The tutor’s approach to these sessions aims to empower the actor, helping them to play to their strengths, to find the raw truth as the backbone of their work and to stay present and alive on both stage and screen.

Meisner was one of the original members of the Group Theater along with Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Harold Clurman until it disbanded in 1941.

Afterwards, Meisner led the acting department of the Neighbourhood Playhouse School of Theater in Manhattan for nearly half a century. Among Meisner’s students were Robert Duvall, David Mamet, Jon Voight, Diane Keaton, Lee Grant, Gregory Peck, Grace Kelly, Sydney Pollack, and Steve McQueen.

Meisner’s technique is based on Constantin Stanislavski’s method of acting, however, a core difference is a shift from emotional recollection to the uncensored and truthful response to the moment as the emotional instigator. This allows for far more freedom and the ability to take on vastly varied circumstances. Meisner considered his technique to be a non-intellectual approach to truthful acting: the technique enables actors to pursue a deeper and far more intense exploration of the truth of each moment.

The essence of Meiner is living truthfully, moment to moment, under the given circumstances. The foundation of this work sits in varying stages of the repetition exercises.

Sanford Meisner developed his technique in response to actors continually being hijacked by their self-consciousness and their lack of ability to listen to what is happening around them as they work.

Over three days, Dannie works with actors from the ‘bare-bones’ – the first day of Meisner’s work.

On day One she addresses the art of listening; how to begin acting truthfully moment to moment, investing in the reality of doing, and public-solitude work. By the end of this day students are introduced to the famous ‘repetition’ exercise.
On day Two, Dannie further breaks down the concepts – working to invent nothing, deny nothing and work only (yet fully) with impulse, whilst training the attention to stay on the other actors and activities.
On day Three, she introduces actors to the three-moment game and looks at how to really sharpen technique with the ‘essential call’.

Each day’s content parallels what would be about a month of Meisner’s class-work, so the process is both intense and deeply insightful.

Dannie is an actor, director, writer, consultant and public speaker. She specialises in The Meisner Technique and the work of Stella Adler and is one of the principal coaches at the Giles Foreman Centre for Acting in London Grammar.

Her credits for both acting and directing include roles such as Morli in the Dalek Empire series, Banquo in an all-female production of Macbeth, Livingstone in Agnes of God and Maggie in Dancing at Lughnasa.

As a director she has worked on several Arthur Miller, Brecht and Tennessee Williams productions amongst others.
More recently she has set up a production company, Flaming Poppy, and has had her first book Brilliant Assertiveness published by Pearsons. She is currently working on her second book and her first feature film as a writer.

Cost: 335,-
Minimum Participants: 6
Maximum Participants: 14
Venue: Lillweg 28 | 80939 München
Language: English, though there will be many bi-lingual participants who can translate.