A surprisingly real struggle of a book to get through...
Intro to chapter 2:
Meisner: What’s the first thing that happens when they build the World Trade Center - you know that building?
Male student: They dig a hole.
Meisner: Well, of course they dig a hole. They don’t glue to the sidewalk! What’s the first thing they did when they built the Empire State Building?
Female student: They had to put down a foundation first.
Meisner: They had to put down a foundation on which...
Female student: ...they built the building.
Meisner: ...they built the building.
Page 68:
"I want to show you something. John, come over here."
John leaves his seat and stands next to the desk. Meisner moves around it to stand next to him.
"Now turn around," he says. "Make your position as firm and as rigid as you can. If necessary, hold on to the desk but make yourself absolutel steadfast."
"Okay."
"I don't think you're solid enough. Are you?"
"Yeah."
Meisner places the palms of both hands on John's shoulders and attempts to budge him. "I don't make any impression on him!" he says. "I'll try again. John, do the same thing."
Again John holds on to the edge of the desk, so tightly that the knuckles of his hands turn white.
"He's stiff!" Meisner says, and then spells the word "S-t-if!" The class laughs. "Now, John, relax."
John lets go of the desk, turns and shakes the tension from his arms and shoulders. Meisner gives him a firm but gentle shove and John takes two long, loose steps forward.
"He's responsive! Do you see that? Relax." Meisner pushes him again, and again John ambles forward. "He's responsive to what I do. Thank you, John. Sit down."
Page 72:
"What we're looking for is the picking up not of cues but of impulses. One doesn't pick up cues, one picks up impulses."
Page 110:
"You're too polite, and in acting politeness will get you nowhere! Look, find in yourselves those human things which are universal. Don't act out what you see on television!"
Page 114:
"Acting is a scary, paradoxical business. One of its central paradoxes is that in order to succeed as an actor you have to lose consciousness of your own self in order to transform yourself into the character in the play."
Page 127:
Ralph enters the room, closes the door quietly and stands still for a moment before taking off his coat. He is visibly upset and slams his coat onto the bed before crossing to the table, where he remembers leaving his notebook. Its absence is a genuine surprise to him, and the resulting exercise, though brief, has vitality.
"All right," Meisner says after a few minutes. "Now tell me, what did I do? Not what did you do, but what did I do?"
"You made something happen," Ralph says. "You made me want something. You created a need and made it impossible for me to -"
"I made it more alive," Meisner says. "Right? How did I do that?"
"You gave me something to do."
"I made you come from something that had happened, right?"
"Right. You made it more specific."
"And what happened because of that?"
"The scene came more alive. It got on the edge of something more important."
"It came to life. Were you working off each other?"
"Yes."
"Ralph, what I did to you - and this is no disgrace, quite the contrary - was to pull you back almost to the beginning. Why did I do that?"
"Because I got lost."
"So I gave you a compass."
"Right."
Page 170:
"What you do and how you feel about the script which makes you do what you do determines the character...Character, you can say, is determined by what you do...The emotion comes with how you're doing what you're doing. If you go from moment to moment, and each moment has a meaning for you, the emotion keeps flowing."
Page 178:
"The first thing you have to do when you read a text is to find yourself - really find yourself. First you find yourself, then you find a way of doing the part which strikes you as being in character. Then, based on that reality, you have the nucleus of the role. Otherwise every shmuck from Erasmus Hall High School is an actor because everyone there knows how to read...Anybody can read. But acting is living under imaginary circumstances. A script - I may have said this before - a script is like a libretto. You know what a libretto is, don't you?"
Page 186:
"Why does any artist begin doing what she's made for? Even she doesn't know. She's just following a need within herself." (Gender corrected by me)
Page 191:
"There is always some juice in the trouble barrel, no matter how full the talent barrel is. The trouble cannot transpose itself into talent without leaving some residue behind, even in the most talented of human beings."
Intro to chapter 2:
Meisner: What’s the first thing that happens when they build the World Trade Center - you know that building?
Male student: They dig a hole.
Meisner: Well, of course they dig a hole. They don’t glue to the sidewalk! What’s the first thing they did when they built the Empire State Building?
Female student: They had to put down a foundation first.
Meisner: They had to put down a foundation on which...
Female student: ...they built the building.
Meisner: ...they built the building.
Page 68:
"I want to show you something. John, come over here."
John leaves his seat and stands next to the desk. Meisner moves around it to stand next to him.
"Now turn around," he says. "Make your position as firm and as rigid as you can. If necessary, hold on to the desk but make yourself absolutel steadfast."
"Okay."
"I don't think you're solid enough. Are you?"
"Yeah."
Meisner places the palms of both hands on John's shoulders and attempts to budge him. "I don't make any impression on him!" he says. "I'll try again. John, do the same thing."
Again John holds on to the edge of the desk, so tightly that the knuckles of his hands turn white.
"He's stiff!" Meisner says, and then spells the word "S-t-if!" The class laughs. "Now, John, relax."
John lets go of the desk, turns and shakes the tension from his arms and shoulders. Meisner gives him a firm but gentle shove and John takes two long, loose steps forward.
"He's responsive! Do you see that? Relax." Meisner pushes him again, and again John ambles forward. "He's responsive to what I do. Thank you, John. Sit down."
Page 72:
"What we're looking for is the picking up not of cues but of impulses. One doesn't pick up cues, one picks up impulses."
Page 110:
"You're too polite, and in acting politeness will get you nowhere! Look, find in yourselves those human things which are universal. Don't act out what you see on television!"
Page 114:
"Acting is a scary, paradoxical business. One of its central paradoxes is that in order to succeed as an actor you have to lose consciousness of your own self in order to transform yourself into the character in the play."
Page 127:
Ralph enters the room, closes the door quietly and stands still for a moment before taking off his coat. He is visibly upset and slams his coat onto the bed before crossing to the table, where he remembers leaving his notebook. Its absence is a genuine surprise to him, and the resulting exercise, though brief, has vitality.
"All right," Meisner says after a few minutes. "Now tell me, what did I do? Not what did you do, but what did I do?"
"You made something happen," Ralph says. "You made me want something. You created a need and made it impossible for me to -"
"I made it more alive," Meisner says. "Right? How did I do that?"
"You gave me something to do."
"I made you come from something that had happened, right?"
"Right. You made it more specific."
"And what happened because of that?"
"The scene came more alive. It got on the edge of something more important."
"It came to life. Were you working off each other?"
"Yes."
"Ralph, what I did to you - and this is no disgrace, quite the contrary - was to pull you back almost to the beginning. Why did I do that?"
"Because I got lost."
"So I gave you a compass."
"Right."
Page 170:
"What you do and how you feel about the script which makes you do what you do determines the character...Character, you can say, is determined by what you do...The emotion comes with how you're doing what you're doing. If you go from moment to moment, and each moment has a meaning for you, the emotion keeps flowing."
Page 178:
"The first thing you have to do when you read a text is to find yourself - really find yourself. First you find yourself, then you find a way of doing the part which strikes you as being in character. Then, based on that reality, you have the nucleus of the role. Otherwise every shmuck from Erasmus Hall High School is an actor because everyone there knows how to read...Anybody can read. But acting is living under imaginary circumstances. A script - I may have said this before - a script is like a libretto. You know what a libretto is, don't you?"
Page 186:
"Why does any artist begin doing what she's made for? Even she doesn't know. She's just following a need within herself." (Gender corrected by me)
Page 191:
"There is always some juice in the trouble barrel, no matter how full the talent barrel is. The trouble cannot transpose itself into talent without leaving some residue behind, even in the most talented of human beings."
