I went to a taster session in Meisner Technique from the London Meisner Company last Sunday, and took loads of really good ideas away from it.
One that resonated with me, especially related to improvising, is how children are quite free and how we learn to close that up as we grow up into a society. It reminded me of one of my favourite clips.
Children are quite free improvisers partially because they don’t have the same worries as adults. Kermit is thinking about making a show, and maybe how much its costing, and probably much more. He is still improvising and working really well with the kid but I think it’s Joey who is the star of the show here.
Joey is just playing around with her friend the frog. She has all of her attention on him when she’s playing. When she says ‘Cookie Monster’ she’s watching him to see his response, and she knows exactly what to say when he leaves. That’s what makes it so funny, and her performance so adorable.
Though I haven’t fully studied Meisner Technique, I could see how closely the teacher Robyn paid attention to details and how the technique brought out the same kind of attention between students practising it. It’s palpable, you can feel when a performer is tuned into the other person.
This kind of attention is something that I have seen in improvisers and clown performers that I love, sometimes its attention on the other performers, sometimes its attention on the audience.
I also saw it in my elementary students when I taught in South Korea. They could have short attention spans, but when they played a game they liked or had an argument then suddenly their attention was like a laser beam drilling into what was going on. Every flip of a card or roll of a dice had their full attention. Victories were exulted over like Olympic wins, defeats were mourned with agonised wails and waving of arms. It was great drama. Then they immediately forgot the losers and winners and moved onto the next part of the lesson or school day.
This is the dynamic I love to see in performing. Full investment and openness from the performers.
Come and play at storytelling. I am running £5 workshops near Waterloo on Tuesday evenings. Open yourself up to your impulses, and learn how to weave them into stories.
Check here for more details.
Pebbles in the pool 