Beloved Meisner

I don’t know what to make of this. I have been reading Sanford Meisner on Acting, anticipating at the outset that I would be as excited about this book as I was in reading Harold Guskin’s How to Stop Acting. Just read what’s on the back cover:

Today Sanford Meisner, who has been a fixture at the Neighborhood Playhouse for fifty years, is the best-known and most beloved teacher of acting in the country. This book, written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, follows an acting class of eight men and eight women for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Throughout these pages Meisner is a delight – always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges.

With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, who worked with Meisner for five years.

“How lucky we are to have this glorious book for actors and everybody else. O rare Sanford Meisner!” Maureen Stapleton

“This book should be read by anybody who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner’s way of teaching, it is the straight goods.” Arthur Miller

“If there is a key to good acting, this one is it, above all others. Actors, young and not so young, will find inspiration and excitement in this book.” Gregory Peck

“This is the best and most illuminating book on the process of acting I have ever read – and I’ve read them all.” Robert Whitehead

“A fascinating glimpse into the creative mind of a wonderful teacher, a primer for beginners and a refreshing reexamination for the professional.” Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson

“delight” “beloved” “empathizing” “urging them onward” “glorious” “rare” “inspiration” “excitement” “illuminating” “best” “key” Clearly this man made a positive impression on some very famous people.

So why is the book such a hard slog? Dennis Longwell’s “you are there” approach to capturing Meisner and his technique is almost impenetrable and, worse, reveals the master as condescending, dismissive, often cruel to his students, and overly fond of criticizing his competition at The Actor’s Studio and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Well, it was a different era.  I’m going to try to finish this book, but I hope the students Meisner summarily dismissed from class had enough sense of their own ability to continue acting.

Update 10/6/2011:  I have now taken a class in the Meisner method and I will say that for all his seemingly bad behavior, he was onto something.  The improvement in the performances of the actors in class was remarkable.  This training is worth pursuing.