Learn the Acting Techniques of the Stars

In a relatively short time as head of Playhouse 22’s Playhouse Acting Academy, Gerry Appel has expanded the organization’s curriculum to a level largely unheard of for community theater acting classes.

He doesn’t seem to have any plans to stop.

When the Academy’s fall session began on Thursday, Sept. 21, it featured an expanded adult acting class, a returning instructor, and a more intense level of instruction in relatively intricate theatrical techniques. Instructor Jarad Kellner will tech Meisner Technique, one of the most well-known and widely utilized acting techniques in the film and theater worlds, to Academy students as part of the two-hour adult class.

“The goal of the Meisner technique has often been described as getting actors to ‘live truthfully under imaginary circumstances,’ ” Kellner said. “The technique emphasizes that, in order to carry out an action truthfully on stage, it is necessary to let emotion and subtext build based on the truth of the action and on the other characters around them, rather than simply playing the action or playing the emotion.”

The technique is named for its creator, Sanford Meisner, a legendary acting coach whose list of students reads like a Who’s Who of acting: Robert Duvall, Gregory Peck, Sandra Bullock, Dylan McDermott, James Caan, Steve McQueen, Jack Lord, Bob Fosse, Diane Keaton, Peter Falk, Jon Voight, Jeff Goldblum, Grace Kelly and Tony Randall. He also worked with artists like directors Sydney Pollack and Sidney Lumet, and writers Arthur Miller and David Mamet.

People tangentially familiar with acting techniques may know one of Meisner technique’s more familiar manifestations. “One of the best known exercises of the Meisner technique is called the repetition exercise,” said Kellner. “One person spontaneously makes a comment based on his or her partner, and the comment is repeated back and forth between the two actors in the same manner until it changes on its own.

“The object is always to react truthfully, allowing the repetition to change naturally rather than by manipulation.”

Kellner himself boasts an impressive resume as an acting teacher. He attended the Fine & Performing Arts Center High School in Monmouth County, where he won the Student of the Year award. He then studied Meisner as well as other acting techniques for two years with Piero Dusa at the Acting Studio/Duality Playhouse in New York.

He received his bachelor's degree in theater arts with a concentration in acting from San Jose State University, then joined the Moscow Art Theater's Actors in Residence program at San Diego State University. In 1999 he founded the Actor’s Playhouse in San Jose, Calif., where he taught Meisner technique. He currently resides in New Jersey.

As Meisner knew, the technique is not just useful to actors. “At the core of the Meisner technique is the objective of getting quickly to the truth, emotionally speaking,” said Kellner. “If a director is trained in Meisner they can use the technique as one of their tools to help them recognize during rehearsal when an actor is not…by helping the actors become more connected to their emotions, a director can help improve the overall quality of the production.”

The benefits of Meisner Technique can also be felt off the stage. “The Meisner Technique trains you to become totally aware of the subtext of what the other person is saying,” Kellner said. “It's never about the words the other person is saying. It's always about the emotion and subtext of what is going on behind the words. Once students begin to master the technique, they become aware of how often in their daily lives that people say one thing, but mean something altogether different.”

For more information about the Playhouse Acting Academy and their curriculum, visit them at www.playhouseactingacademy.org.