking about these things but, frankly, talking can only get you so far. Like some wise people say sometimes, if you want to know how things are done, experience them yourselves. So, well, I did!

Okay, I didn’t actually try the Meisner technique myself, but I did spend an hour at the Barons Court Theatre (in Barons Court, just so you know), watching a group of actors let me watch them try it. To be more specific, this was a showcase of the students involved with The Impulse Company’s specialist Meisner course. In a cosy, dimly lit space with perhaps no more than thirty audience members, these eight actors displayed their use of the technique in short yet extremely entertaining scenes.

The scenes were excerpts from different plays; I recognised some but not all of them. But really, for me, it wasn’t about the scenes themselves. It was the repetition exercises (I guess would be the right word) each pair of actors engaged in before a scene. It was bloody fascinating. Just in those short moments – which probably never lasted more than a minute – you could feel the actors getting into the skin of their character. To be able to see that transformation from actor to character was great. Inevitably, the use of repetition would cause laughter, but you could also see a genuine attempt by one actor to challenge the other. Daring the other to go further. Make it funnier. Make it faster. Make it more intense. And before you knew it, we were engrossed in them and the scene.

As expected, there was nothing wrong with the acting in the scenes, either. They’re all performers, after all, and very good ones too. Whether it was Shakespeare or a contemporary classic, each piece was handled well and with confidence. No arguments whatsoever.

I can’t really talk about this as I would a play, because it was never treated as being some kind of ‘performance’. With it being a showcase and not a full-blown production, there was something very raw about the whole experience. Actors sat in amongst the audience, as casual as actors are able to be on show night, enjoying the action just like we were. There was no line drawn between the world of the actor and the world of the audience. We were all in on this together; a shared experience. For one hour, I was part of the classroom, and it was very stimulating.

This Meisner guy obviously knew what he was talking about, and it all it took was one hour and a lot of repetition to realise that. For someone who’s never really studied acting and drama on a detailed academic level, it was an enriching experience. Oh, and if you want more info on The Impulse Company, check out their website:

http://impulsecompany.co.uk

Wonder if there’s a Brechtian Showcase any time soon…?

*****
Another escape from the four walls of my bedroom ends in another lovely little blog post for you to enjoy (well, endure, at the very least.)

What am I listening to now, I hear you all ask loudly? Only the god-like creatures known as Led Zeppelin, and ‘Kashmir’. I’m going now. Oh, shit, yeah, follow me (@writeofcentre)! Now I’m definitely going.