2025 Spring CLASSES
If you’re serious about transforming your acting, this is the place to start. For professional actors in film and television, its no secret that Meisner work is their super power in both their life and career. The benefits include a greater sense of truth, emotional depth and flexibility in your work.
There are four levels of classes, each 8 weeks long. Students can take classes once a week. Outside practice is required.
Call Playhouse NW at 206-919-7407 to register. Or register online.
All levels are welcome. Each student will work at their own level.
Level 1: Foundation – Living Truthfully
Acting is the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances,Sanford Meisner said. In our first nine weeks together, we will work on the first half of that statement: living truthfully.
Working through this innovative, step-by-step series of improvisational exercises will train you to be thoroughly responsive, emotionally alive, spontaneous and absolutely grounded in the reality of what is happening at any given moment with any given person. These foundational exercises will get you out of your head and into being absolutely present to the world around you and the people with whom you share it.
Level 2: Under Imaginary Circumstances
In Level 2, we will begin to explore imaginary circumstances. New elements will be added to the exercises that will work to broaden your imagination, exercise your faith in given circumstances and ground your acting in your own unique point of view.
As you continue this work through the advanced exercises, we will begin to show you ways to bring the improvisational nature of Meisner work to actual scripts by turning the script into an improvisation with words.
Level 3: Emotional Preparation
Acting is an emotional art form, yet as Meisner told us, acting is not emoting. So how do we deepen our emotional life without becoming indulgent, self-conscious actors? How do we meet the emotional demands of the script without faking anything?
Level 3 has the answers. You will be guided through a nine-week series of exercises designed to deepen and set free your emotional life. The emotional preparation and particularization exercises will give you the tools you need to truthfully meet the deepest emotional demands of any script.
Level 4: Tackling the Text / Performance Class
You will learn how to work with text, break down scripts and put scenes up on their feet. You will read a script with the precision and dexterity of a surgeon, work with impediments, discover how to make active choices that work for you, and unlock your ability to personalize the circumstances of the scripts you work on.
You will emerge with a concrete, no-nonsense process that will give you a solid foundation for the rest of your acting career.