(Updated 10/04/17) The Meisner Summer Intensive Program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio provides students with the opportunity to experience what it means to train as a professional actor. In this interview Sara Kohler talks about her experience in the six week summer acting program.
What Did You Think Acting Training was Before You Started the Meisner Summer Intensive Program?
A: I though that acting training was a lot of what I did in college. I didn’t think it was necessary for me. Personally, I thought that I had it down, I knew what I was doing and I thought that maybe in New York, training meant doing scene study workshops and taking classes with other people just to say that you’re practicing and rehearsing, doing work and “training”. I didn’t know what training actually meant and so coming here, and learning the start of the Meisner technique, I started to realize that training was nothing that I thought it was. It’s just a new way of working that I had never even thought of and I was trying to step into these characters in my scene study classes that I had no idea how to step into. I had no technique and I didn’t know what I was doing. Coming here I’ve started to understand how to work and I’ve already learned so much.
What Happened During the Meisner Summer Intensive that Changed Your Perspective on Training?
A: Well, I was starting to learn what training actually meant, first of all and I learned that obviously I didn’t know what I was doing and what really changed for me was that I realized that I wasn’t listening in scenes and I wasn’t really taking in and it wasn’t just about what was being said to me it was about how it was being said to me and I’d never thought of that before for some reason. I was just always waiting for my cue and saying a line the way that I had rehearsed it and that I thought I’d done “homework” on and really I didn’t even know how to do homework, which is crazy. Just thinking back to the summer, how far I’ve come is astonishing and it really, really changed my life.
What Happened During the Meisner Summer Intensive Program that you Learned about Yourself that Surprised you or that Changed You?
A: I was surprised to realize and come to the conclusion that everything I had ever done was bad and maybe in high school and college I was one of the better people in the program and things came easy for me and I was always cast as the lead. I was surprised to think back on those roles that I’ve played and realized that I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have training, I didn’t have a technique, I didn’t know how to even prepare for a role and with the Meisner technique you really start to understand what its like to craft and develop a character and a circumstance and live through something. I was just so shocked and its almost laughable to think about the things that I did before this. It’s hard for me to think that people have seen me like that and it’s embarrassing to be quite honest.
Why Did You Decide to Enroll in the Meisner Two Year Conservatory Program After the Summer Intensive?
A: Well, I realized that what we were doing in the summer program was only the beginning and it had been the hardest six weeks of my life. I lost so much sleep and I was so stressed out the entire time but I was still loving it and loving how difficult it was, loving the struggle and still not knowing what the heck was going on. I had no idea what the repetition exercise was good for. I had no idea , anything that we were doing I had no idea what it had to do with acting and so once I started to realize, this works, this makes so much sense. It’s all about your point of view and what’s being said to you and the subtext and it just made so much sense to me and I said to myself that I needed more and I was craving that experience and being able to live through something and I felt that I had only just started with the six weeks. I just needed more and I knew that it was going to be so beneficial to me and it has been.
For more information about the Meisner Summer Intensive at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, call the studio directly at (917) 768-0213.
Click here to read what Carolina Solorzano has to say about her experience at the studio and the Meisner Summer Intensive Program.
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