Meisner Intensive Acting Workshop 9 with Steven Ditmyer
Advanced Scene Work (Actions and Super Objectives)
with SHOWCASE Performance

Actions and Super Objectives

Wednesday, 15 November- Tuesday 21 November 12-4PM (except November 19 - day off)
Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 9- 12 Actors (only for those who have taken Workshop 4 or 5)
Apply now: https://www.directorslab.org/applynow/

9 workshop: 525.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 450.- € until Friday, Oct 1, 2023
Observers price: 200 Eur/6 days or 40 Eur/ day

An actor’s script is a coded message for what the playwright intended. When composing a script, the playwright imagines what each of his characters is doing in the most-minute detail. But, apart from a stage direction here and there, he only writes down what the characters say.

The actor’s job is to examine the playwright’s words and figure out why his or her character utters that dialogue. In other words, work backward from the script and try to understand what the character is doing and why the character is doing it.

Using a scene, which I will give you, you (the actor) will learn:

1. How to identify your Super-Objective (the characters overall wish or dream).
2. Find your Objective in the Scene (the characters wants and desires which are connected to your overall super-objective).
3. Identifying the Obstacles in the way of your objective.
4. And then identify and execute Actions (Intentions) which are active doings aimed at overcoming those obstacles and achieving your objective.

*As we will be ending this workshop with a public performance of the scenes, we will be meeting for a longer period of time than the regular 5-day workshops. 7 rehearsal days with a performance on the 8th day.

Register for workshop and final showcase: www.directorslab.org/applynow

**Meisner Technique - Workshop 2 (Independent Activities)**

Monday, November 13 - Friday, November 17 6-10pm

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 12 Actors
(only for those who have taken Workshop 1 with Steven)

Apply now :
https://www.directorslab.org/applynow/

2 workshop: 390.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 350.- € until Oct 1, 2023
*For those who repeat a workshop, there is an extra discount of 25.-€ for each workshop repeated.

Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

If you want more information:
+370 682 42709
cu@directorlab.org
www.directorslab.org/meisnervilnius

Visit Steven's website Meisner International
www.meisnerinternational.com

WORKSHOP 2 - INDEPENDENT ACTIVITIES

This workshop continues the training we started of really doing. Acting is doing. When we are not really doing on stage we have stopped acting. I say continues because part of what we have strengthened with Repetition is the ability to really listen and listening is a real doing.

Developing Concentration!
Now we are going to add an element to the repetition exercise called Independent Activities. Meisner said, “The quality of your acting depends on how fully you are doing what you are doing.”

This activity will demand real concentration in order for you to complete it. Once an actor places the totality of his concentration on the accomplishment of some concrete, specific, and truthful goal, he cannot help but react truthfully, from the core of his self and experience.

One actor in the room will concentrate on an activity (with a meaningful reason out of his imagination for doing it) while the other actor will come to the door, like what we did in the last workshop (now with a specific reason to come to the door out of his imagination).

We must always be in response to what is happening. A truly difficult activity will demand that you place the entirety of your concentration on it AND you must still respond to your partner - to what is actually happening from impulsive moment to impulsive moment!

Remember – the exercise has no agenda. There is nothing that is supposed to happen. The point is to really do, really listen, and truthfully respond. If you do this, you create real contact between the partners. Not intellectual contact but emotional contact. And when this happens, strong truthful acting occurs.

This work is challenging and very rewarding. I can’t wait to work with you again!

Sincerely, Steven Ditmyer

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Steven Ditmyer
Actor/Director/Acting Teacher
Founder, Meisner International

STEVEN is an Actor, Director and Acting Teacher who studied with SANFORD MEISNER, UTA HAGEN and ZOE CALDWELL. He is a graduate of THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE SCHOOL OF THE THEATRE in New York City where he later was invited to train as a teacher of THE MEISNER TECHNIQUE.

In addition to being a guest teacher at THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ARTS in New York City, He is the founder of MEISNER INTERNATIONAL currently teaching workshops in NEW YORK, LONDON, AMSTERDAM, PARIS, ROME, BERLIN, VIENNA, HELSINKI, VILNIUS, TALLINN, RIO DE JANEIRO, SAO PAULO, QUITO, GUAYAQUIL and BOGOTA with new workshops starting in SWEDEN, GREECE and BUENOS AIRES.

As an actor, Steven worked with many great artists such as AL PACINO, ARTHUR MILLER, TONY RANDALL, RON RIFKIN, SAM WATERSTON, DIANE WIEST, BLYTHE DANNER and more.

As a director, he directed the OFF THE PAGE READING SERIES for TONY RANDALL’S NATIONAL ACTORS THEATRE in NYC (2005-2008) with such notable productions as: THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA with ALEC BALDWIN, GOLF WITH ALAN SHEPARD with JACK KLUGMAN, CHARLES DURNING, LEN CARIOU and JOHN CULLUM and LADIES IN RETIREMENT with ROSEMARY HARRIS. He has directed many productions in New York working with such notable playwrights as ROBERT ASKINS, JAMES MCCLURE, BRUCE JAY FRIEDMAN, ALBERT BERMEL, JACK GILHOOLEY, GAIL SHEEHY and with notable actors as MARIAN SELDES, BRIAN MURRAY, DANA IVEY, JOHN PANKOW, RICHARD BEY, BRIAN GERAGHTY and many more. Steven was the Co-Artistic Director of the WORKSHOP AT THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE (1999-2003) where he directed over 20 new plays and was the Artistic Director of THE NEIGHBORHOOD THEATRE COMPANY in Naples, Florida (2003-2005) where he directed THE SYRINGA TREE. He was a founding director of the A-TRAIN PLAYS in NYC (written and performed in 24 hours) where he directed THE CASSEROLES OF FAR ROCKAWAY by SETH BAUER – winner of THE 2004 SAMUEL FRENCH FESTIVAL. He will be directing an adaptation of Ionesco's EXIT THE KING in Italian opening in Rome, Fall 2019.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

History of the Meisner Technique.

In the 1930s, Sanford Meisner was an actor in the Group Theatre, the most important repertory theatre in modern American History, which spawned the major American acting teachers, and several of the most important playwrights and directors of the 20th century. Meisner and his fellow actor Stella Adler fell out with their director Lee Strasberg over his use of Emotional Recall, a technique in which the actor used personal emotion from his own past memories to feed the acting process. Meisner and Adler chose to use the imagination to stimulate emotion and involvement in a play's imaginary circumstances. Both Strasberg's and Meisner and Adler's techniques came out of the work of Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia, but they differed on which parts of his work was most important to the actor's work and training. The Group Theatre broke up partially because of the conflict over these techniques. Meisner, Adler and Strasberg all went on to become acting teachers who had a profound influence on American acting and culture, as well as a strong influence on European acting.

At the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, Meisner created a full-blown acting technique which would train an actor to create all the layers of a complete performance over a two year period. It was, and still is, one of the most systematic and complete acting techniques in the Western world. Meisner's work was based on the principle that acting found its most profound expression in specific behavior that came out of the actor's real human response to circumstances and other people. The technique is based on truth. Meisner said “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.” Because of this, his entire training method relied heavily on accessing the actor's impulses, through which real responses and real behavior were accessed in the moment. This technique was not only applied to improvisation with another person, but also to the actor's way of finding things to do in rehearsal, interpreting a script, and creating the specific physical characteristics of each character the actor played.

The basic exercise that Meisner invented to train the actor's responses is called the Repetition Exercise. In this exercise, two actors stand across from each other and respond to each other through a repeated phrase. The phrase is about each other's behavior, and reflects what is going on between them in the moment, such as "You look unhappy with me right now." The way this phrase is said as it is repeated changes in meaning, tone and intensity to correspond with the behavior that each actor produces towards the other. Through this device, the actor stops thinking of what to say and do, and responds more freely and spontaneously, both physically and vocally. The exercise also eliminates line readings, since the way the actor speaks becomes coordinated with his behavioral response. As the exercise continues over a period of months, more detailed imaginary circumstances are added to the exercise, and it gradually becomes a kind of improvised scene. When this is fully developed, the actors are ready to start working with actual scripts. The course gradually makes its way through more complex script material and work on creating characters incorporating all the student's training

**Meisner Technique - Workshop 2 (Independent Activities)**

Tuesday, 25 July - Saturday, 29 July 6-10pm (except Saturday it will be 12-4 PM)

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 12 Actors
(only for those who have taken Workshop 1 with Steven)

Apply now :
https://www.directorslab.org/applynow/

2 workshop: 390.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 350.- € until Friday, July 1, 2023
*For those who repeat a workshop, there is an extra discount of 25.-€ for each workshop repeated.

Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

If you want more information:
+370 682 42709
cu@directorlab.org
www.directorslab.org/meisnervilnius

Visit Steven's website Meisner International
www.meisnerinternational.com

WORKSHOP 2 - INDEPENDENT ACTIVITIES

This workshop continues the training we started of really doing. Acting is doing. When we are not really doing on stage we have stopped acting. I say continues because part of what we have strengthened with Repetition is the ability to really listen and listening is a real doing.

Developing Concentration!
Now we are going to add an element to the repetition exercise called Independent Activities. Meisner said, “The quality of your acting depends on how fully you are doing what you are doing.”

This activity will demand real concentration in order for you to complete it. Once an actor places the totality of his concentration on the accomplishment of some concrete, specific, and truthful goal, he cannot help but react truthfully, from the core of his self and experience.

One actor in the room will concentrate on an activity (with a meaningful reason out of his imagination for doing it) while the other actor will come to the door, like what we did in the last workshop (now with a specific reason to come to the door out of his imagination).

We must always be in response to what is happening. A truly difficult activity will demand that you place the entirety of your concentration on it AND you must still respond to your partner - to what is actually happening from impulsive moment to impulsive moment!

Remember – the exercise has no agenda. There is nothing that is supposed to happen. The point is to really do, really listen, and truthfully respond. If you do this, you create real contact between the partners. Not intellectual contact but emotional contact. And when this happens, strong truthful acting occurs.

This work is challenging and very rewarding. I can’t wait to work with you again!

Sincerely, Steven Ditmyer

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Steven Ditmyer
Actor/Director/Acting Teacher
Founder, Meisner International

STEVEN is an Actor, Director and Acting Teacher who studied with SANFORD MEISNER, UTA HAGEN and ZOE CALDWELL. He is a graduate of THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE SCHOOL OF THE THEATRE in New York City where he later was invited to train as a teacher of THE MEISNER TECHNIQUE.

In addition to being a guest teacher at THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ARTS in New York City, He is the founder of MEISNER INTERNATIONAL currently teaching workshops in NEW YORK, LONDON, AMSTERDAM, PARIS, ROME, BERLIN, VIENNA, HELSINKI, VILNIUS, TALLINN, RIO DE JANEIRO, SAO PAULO, QUITO, GUAYAQUIL and BOGOTA with new workshops starting in SWEDEN, GREECE and BUENOS AIRES.

As an actor, Steven worked with many great artists such as AL PACINO, ARTHUR MILLER, TONY RANDALL, RON RIFKIN, SAM WATERSTON, DIANE WIEST, BLYTHE DANNER and more.

As a director, he directed the OFF THE PAGE READING SERIES for TONY RANDALL’S NATIONAL ACTORS THEATRE in NYC (2005-2008) with such notable productions as: THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA with ALEC BALDWIN, GOLF WITH ALAN SHEPARD with JACK KLUGMAN, CHARLES DURNING, LEN CARIOU and JOHN CULLUM and LADIES IN RETIREMENT with ROSEMARY HARRIS. He has directed many productions in New York working with such notable playwrights as ROBERT ASKINS, JAMES MCCLURE, BRUCE JAY FRIEDMAN, ALBERT BERMEL, JACK GILHOOLEY, GAIL SHEEHY and with notable actors as MARIAN SELDES, BRIAN MURRAY, DANA IVEY, JOHN PANKOW, RICHARD BEY, BRIAN GERAGHTY and many more. Steven was the Co-Artistic Director of the WORKSHOP AT THE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYHOUSE (1999-2003) where he directed over 20 new plays and was the Artistic Director of THE NEIGHBORHOOD THEATRE COMPANY in Naples, Florida (2003-2005) where he directed THE SYRINGA TREE. He was a founding director of the A-TRAIN PLAYS in NYC (written and performed in 24 hours) where he directed THE CASSEROLES OF FAR ROCKAWAY by SETH BAUER – winner of THE 2004 SAMUEL FRENCH FESTIVAL. He will be directing an adaptation of Ionesco's EXIT THE KING in Italian opening in Rome, Fall 2019.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

History of the Meisner Technique.

In the 1930s, Sanford Meisner was an actor in the Group Theatre, the most important repertory theatre in modern American History, which spawned the major American acting teachers, and several of the most important playwrights and directors of the 20th century. Meisner and his fellow actor Stella Adler fell out with their director Lee Strasberg over his use of Emotional Recall, a technique in which the actor used personal emotion from his own past memories to feed the acting process. Meisner and Adler chose to use the imagination to stimulate emotion and involvement in a play's imaginary circumstances. Both Strasberg's and Meisner and Adler's techniques came out of the work of Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia, but they differed on which parts of his work was most important to the actor's work and training. The Group Theatre broke up partially because of the conflict over these techniques. Meisner, Adler and Strasberg all went on to become acting teachers who had a profound influence on American acting and culture, as well as a strong influence on European acting.

At the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, Meisner created a full-blown acting technique which would train an actor to create all the layers of a complete performance over a two year period. It was, and still is, one of the most systematic and complete acting techniques in the Western world. Meisner's work was based on the principle that acting found its most profound expression in specific behavior that came out of the actor's real human response to circumstances and other people. The technique is based on truth. Meisner said “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.” Because of this, his entire training method relied heavily on accessing the actor's impulses, through which real responses and real behavior were accessed in the moment. This technique was not only applied to improvisation with another person, but also to the actor's way of finding things to do in rehearsal, interpreting a script, and creating the specific physical characteristics of each character the actor played.

The basic exercise that Meisner invented to train the actor's responses is called the Repetition Exercise. In this exercise, two actors stand across from each other and respond to each other through a repeated phrase. The phrase is about each other's behavior, and reflects what is going on between them in the moment, such as "You look unhappy with me right now." The way this phrase is said as it is repeated changes in meaning, tone and intensity to correspond with the behavior that each actor produces towards the other. Through this device, the actor stops thinking of what to say and do, and responds more freely and spontaneously, both physically and vocally. The exercise also eliminates line readings, since the way the actor speaks becomes coordinated with his behavioral response. As the exercise continues over a period of months, more detailed imaginary circumstances are added to the exercise, and it gradually becomes a kind of improvised scene. When this is fully developed, the actors are ready to start working with actual scripts. The course gradually makes its way through more complex script material and work on creating characters incorporating all the student's training

Meisner Intensive Acting Workshop 9 with Steven Ditmyer
Advanced Scene Work (Actions and Super Objectives)
with SHOWCASE Performance

Actions and Super Objectives

Monday, 24 July - Tuesday, August 1 12-4PM (except July 29 Saturday day off)
Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 9- 12 Actors (only for those who have taken Workshop 4 or 5)
Apply now or book a tikcet for final showcase : https://www.directorslab.org/applynow/

9 workshop: 625.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 550.- € until Friday, July 1, 2023
Observers price: 280 Eur/8 days or 40 Eur/ day

An actor’s script is a coded message for what the playwright intended. When composing a script, the playwright imagines what each of his characters is doing in the most-minute detail. But, apart from a stage direction here and there, he only writes down what the characters say.

The actor’s job is to examine the playwright’s words and figure out why his or her character utters that dialogue. In other words, work backward from the script and try to understand what the character is doing and why the character is doing it.

Using a scene, which I will give you, you (the actor) will learn:

1. How to identify your Super-Objective (the characters overall wish or dream).
2. Find your Objective in the Scene (the characters wants and desires which are connected to your overall super-objective).
3. Identifying the Obstacles in the way of your objective.
4. And then identify and execute Actions (Intentions) which are active doings aimed at overcoming those obstacles and achieving your objective.

*As we will be ending this workshop with a public performance of the scenes, we will be meeting for a longer period of time than the regular 5-day workshops. 7 rehearsal days with a performance on the 8th day.

Register for workshop and final showcase: www.directorslab.org/applynow

**Meisner Technique - Workshop 3 (Emotional Preparation)**

>>> Open to those who have participated in the Workshop 2 with Steven Ditmyer <<<

November 14-18 - 12PM- 4PM
Location: Vileišio 18

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 12 Actors
(only for those who have taken Workshop 2 with Steven)

Apply now: www.directorslab.org/applynow

Price for 5-day workshop:
Regular price - 390 Eur
Early Bird price - 350 Eur (if booked by Oct 31, 2022)

Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

If you want more information:
+370 682 42709
cu@directorlab.org
www.directorslab.org/meisnervilnius

EMOTIONAL PREPARATION

The third Level of this work is “Emotional Preparation”.
Emotional Preparation is that thing the actor does with himself before he enters the scene to alter his inner emotional condition. Why does the actor alter it? To create an emotional state that’s appropriate to the circumstances that happened before the scene begins. Meisner said this is the most delicate work of an actor and it takes time to master!

The big question is where will the actor draw his emotional preparation from? And this is where it gets interesting! You will derive your preparations from a very powerful resource which you’ve been using all your life, probably without even realizing it. And that resource is your imagination!

This is a very healthy way in - through fantasizing, daydreaming, using the actor’s imagination! It is very freeing for an actor to do this because he is not locked into what has actually happened to him. It isn’t a question of what did happen, but what might happen, what could be that activates an actor. Once an actor says what if, he can start to daydream and daydreams are as limitless as the imagination itself.

You will learn a specific process of how to use your imagination with people and things that have real meaning to you to alter you emotional condition. It’s a delicate journey and worth every step!

I look forward to taking it with you!
See you soon,
Steven

November 12 (2-7PM), 13,19, 20 (12-5PM)
Location: Vileišio 18

Price for 4-day workshop:
Regular price - 395Eur
Early Bird price - 350 Eur if booked by Oct 31, 2022
Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 12 Actors
(only for those who have taken Workshop 4 or 5 with Steven)

Workshop 7 (Character Work 2) continues our work on creating character! In our last workshop we explored Physical Impediments and how an addition to your normal behavior – like a Physical Impediment – will begin to create a new and separate life within you.

Now we are going to take our exploration of character work a step further! We are going to explore Intense Physical Pain (without hurting ourselves!).

Playing intense pain takes us into a new area of acting. This area is concerned with the illusion of reality rather than reality itself. A lot of inexperienced actors have very misguided notions about this. They think you must feel actual pain in order to play it well. This is a big mistake.

In acting we don’t do anything that will cause actual pain. We don’t bang our head against a wall if we need to play having a headache. Instead, we use our skills as an actor to create the symptoms indicative of a particular condition.

When you are playing pain, your work will be judged by two criteria: whether or not the audience can recognize the condition you’re creating; and whether or not they believe the way you’ve portrayed it.

In this workshop, you will learn specific techniques on how to create the symptoms of different conditions that are demanded of you, the actor, in many story lines - Migraines, hangovers, colds, flu’s, toothaches, shingles and crumbling lower back pain to name a few, all the while staying relaxed and open to your partner.

Most actors tense their bodies when playing pain because, in real life, pain tends to cause physical tension. You must learn to let go of that habit and keep your body loose. A loose body is essential for listening and responding to your partner as well as for letting your emotions flow freely.

Staying relaxed at this stage of the game is a very advanced acting challenge and you will most likely have trouble with it, but that’s ok, that’s what we’re here to work on.

It’s challenging and exciting work. I can’t wait!

I hope you get to join us!

Best,

Steven

When: 10AM-4PM, November 14-15, 2021
Where: Spring Studio
Dariaus ir Girėno g 42, Vilnius
Application deadline: October 31, 2021
Fee: 200Eur (2-day workshop)
Details and registration: www.directorslab.org/applynow

Irish Casting Director, Maureen Hughes will lead a 2 day acting workshop on self taping techniques and auditioning in today’s moving world of international casting. The aim of this workshop is to improve the actor’s technical techniques in order to allow the actor to release the performance. Over the two days, the actors will work closely with Maureen, rehearsing, recording, critiquing and discussing how to remain visible within the industry.

About Maureen Hughes
Over the past twenty years, she has worked with screenwriter/directors, Martin McDonagh, Sam Shepherd, Paolo Sorrentino, Jim Sheridan and John Carney. Recent films include BARBER with Aidan Gillen, THE WINTER LAKE, directed by Phillip Sheerin and IT IS IN US ALL directed by Antonia Campbell Hughes and starring Cosmo Jarvis.

When: 7-11PM, October 18-24 (22 0FF) 2021
Where: Spring Studio
Dariaus ir Girėno g 42, Vilnius
Application deadline: October 8, 2021
Fee: 350 Eur for participants, 150 Eur for observers

Workshop will be held in hybrid format - Barry will join us from Los Angeles and participants will be in one space face to face.

Workshop seeks to demystify and explain through exercises, improvisations, and scenes ways to evoke truthful and exciting performances. For the working actor, the course will help to sharpen their skills and confidence.

Techniques used: Lee Strasbourg & Sandy Maisner & Stella Adler

The instructor can either give the scenes to the students or the student is free to bring a scene in that he or she is interested in working on.  There is an networking evening with the students to give them a general overview of what the workshop will be like and introduce them to each other.

About Barry Primus

Barry Primus started his career with acclaimed directors such as Elia Kazan and Harold Clurman. Through a long film career consisting of more than 50 movies, Barry has worked with Martin Scorsese, Sydney Pollack, Mark Rydell, James Toback and Roger Vadim. Barry also co-wrote and directed Mistress starring Robert De Niro. He teaches using Lee Strasbourg, Sandy Maisner and Stella Adler techniques.

**Workshop 1 - Foundation of Meisner Technique**

August 13 -17, 2019
Time and location: TBD

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 14 Actors
(Suitable for both those with or without previous Meisner training)

Apply now :
https://www.directorslab.org/applynow/

Prices for 5-day workshop:
1 workshop: 350.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 300.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
2 workshops: 650.- €/ EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 565.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
3 workshops: 960.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 835.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
*For those who repeat a workshop, there is an extra discount of 25.-€ for each workshop repeated.

Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

If you want more information:
+370 682 42709
cu@directorlab.org
www.directorslab.org/meisnervilnius

Visit Steven's website Meisner International
www.meisnerinternational.com
for full Spring 2019 European schedule, testimonials, photo's, interviews and more.

Meisner Intensive Acting Workshop 1 with Steven Ditmyer
(Foundation of Meisner Technique)

This workshop offers a foundation of the Meisner Technique, which was developed by Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City where he taught for more than 50 years – and where I had the privilege of being one of his students 27 years ago.

In his work at the Playhouse, Meisner trained many of our most distinguished actors and directors, including Robert Duvall, Sydney Pollack, Tony Randall, Christopher Lloyd, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Gregory Peck, Joanne Woodward, Steve McQueen, Jeff Goldblum, Allison Janney and many more.

This technique is based on truth. Meisner said, “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.”

We will be working on –“the ability to live truthfully,” by using the repetition exercise, which is an improvisational exercise that teaches you to focus on your partner and if you really focus, you will start to really respond. TRUTHFULLY. And that’s what we are after, the truthful response, not the “this-is-what-I’m-suppose-to-say,” response (from the brain) but this is the TRUE thing to say because this is how the other person is making me feel right now.

It’s an amazing exercise because it’s simple and honest. It’s not easy, but it’s simple.

In this approach our emotions come freely, as a side benefit, a gift, when our attention is on something else – and that something else is what we are doing. Really listening, really working off our fellow actors and being in response to what is happening. Following our impulses from one unanticipated moment to the next unanticipated moment. Meisner told us “The seed to the craft of acting is the reality of doing. This principle: The Reality of Doing (really doing) is the foundation of all good acting.”

Then on the last day of the workshop we will use text in the exercise (a short scene the actors will have memorized) to show how far your impulses can take you in your acting when you truly listen and work off your partner and not from your head.

I love this work because it is a very healthy approach to the craft of acting. The work is grounded in who we are today and what our past experiences mean to us now!

There are many acting techniques and the ones that are valid will help you arrive at the one ultimate truth, your truth. The work we will do together will lead you to acting with a deep personal meaning, a wonderful simplicity and to a level of working where technique disappears and what remains, is you in your acting.

This workshop will help all those who are interested in theatre, film and TV – actors, directors, writers…everyone. I can’t wait for you to discover this work!

Sincerely,
Steven


Steven Ditmyer
Actor/Director/Acting Teacher
Founder, Meisner International

Steven is an Actor, Director and Acting Teacher who studied with Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen and Zoe Caldwell. He is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City where he later was invited to train as a teacher of the Meisner technique.

In addition to being a guest teacher at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City he is the founder of MEISNER INTERNATIONAL currently teaching workshops in New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Helsinki, Tallinn, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Quito, Guayaquil, and Bogota with new workshops starting in Berlin, Dubrovnik, Vilnius and Buenos Aires.

As an actor, Steven worked with many great artists such as Al Pacino, Arthur Miller, Tony Randall, Ron Rifkin, Sam Waterston, Diane Wiest, Blythe Danner and more.

As a Director, he directed the OFF THE PAGE Reading Series for Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre in NYC (2005-2008) with such notable productions as: The Night Of The Iguana with Alec Baldwin, Golf with Alan Shepard with Jack Klugman, Charles Durning, Len Cariou and John Cullum and Ladies In Retirement with Rosemarry Harris. He has directed many prodcudtions in New York working with such notable playwrights as Robert Askins, James McClure, Bruce Jay Friedman, Albert Bermel, Jack Gilhooley, Gail Sheehy and with notable actors as Marian Seldes, Brian Murray, Dana Ivey, John Pankow, Richard Bey, Brian Geraghty and many more. Steven was the Co-Director of the Workshop at the Neighborhood Playhouse (1999-2003) where he directed over 20 new plays and was the Artistic Director of the Neighborhood Theatre Company in Naples, Florida (2003-2005) where he directed his wife in The Syringa Tree. He was a Founding director of the A-Train Plays in NYC (written and performed in 24 hours) where he directed The Casseroles of Far Rockaway by Seth Bauer – winner of the 2004 Samuel French Festival. Steven will be directing Exit The King by Eugene Ionesco in Italian opening in Rome 2019.

He is married to actress Tamara Flannagan and resides in Manhattan with their two boys Callan and Jace.


History of the Meisner Technique.

In the 1930s, Sanford Meisner was an actor in the Group Theatre, the most important repertory theatre in modern American History, which spawned the major American acting teachers, and several of the most important playwrights and directors of the 20th century. Meisner and his fellow actor Stella Adler fell out with their director Lee Strasberg over his use of Emotional Recall, a technique in which the actor used personal emotion from his own past memories to feed the acting process. Meisner and Adler chose to use the imagination to stimulate emotion and involvement in a play's imaginary circumstances. Both Strasberg's and Meisner and Adler's techniques came out of the work of Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia, but they differed on which parts of his work was most important to the actor's work and training. The Group Theatre broke up partially because of the conflict over these techniques. Meisner, Adler and Strasberg all went on to become acting teachers who had a profound influence on American acting and culture, as well as a strong influence on European acting.

At the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, Meisner created a full-blown acting technique which would train an actor to create all the layers of a complete performance over a two year period. It was, and still is, one of the most systematic and complete acting techniques in the Western world. Meisner's work was based on the principle that acting found its most profound expression in specific behavior that came out of the actor's real human response to circumstances and other people. The technique is based on truth. Meisner said “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.” Because of this, his entire training method relied heavily on accessing the actor's impulses, through which real responses and real behavior were accessed in the moment. This technique was not only applied to improvisation with another person, but also to the actor's way of finding things to do in rehearsal, interpreting a script, and creating the specific physical characteristics of each character the actor played.

The basic exercise that Meisner invented to train the actor's responses is called the Repetition Exercise. In this exercise, two actors stand across from each other and respond to each other through a repeated phrase. The phrase is about each other's behavior, and reflects what is going on between them in the moment, such as "You look unhappy with me right now." The way this phrase is said as it is repeated changes in meaning, tone and intensity to correspond with the behavior that each actor produces towards the other. Through this device, the actor stops thinking of what to say and do, and responds more freely and spontaneously, both physically and vocally. The exercise also eliminates line readings, since the way the actor speaks becomes coordinated with his behavioral response. As the exercise continues over a period of months, more detailed imaginary circumstances are added to the exercise, and it gradually becomes a kind of improvised scene. When this is fully developed, the actors are ready to start working with actual scripts. The course gradually makes its way through more complex script material and work on creating characters incorporating all the student's training.

**Meisner Technique - Workshop 2 (Independent Activities)**

August 7-12 (12PM- 4PM except on Tuesday)
Time and location: Kita Erdvė (Panerių g. 34)

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 14 Actors
(only who took Workshop 1)

Apply now :
https://www.directorslab.org/applynow/

Prices for 5-day workshop:
1 workshop: 350.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 300.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
2 workshops: 650.- €/ EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 565.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
3 workshops: 960.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 835.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
*For those who repeat a workshop, there is an extra discount of 25.-€ for each workshop repeated.

Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

If you want more information:
+370 682 42709
cu@directorlab.org
www.directorslab.org/meisnervilnius

Visit Steven's website Meisner International
www.meisnerinternational.com
for full Spring 2019 European schedule, testimonials, photo's, interviews and more.

WORKSHOP 2 - INDEPENDENT ACTIVITIES

This workshop continues the training we started of really doing. Acting is doing. When we are not really doing on stage we have stopped acting. I say continues because part of what we have strengthened with Repetition is the ability to really listen and listening is a real doing.

Developing Concentration!
Now we are going to add an element to the repetition exercise called Independent Activities. Meisner said, “The quality of your acting depends on how fully you are doing what you are doing.”

This activity will demand real concentration in order for you to complete it. Once an actor places the totality of his concentration on the accomplishment of some concrete, specific, and truthful goal, he cannot help but react truthfully, from the core of his self and experience.

One actor in the room will concentrate on an activity (with a meaningful reason out of his imagination for doing it) while the other actor will come to the door, like what we did in the last workshop (now with a specific reason to come to the door out of his imagination).

We must always be in response to what is happening. A truly difficult activity will demand that you place the entirety of your concentration on it AND you must still respond to your partner - to what is actually happening from impulsive moment to impulsive moment!

Remember – the exercise has no agenda. There is nothing that is supposed to happen. The point is to really do, really listen, and truthfully respond. If you do this, you create real contact between the partners. Not intellectual contact but emotional contact. And when this happens, strong truthful acting occurs.

This work is challenging and very rewarding. I can’t wait to work with you again!

Sincerely, Steven Ditmyer

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Steven Ditmyer
Actor/Director/Acting Teacher
Founder, Meisner International

Steven is an Actor, Director and Acting Teacher who studied with Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen and Zoe Caldwell. He is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City where he later was invited to train as a teacher of the Meisner technique.

In addition to being a guest teacher at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City he is the founder of MEISNER INTERNATIONAL currently teaching workshops in New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Helsinki, Tallinn, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Quito, Guayaquil, and Bogota with new workshops starting in Berlin, Dubrovnik, Vilnius and Buenos Aires.

As an actor, Steven worked with many great artists such as Al Pacino, Arthur Miller, Tony Randall, Ron Rifkin, Sam Waterston, Diane Wiest, Blythe Danner and more.

As a Director, he directed the OFF THE PAGE Reading Series for Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre in NYC (2005-2008) with such notable productions as: The Night Of The Iguana with Alec Baldwin, Golf with Alan Shepard with Jack Klugman, Charles Durning, Len Cariou and John Cullum and Ladies In Retirement with Rosemarry Harris. He has directed many prodcudtions in New York working with such notable playwrights as Robert Askins, James McClure, Bruce Jay Friedman, Albert Bermel, Jack Gilhooley, Gail Sheehy and with notable actors as Marian Seldes, Brian Murray, Dana Ivey, John Pankow, Richard Bey, Brian Geraghty and many more. Steven was the Co-Director of the Workshop at the Neighborhood Playhouse (1999-2003) where he directed over 20 new plays and was the Artistic Director of the Neighborhood Theatre Company in Naples, Florida (2003-2005) where he directed his wife in The Syringa Tree. He was a Founding director of the A-Train Plays in NYC (written and performed in 24 hours) where he directed The Casseroles of Far Rockaway by Seth Bauer – winner of the 2004 Samuel French Festival. Steven will be directing Exit The King by Eugene Ionesco in Italian opening in Rome 2019.

He is married to actress Tamara Flannagan and resides in Manhattan with their two boys Callan and Jace.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

History of the Meisner Technique.

In the 1930s, Sanford Meisner was an actor in the Group Theatre, the most important repertory theatre in modern American History, which spawned the major American acting teachers, and several of the most important playwrights and directors of the 20th century. Meisner and his fellow actor Stella Adler fell out with their director Lee Strasberg over his use of Emotional Recall, a technique in which the actor used personal emotion from his own past memories to feed the acting process. Meisner and Adler chose to use the imagination to stimulate emotion and involvement in a play's imaginary circumstances. Both Strasberg's and Meisner and Adler's techniques came out of the work of Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia, but they differed on which parts of his work was most important to the actor's work and training. The Group Theatre broke up partially because of the conflict over these techniques. Meisner, Adler and Strasberg all went on to become acting teachers who had a profound influence on American acting and culture, as well as a strong influence on European acting.

At the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, Meisner created a full-blown acting technique which would train an actor to create all the layers of a complete performance over a two year period. It was, and still is, one of the most systematic and complete acting techniques in the Western world. Meisner's work was based on the principle that acting found its most profound expression in specific behavior that came out of the actor's real human response to circumstances and other people. The technique is based on truth. Meisner said “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.” Because of this, his entire training method relied heavily on accessing the actor's impulses, through which real responses and real behavior were accessed in the moment. This technique was not only applied to improvisation with another person, but also to the actor's way of finding things to do in rehearsal, interpreting a script, and creating the specific physical characteristics of each character the actor played.

The basic exercise that Meisner invented to train the actor's responses is called the Repetition Exercise. In this exercise, two actors stand across from each other and respond to each other through a repeated phrase. The phrase is about each other's behavior, and reflects what is going on between them in the moment, such as "You look unhappy with me right now." The way this phrase is said as it is repeated changes in meaning, tone and intensity to correspond with the behavior that each actor produces towards the other. Through this device, the actor stops thinking of what to say and do, and responds more freely and spontaneously, both physically and vocally. The exercise also eliminates line readings, since the way the actor speaks becomes coordinated with his behavioral response. As the exercise continues over a period of months, more detailed imaginary circumstances are added to the exercise, and it gradually becomes a kind of improvised scene. When this is fully developed, the actors are ready to start working with actual scripts. The course gradually makes its way through more complex script material and work on creating characters incorporating all the student's training.

**Meisner Technique - Workshop 3 (Emotional Preparation)**

>>> Open to those who have participated in the Workshop 2 with Steven Ditmyer <<<

August 3, 4, 10, 11 - 6PM- 11PM
Location: Kita Erdvė (Panerių g. 34)

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 12 Actors
(only for those who have taken Workshop 2 with Steven)

Apply now: www.directorslab.org/applynow

Price for 4-day workshop:
Regular price - 350Eur
Early Bird price - 300Eur (if booked by July 10, 2019)

Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

*EXTRA DISCOUNT* if you take Workshop #1 or Workshop 2 and Workshop #3 EARLY BIRD PRICE for 2 Workshops: €540 (instead of €700) - SAVE €160! (valid until July 10)

If you want more information:
+370 682 42709
cu@directorlab.org
www.directorslab.org/meisnervilnius

EMOTIONAL PREPARATION

The third Level of this work is “Emotional Preparation”.
Emotional Preparation is that thing the actor does with himself before he enters the scene to alter his inner emotional condition. Why does the actor alter it? To create an emotional state that’s appropriate to the circumstances that happened before the scene begins. Meisner said this is the most delicate work of an actor and it takes time to master!

The big question is where will the actor draw his emotional preparation from? And this is where it gets interesting! You will derive your preparations from a very powerful resource which you’ve been using all your life, probably without even realizing it. And that resource is your imagination!

This is a very healthy way in - through fantasizing, daydreaming, using the actor’s imagination! It is very freeing for an actor to do this because he is not locked into what has actually happened to him. It isn’t a question of what did happen, but what might happen, what could be that activates an actor. Once an actor says what if, he can start to daydream and daydreams are as limitless as the imagination itself.

You will learn a specific process of how to use your imagination with people and things that have real meaning to you to alter you emotional condition. It’s a delicate journey and worth every step!

I look forward to taking it with you!
See you soon,
Steven

**Workshop 1 - Foundation of Meisner Technique**

August 2-6 (12PM- 4PM except on Tuesday)
Time and location: Kita Erdvė (Panerių g. 34)

Strictly Limited Places: Maximum 14 Actors
(Suitable for both those with or without previous Meisner training)

Apply now :
https://www.directorslab.org/applynow/

Prices for 5-day workshop:
1 workshop: 350.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 300.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019

2 workshops: 650.- €/ EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 565.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
3 workshops: 960.- € / EARLY BIRD SPECIAL 835.- € until Friday, July 20, 2019
*For those who repeat a workshop, there is an extra discount of 25.-€ for each workshop repeated.

Observers price: 175 Eur/5 days or 40 Eur/ day

If you want more information:
+370 682 42709
cu@directorlab.org
www.directorslab.org/meisnervilnius

Visit Steven's website Meisner International
www.meisnerinternational.com
for full Spring 2019 European schedule, testimonials, photo's, interviews and more.

Meisner Intensive Acting Workshop 1 with Steven Ditmyer
(Foundation of Meisner Technique)

This workshop offers a foundation of the Meisner Technique, which was developed by Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City where he taught for more than 50 years – and where I had the privilege of being one of his students 27 years ago.

In his work at the Playhouse, Meisner trained many of our most distinguished actors and directors, including Robert Duvall, Sydney Pollack, Tony Randall, Christopher Lloyd, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Gregory Peck, Joanne Woodward, Steve McQueen, Jeff Goldblum, Allison Janney and many more.

This technique is based on truth. Meisner said, “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.”

We will be working on –“the ability to live truthfully,” by using the repetition exercise, which is an improvisational exercise that teaches you to focus on your partner and if you really focus, you will start to really respond. TRUTHFULLY. And that’s what we are after, the truthful response, not the “this-is-what-I’m-suppose-to-say,” response (from the brain) but this is the TRUE thing to say because this is how the other person is making me feel right now.

It’s an amazing exercise because it’s simple and honest. It’s not easy, but it’s simple.

In this approach our emotions come freely, as a side benefit, a gift, when our attention is on something else – and that something else is what we are doing. Really listening, really working off our fellow actors and being in response to what is happening. Following our impulses from one unanticipated moment to the next unanticipated moment. Meisner told us “The seed to the craft of acting is the reality of doing. This principle: The Reality of Doing (really doing) is the foundation of all good acting.”

Then on the last day of the workshop we will use text in the exercise (a short scene the actors will have memorized) to show how far your impulses can take you in your acting when you truly listen and work off your partner and not from your head.

I love this work because it is a very healthy approach to the craft of acting. The work is grounded in who we are today and what our past experiences mean to us now!

There are many acting techniques and the ones that are valid will help you arrive at the one ultimate truth, your truth. The work we will do together will lead you to acting with a deep personal meaning, a wonderful simplicity and to a level of working where technique disappears and what remains, is you in your acting.

This workshop will help all those who are interested in theatre, film and TV – actors, directors, writers…everyone. I can’t wait for you to discover this work!

Sincerely,
Steven


Steven Ditmyer
Actor/Director/Acting Teacher
Founder, Meisner International

Steven is an Actor, Director and Acting Teacher who studied with Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen and Zoe Caldwell. He is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City where he later was invited to train as a teacher of the Meisner technique.

In addition to being a guest teacher at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City he is the founder of MEISNER INTERNATIONAL currently teaching workshops in New York, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Helsinki, Tallinn, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Quito, Guayaquil, and Bogota with new workshops starting in Berlin, Dubrovnik, Vilnius and Buenos Aires.

As an actor, Steven worked with many great artists such as Al Pacino, Arthur Miller, Tony Randall, Ron Rifkin, Sam Waterston, Diane Wiest, Blythe Danner and more.

As a Director, he directed the OFF THE PAGE Reading Series for Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre in NYC (2005-2008) with such notable productions as: The Night Of The Iguana with Alec Baldwin, Golf with Alan Shepard with Jack Klugman, Charles Durning, Len Cariou and John Cullum and Ladies In Retirement with Rosemarry Harris. He has directed many prodcudtions in New York working with such notable playwrights as Robert Askins, James McClure, Bruce Jay Friedman, Albert Bermel, Jack Gilhooley, Gail Sheehy and with notable actors as Marian Seldes, Brian Murray, Dana Ivey, John Pankow, Richard Bey, Brian Geraghty and many more. Steven was the Co-Director of the Workshop at the Neighborhood Playhouse (1999-2003) where he directed over 20 new plays and was the Artistic Director of the Neighborhood Theatre Company in Naples, Florida (2003-2005) where he directed his wife in The Syringa Tree. He was a Founding director of the A-Train Plays in NYC (written and performed in 24 hours) where he directed The Casseroles of Far Rockaway by Seth Bauer – winner of the 2004 Samuel French Festival. Steven will be directing Exit The King by Eugene Ionesco in Italian opening in Rome 2019.

He is married to actress Tamara Flannagan and resides in Manhattan with their two boys Callan and Jace.


History of the Meisner Technique.

In the 1930s, Sanford Meisner was an actor in the Group Theatre, the most important repertory theatre in modern American History, which spawned the major American acting teachers, and several of the most important playwrights and directors of the 20th century. Meisner and his fellow actor Stella Adler fell out with their director Lee Strasberg over his use of Emotional Recall, a technique in which the actor used personal emotion from his own past memories to feed the acting process. Meisner and Adler chose to use the imagination to stimulate emotion and involvement in a play's imaginary circumstances. Both Strasberg's and Meisner and Adler's techniques came out of the work of Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia, but they differed on which parts of his work was most important to the actor's work and training. The Group Theatre broke up partially because of the conflict over these techniques. Meisner, Adler and Strasberg all went on to become acting teachers who had a profound influence on American acting and culture, as well as a strong influence on European acting.

At the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, Meisner created a full-blown acting technique which would train an actor to create all the layers of a complete performance over a two year period. It was, and still is, one of the most systematic and complete acting techniques in the Western world. Meisner's work was based on the principle that acting found its most profound expression in specific behavior that came out of the actor's real human response to circumstances and other people. The technique is based on truth. Meisner said “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.” Because of this, his entire training method relied heavily on accessing the actor's impulses, through which real responses and real behavior were accessed in the moment. This technique was not only applied to improvisation with another person, but also to the actor's way of finding things to do in rehearsal, interpreting a script, and creating the specific physical characteristics of each character the actor played.

The basic exercise that Meisner invented to train the actor's responses is called the Repetition Exercise. In this exercise, two actors stand across from each other and respond to each other through a repeated phrase. The phrase is about each other's behavior, and reflects what is going on between them in the moment, such as "You look unhappy with me right now." The way this phrase is said as it is repeated changes in meaning, tone and intensity to correspond with the behavior that each actor produces towards the other. Through this device, the actor stops thinking of what to say and do, and responds more freely and spontaneously, both physically and vocally. The exercise also eliminates line readings, since the way the actor speaks becomes coordinated with his behavioral response. As the exercise continues over a period of months, more detailed imaginary circumstances are added to the exercise, and it gradually becomes a kind of improvised scene. When this is fully developed, the actors are ready to start working with actual scripts. The course gradually makes its way through more complex script material and work on creating characters incorporating all the student's training.