BRATTLEBORO — The Commons editors added material to my notice of acting workshop and classes at the Hooker-Dunham Theater this fall. The description of the Meisner technique taken from the website of the Meisner Technique Studio in San Francisco contains a quote that is startling.
The quoted language is that the Meisner technique trains actors to be “fearless, authentic, moment-to-moment machines.”
Oh, boy.
I think Meisner would roll over and die again if he saw “machines” describing the aim of his work with actors. Sounds like a conveyor belt turning out cookie-cutter actors.
His aim was the opposite: truthful behavior, attentive to and responsive to what is happening on the stage. Nothing machine-like about it.
So that's a clarification, but I appreciate the paper's attention to my notice.