The best 18-month acting program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio starts the first week of January every year. The acting program is an accelerated two-year acting program. In this interview, Sam Super talks about his experience with acting classes and the Meisner technique before he came to the studio.
Q: Did you study acting anywhere else before you came to the studio?
A: Well, I come from a family of actors. Both my father and my grandmother were actors and had been members of SAG and had done productions and things like that. As a kid, I never really wanted to get into it. They would try to drag me to auditions or drag me to acting classes, and I wanted to play on the playground or do other things. It wasn’t until later in life when I started working in the corporate world that I decided I wanted to give an acting class and acting a try. I took some local acting classes near where I lived in Connecticut and then just decided to make the jump to a real program.
Q: Did you study the Meisner technique anywhere else?
A: I did study the Meisner technique at one program I was going to call the Axl theater in Westchester, but it was nothing compared to this program. We skipped probably six or seven steps ahead of what we did here. It was kind of an accelerated schedule.
Q: How was the Meisner training at Maggie Flanigan Studio different than what you expected?
A: I think it’s a lot more nuanced when you get into it than what people may see on the surface. A lot of times you see actors, and it looks like it comes so natural to them but what isn’t seen is all the work behind the scenes. All the preparation and time it takes to get to it so that it looks that easy. That’s what I underestimated.
Q: Were there any specific problems that led you to seek professional training?
A: Sure, I spent about a year auditioning for student films and doing a lot of backgrounds and extra work. I was starting to look at some of the video auditions I was doing. I realized that I was not only overacting, but I also wasn’t able to get the energy that I needed for those roles. The school has kind taught me to pick it up when I need to and have a little bit more consistency than being all over the place where I was before my training.
Q: What were the concrete steps that led you to commit to training at the studio?
A: Well, I interviewed for here and then decided three weeks later to join. I’ve probably skipped a couple of steps, but I basically got to the point where I figured out if I really was going to take acting seriously, I was going to need to do real actor training and really focus and put my time and energy into it, instead of just milling around and going by the seat of my pants.
Q: Why did you choose the two-year program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio?
A: Well, I only interviewed for Maggie Flanigan. That was the only one I wanted to be with. I had met someone who had gone through the first year of the program, and I knew I was looking for something in a Meisner based technique. I came and interviewed with Charlie, and just everything seemed to fall into place. With the timing of everything happened to me that I just made the decision, “All right I’m either going to go for this now, or I’m never going to do this.”
Q: You mentioned you were auditioning before you started the January class. How did you feel about auditions before you came to the studio?
A: Well, I realized that before I took this class, I wasn’t preparing what I thought was preparation. What I thought was getting me where I needed to go for an audition was only surface level stuff. Maggie Flanigan has taught me how to get down to the nitty-gritty and fine-tune those details to help me get everything I need to do so that when I walk into the room, I know exactly what I need to do to get where I want to be.
Q: Tell us about your worst audition?
A: I’m not a morning person. I had an audition that’s supposed to be at 9:00 AM in the morning, and I drank way too much coffee beforehand. I was just a jittery mess. I was all over the place. There wasn’t a look that I said or did anything. It was just the feeling. I was also just like I don’t know if the guys thought I was on drugs or something, but I was just like way too shaky and jittery than I needed to be for the role I was auditioning for.
Q: How do you feel about auditions now completed the first year of the January class, has your process changed?
A: It’s changed a lot. Specific tools I’ve added in techniques as far as– now I’m starting to craft around the characters and I’m going to play even for a cold read. I’m a lot more prepared for something like that because I’ve gone over that before and done that.
I am just being able to know if this is going to be an audition for a sad role. I know the particular song I need to play to get me there. I know I need to do stretching beforehand. These are some of the things I need to do to get in the right mental mind frame to be able to put my best foot forward and audition.
The Best 18-month Acting Program at the Maggie Flanigan Studio
Actors who are interested in the 18-month Acting program or the two-year acting programs at the studio, should visit the acting programs page on the studio website and call the studio at (917) 794-3878 to start the application process today (https://www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/).
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