MEISNER WORKSHOPS 2009
SESSIONS – February - March 2009 –
BEGINNER SESSION –
Meisner Technique Weekend Intensive:
Repetition Game
- Bettering Communication,
- Listening/Answering effectively
- Living truthfully under given circumstances
Improvisation
Independent Activities,
Emotional Preparation
Character / Role Development.
Participation in Improvisation Portion of Final Presentation
Cost: $50USD/day*
Registration fee: $15
Capacity: 20
ADVANCED SESSION – Available Exclusively to Institutions / Theatre Companies
Meisner Technique :
Repetition Game
Improvisation
Intro to Activities
Scene Study:
Character Development
Meisner technique in Scene Development
Emotional Preparation in Scene Context
Performance of Scenes before an invited audience in Final Presentation
Cost: $500USD for ENTIRE group / week intensive course
Capacity: 20
* For two day intensive workshop the cost will be $100USD total
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
MEISNER TECHNIQUE WORKSHOPS 2009- BACKGROUND AND HISTORY-
MEISNER WORKSHOP – SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA – JAN 2009
“An actor is an intelligent, sensitive human being that lives truthfully under imaginary circumstances” - Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner was a legendary American dramatist who was among the founding members of the Group Theatre along with Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, and Lee Strasberg. Renowned for being the first to bring the work of Konstantin Stanislavsky to the American stage, the Group Theatre, and particularly Strasberg, is credited with devising the American version of the Method, quite possibly the most well known acting technique to date.
It is little known, however, that the members of the Group argued at length about what stood at the heart of the legendary technique. Where Strasberg maintained that the key to the Method lay in the practise of “affective memory” (where the actor uses memories/experiences from his/her own life as emotional motivation for a particular scene), Adler and Meisner disagreed. Eventually leaving the Group, disenchanted with the Method and eager to put his own experience to work in the formation of actors, Sanford Meisner established The Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York City (1935) where he perfected his technique and trained some of today’s best actors; among them, Jo Anne Woodward, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Gregory Peck, Grace Kelly, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Gandolfini, and Joan Allen.
The Meisner technique is geared at teaching the actor to “live truthfully under imaginary circumstances” through an improvisation technique based on observation and repetition.” The “Repetition Game” is the most fundamental exercise in Meisner training. Actors are asked to observe and respond to others' behavior and the subtext therein. If they can "pick up the impulse" — or work spontaneously from how their partner's behavior affects them — their own behavior will arise directly from the stimulus of the other.
Later, as the exercise evolves in complexity to include "given circumstances," "relationships," actions and obstacles, this skill remains critical. From start to finish — from repetition to rehearsing a lead role — the principles of "listen and respond" and "stay in the moment" are fundamental to the work. “
Having trained with renowned Canadian Meisner coach Jacqueline McClintock (one of the last teachers taught by Meisner himself) for over eight years Lita Tresierra and Kenneth Leonard have not only experience as actors under this technique, but have had the opportunity to produce and direct some of Montreal’s most successful and innovative theatrical contributions to date, among them Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and Good Intentions, an original piece for the Festival TransAmeriques. They both teach in Montreal where they also are prominent actors and co-creators of Seditionaire Productions, one of the city’s most original companies.
Having grown up in Costa Rica (and an LTG alumnus), Lita Tresierra is happy to be able to return to her hometown of San Jose, and even more thrilled to be able to bring this legendary technique to local actors and directors. The two workshops given will encompass the entire technique and guide the actors through from the early stages of Repetition to working the technique into scenes to be presented before an invited audience. Though novice actors are welcome (for beginners session only), the workshops are limited capacity and are geared at the experienced or professional actor and/or director. For the duration of four weeks, and a series of intensive sessions, Lita Tresierra and Kenneth Leonard will give the actors participating the foundation for training under one of today’s most reputable acting techniques.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE WORKSHOPS!
“An actor is an intelligent, sensitive human being that lives truthfully under imaginary circumstances” - Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner was a legendary American dramatist who was among the founding members of the Group Theatre along with Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, and Lee Strasberg. Renowned for being the first to bring the work of Konstantin Stanislavsky to the American stage, the Group Theatre, and particularly Strasberg, is credited with devising the American version of the Method, quite possibly the most well known acting technique to date.
It is little known, however, that the members of the Group argued at length about what stood at the heart of the legendary technique. Where Strasberg maintained that the key to the Method lay in the practise of “affective memory” (where the actor uses memories/experiences from his/her own life as emotional motivation for a particular scene), Adler and Meisner disagreed. Eventually leaving the Group, disenchanted with the Method and eager to put his own experience to work in the formation of actors, Sanford Meisner established The Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York City (1935) where he perfected his technique and trained some of today’s best actors; among them, Jo Anne Woodward, Jon Voight, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Gregory Peck, Grace Kelly, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Gandolfini, and Joan Allen.
The Meisner technique is geared at teaching the actor to “live truthfully under imaginary circumstances” through an improvisation technique based on observation and repetition.” The “Repetition Game” is the most fundamental exercise in Meisner training. Actors are asked to observe and respond to others' behavior and the subtext therein. If they can "pick up the impulse" — or work spontaneously from how their partner's behavior affects them — their own behavior will arise directly from the stimulus of the other.
Later, as the exercise evolves in complexity to include "given circumstances," "relationships," actions and obstacles, this skill remains critical. From start to finish — from repetition to rehearsing a lead role — the principles of "listen and respond" and "stay in the moment" are fundamental to the work. “
Having trained with renowned Canadian Meisner coach Jacqueline McClintock (one of the last teachers taught by Meisner himself) for over eight years Lita Tresierra and Kenneth Leonard have not only experience as actors under this technique, but have had the opportunity to produce and direct some of Montreal’s most successful and innovative theatrical contributions to date, among them Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and Good Intentions, an original piece for the Festival TransAmeriques. They both teach in Montreal where they also are prominent actors and co-creators of Seditionaire Productions, one of the city’s most original companies.
Having grown up in Costa Rica (and an LTG alumnus), Lita Tresierra is happy to be able to return to her hometown of San Jose, and even more thrilled to be able to bring this legendary technique to local actors and directors. The two workshops given will encompass the entire technique and guide the actors through from the early stages of Repetition to working the technique into scenes to be presented before an invited audience. Though novice actors are welcome (for beginners session only), the workshops are limited capacity and are geared at the experienced or professional actor and/or director. For the duration of four weeks, and a series of intensive sessions, Lita Tresierra and Kenneth Leonard will give the actors participating the foundation for training under one of today’s most reputable acting techniques.
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE WORKSHOPS!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
MEISNER WORKSHOP IN COSTA RICA - JAN 2009 -
This winter Seditionaire Productions plans on conducting a series of intensive MEISNER TECHNIQUE workshops in San Jose, Costa Rica. The workshops will be geared at both the novice and professional actor with a choice between an introductory intensive course on the technique itself and a scene-study class with a presentation before an invited audience.
After a successful season of working with and coaching actors one-on-one, Seditionaire co-founders Lita Tresierra and Kenneth Leonard have looked to expand on the opportunities brought on by this technique by elaborating a platform to reach, direct and coach local actors in an exotic setting, while at the same time reaching out to Costa Rican performers and giving them the equal opportunity to learn this renowned acting technique. These workshops will seek to establish a collaboration between Canadian and Costa Rican artists and introduce them to this legendary method.
For more information on travel packages, scheduling, pricing, curriculum and course options, please contact:
seditionaire@gmail.com
LIMITED SPACE
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFO!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Time to get to know your NEIGHBOURS...
NEIGHBOURS -- the story of 2014/2020 St. LAURENT --
It has been said that this house is cursed…. the matter is subjective, as who can say if it was a curse that caused the horrifying events that occurred here…or if it was these very events that cursed the house. Many years ago there was a couple, the Jansen’s; full of hope and expectations they bought this brownstone in a burgeoning part of town with the wish of turning it into their dream home…. renovating both apartments to rent out the downstairs and move in upstairs.
Sure enough, the plan seemed to work perfectly, in a short time they’d rented the house to another young couple…Alistair and Sadie Chonaire. The four of them became fast friends and all shared their aspirations of success, of happiness, of starting a family. It was this very thing, one could say, that proved to be the first signs of a curse. Where Sadie and Alistair quickly became pregnant with twins…the Jansen’s had tried for the better part of 3 years to no avail. How cruel it seemed to them to hear the late-night cries of a newborn child when their nursery lay empty. One October morning it seemed the curse was lifted…through tears of joy and shrieks of disbelief the Jansen’s ran down to their friends to let them know they were expecting…finally, they were expecting! The couples got to work at getting the nursery ready…even the twins helped… how long they’d waited for this day… their joy would not last. On the morning of the 31st, just a few weeks later…the shrieks heard from the Jansen home were altogether different. When the Chonaires made it up the stairs and into the bathroom, the blood on the sheets and the floor made it clear that the child had been lost.
It has been said that it was really this event that changed things in the Jansen home. The love, the longing they had felt for this child was lost with it…and slowly it turned…. it turned to wrath and envy and bitterness… it turned and it hid…it hid from them the swamp of what it had become.
Exactly one year after this event, Alistair and Sadie Chonaire came home to find Mr. Jansen had made an elaborate dinner…. he sat in their living room with a bottle of Bordeaux. He explained how long it had been since they had time to themselves…time without the constant needs of the children…time away from thinking about what was lost or what could’ve been. He explained that his wife had taken the girls to their grandmother’s and would soon join them for this surprise meal they had prepared. It wasn’t until later when Mrs. Jansen failed to show up that Sadie had the misfortune to worry and check for her upstairs…she and her husband would pay for that, with their lives.
When her friend was nowhere to found, even after the meal…Sadie ran upstairs to check for any call they may have missed…. it was only then that she saw Alice Jansen’s body in the tub…she looked like an angel floating in the water with the sparks flowing through her. She could only have thought it was a suicide…oh how very wrong she was. When she ran down the stairs and broke the news…she and her husband were surprised to see how calm Alice’s husband was after receiving such news…it was only when he started to laugh that they began to realise the magnitude of their mistake. The killing itself, so they say, was quick…. Mr. Jansen was careful that they didn’t suffer…maybe he did so because he broke the news to them, before he killed them, that the last meal they’d had had been their children…their beautiful little girls…. maybe he thought that was suffering enough…
The moment of true horror for Mr. Jansen, after his neighbours lay dead, after consuming their children…as he stood over his wife’s lifeless corpse the truth of what he was feeling was staring him in the face and he could no longer hide from it… he was aroused.
He turned that same brownstone from a dream home to a whorehouse… where nightly he would play out his deranged fantasies, and afterwards punish himself with torture and regret. Patrons of the brothel have attested not only to Jansen’s loss of wits…but to seeing his wife, on repeated occasions seeing the Chonaires…of hearing their cries…of seeing their twins…sometimes playing hide and seek…sometimes crying for their damned souls…. some have even attested on the odd Halloween to have seen the playing out of that night’s horrific events…to have smelled the cooking of the flesh and the thick stench of death. Judge for yourselves…and also ask yourselves …how well, REALLY, do you know your NEIGHBOURS?
SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS ON NEIGHBOURS -- UNVEILING ITSELF FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY -- TODAY - OCTOBER 31st --
It has been said that this house is cursed…. the matter is subjective, as who can say if it was a curse that caused the horrifying events that occurred here…or if it was these very events that cursed the house. Many years ago there was a couple, the Jansen’s; full of hope and expectations they bought this brownstone in a burgeoning part of town with the wish of turning it into their dream home…. renovating both apartments to rent out the downstairs and move in upstairs.
Sure enough, the plan seemed to work perfectly, in a short time they’d rented the house to another young couple…Alistair and Sadie Chonaire. The four of them became fast friends and all shared their aspirations of success, of happiness, of starting a family. It was this very thing, one could say, that proved to be the first signs of a curse. Where Sadie and Alistair quickly became pregnant with twins…the Jansen’s had tried for the better part of 3 years to no avail. How cruel it seemed to them to hear the late-night cries of a newborn child when their nursery lay empty. One October morning it seemed the curse was lifted…through tears of joy and shrieks of disbelief the Jansen’s ran down to their friends to let them know they were expecting…finally, they were expecting! The couples got to work at getting the nursery ready…even the twins helped… how long they’d waited for this day… their joy would not last. On the morning of the 31st, just a few weeks later…the shrieks heard from the Jansen home were altogether different. When the Chonaires made it up the stairs and into the bathroom, the blood on the sheets and the floor made it clear that the child had been lost.
It has been said that it was really this event that changed things in the Jansen home. The love, the longing they had felt for this child was lost with it…and slowly it turned…. it turned to wrath and envy and bitterness… it turned and it hid…it hid from them the swamp of what it had become.
Exactly one year after this event, Alistair and Sadie Chonaire came home to find Mr. Jansen had made an elaborate dinner…. he sat in their living room with a bottle of Bordeaux. He explained how long it had been since they had time to themselves…time without the constant needs of the children…time away from thinking about what was lost or what could’ve been. He explained that his wife had taken the girls to their grandmother’s and would soon join them for this surprise meal they had prepared. It wasn’t until later when Mrs. Jansen failed to show up that Sadie had the misfortune to worry and check for her upstairs…she and her husband would pay for that, with their lives.
When her friend was nowhere to found, even after the meal…Sadie ran upstairs to check for any call they may have missed…. it was only then that she saw Alice Jansen’s body in the tub…she looked like an angel floating in the water with the sparks flowing through her. She could only have thought it was a suicide…oh how very wrong she was. When she ran down the stairs and broke the news…she and her husband were surprised to see how calm Alice’s husband was after receiving such news…it was only when he started to laugh that they began to realise the magnitude of their mistake. The killing itself, so they say, was quick…. Mr. Jansen was careful that they didn’t suffer…maybe he did so because he broke the news to them, before he killed them, that the last meal they’d had had been their children…their beautiful little girls…. maybe he thought that was suffering enough…
The moment of true horror for Mr. Jansen, after his neighbours lay dead, after consuming their children…as he stood over his wife’s lifeless corpse the truth of what he was feeling was staring him in the face and he could no longer hide from it… he was aroused.
He turned that same brownstone from a dream home to a whorehouse… where nightly he would play out his deranged fantasies, and afterwards punish himself with torture and regret. Patrons of the brothel have attested not only to Jansen’s loss of wits…but to seeing his wife, on repeated occasions seeing the Chonaires…of hearing their cries…of seeing their twins…sometimes playing hide and seek…sometimes crying for their damned souls…. some have even attested on the odd Halloween to have seen the playing out of that night’s horrific events…to have smelled the cooking of the flesh and the thick stench of death. Judge for yourselves…and also ask yourselves …how well, REALLY, do you know your NEIGHBOURS?
SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS ON NEIGHBOURS -- UNVEILING ITSELF FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY -- TODAY - OCTOBER 31st --
Thursday, October 30, 2008
It's Halloween...do you know what your NEIGHBOURS are doing?
THIS FRIDAY OCTOBER 31ST -- COME JOIN US THIS HALLOWEEN --
A sinister, psycho-sexual treat for the senses and the senseless. "Neighbours" will guide you through a labyrinthine tale of horrors and delights... of hellish fantasies and despondent realities... of quiet desperation turned into a torrent of wrath.
This Halloween, trade in your bag of treats for a house of tricks and watch the unfurling tale of the lives and deaths of souls damned to remain confined in their abode. Unveiling but once a year each 31st of October, this Halloween, it's time to get to know your Neighbours.
2014/2020 ST. LAURENT
Must be at least 18 years dead to enter.
7PM-MIDNIGHT (installation recurring each half-hour)
$5 TO GET OUT
STAY TUNED FOR MORE GORY DETAILS ON NEIGHBOURS, THIS HALLOWEEN'S MOST PROVOCATIVE INSTALLATION!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Welcome to your friendly neighbourhood Seditionaire!
Hello folks!
Welcome to Seditionaire! As you may or may not know, we are a company far from the conventional. We, the artistic community of rebellious spirits, have noticed that a precedent has been on the rise in regards to artists in the city of Montreal. It is a precedent that says that artists don't need to get paid for their work... no part of the budget need be put aside for the stylists and graphic designers, PR people and entertainers that make their events happen... artists will work for food, or drinks, or guest-list, or clothes. But the truth, kids, is that we can't eat clothes and a guest-list doesn't pay the rent... working for a trade should be the artists' choice, not their only choice.
Montreal is a city that markets itself to Canada and the world as a city of artists. For this reason it receives subventions from the government... from foreign investors wanting to support the local art scene.... events such as Montreal's Jazz Festival, or the Just For Laughs Festival... Pop Montreal... Festival TransAmeriques... even Fashion Week... these are but a few of the city's many art-based attractions. But the sad reality remains that while funds are pouring in to support the country's "artistic epicenter", those funds seem to remain at the corporate level and never quite trickle down to those it's meant to support: the artists.
Did you know that the gatekeepers that run Fashion Week -let them remain nameless, for now, to name them I guess would be too much of a sensation,;) receive around 30 million dollars to stage this fashionable affair? Surely with that much in sponsorships, they must have en excellent programme to include young talented designers, they must pay everyone involved in Fashion Week handsomely well, right? Do you know how many new, talented designers have gotten the $3000 entrance fee waived in the interest of supporting young talent in design? Not one. Do you know how much all the artists and promoters are paid that are involved with Fashion Week and it's events? Nothing. The truth is that all of those funds... the funds left over which should be going to support local talent in design, in the arts... the only thing they seem to be doing is lining the gatekeepers' pockets.
We could use just about ANY of the city's famed festivals and draw the same conclusions. Of the millions Montreal receives for the Jazz Fest, a large percentage does actually make it to the artists... unfortunately the funds go to all the big headlining acts that are being brought in from around the globe... all of the local acts? The artists' that are based out of Montreal... that find themselves opening for the big headliners, or filling up those undesirable time-slots... the artists that the thousands of tourists believe they are supporting ... that even the international acts believe they are here to support? The truth is the local acts are lucky if they receive one TENTH of what the headliners pull in... they should simply consider themselves privileged to be included in a festival as prestigious as the Jazz Fest... well, I don't know about you, but privilege never paid my bills.
We, the artistic community can do one of two things... take it lying down, or shouting from the top of our mountain- NO MORE! Well, I'm tired of lying down for the others to walk right over me...I'm ready to stand up and start shouting. The time is now, the choice is yours, USE YOUR VOICE!
Stay tuned for more rants...events...and goings on from your friendly neighbourhood SEDITIONAIRE!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
