• Black Box on Facebook

  • Archives

    • ▼2012 (53)
    • ▶2011 (114)
    • ▶2010 (1)
    • ▶2009 (6)
    • ▶2008 (6)

Student Stories

GUTS

by Black Box Acting

February 26, 2010

I think Katharine Hepburn said, “Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, only what you are expecting to give, which is everything.” It’s a scary concept. You’re just supposed to give your attention to another person? What if they don’t pay any attention to you? That takes a lot of guts. I think that’s the scariest part of Meisner: shifting your attention to another person’s behavior and trusting in that. Takes guts. Thankfully, Laura and Audrey are like PhD’s in the guts department. They have been so good at helping me to work with my guts. Find my guts. Share my guts. But most importantly look at other people’s guts. That’s kind of the secret, you can’t really show your guts unless you see your scene partner’s guts.

For someone like me, who likes to be in control, this process has been really scary and challenging. There is something comforting, however, in the idea that I can’t predict my partner’s behavior. Even if the script calls for my partner to cry at a certain time, that moment will never be the exact same. How exciting! Thank fuck it’s never the same! And my reaction will never be the same! Thank fuck! So why try to push or fake an expected reaction? Seems like a lot more effort than just having an honest reaction in the moment. Of course, that’s easier said than done. But that’s why we take class.

- Written by Conor Woods, current Meisner 3.0 student

By Black Box Acting
Comments (0)

MEISNER SAVED ME FROM JUMPING OFF A CLIFF

by Black Box Acting

November 18, 2009

I’m in need of a major head check. I have signed on for a 6 hour show with a 6 month rehearsal process. In a new adaptation of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” I’m portraying Brunhilde, a warrior maiden turned disobedient daughter, who’s then banished to become a mortal wife, later scorned by her husband, and finally ends up saving the world. Does anyone have an inhaler? I’ve started hyperventilating. Deep breath and then I remember what two of the most amazing teachers/mentors/women have taught me since I started my training at Black Box, “It’s a formula”.

I started my Meisner training with Laura and Audrey after a friend emailed me, giving me helpful advice on becoming a better actor in Chicago. She told me to try interning somewhere, to watch a casting session, and then said most importantly, I must take class with Audrey Francis and Laura Hooper. This friend has no idea what she has done for me. Because of that fateful email I was introduced to an acting technique that has turned my world upside down, professionally and personally.

I didn’t know what Meisner was. It had never occurred to me that this technique could unlock me as an actor. I’ve now completed three levels of Meisner with Black Box, and feel I’ve grown so much in a short amount of time. My ensemble deserves a lot of the credit here too – when I go to class I am surrounded by professional actors/artists who strive to put integrity back into their work.

After auditions I usually replay the whole day in my mind for a good 48 hours, obsessing over all the little things we all obsess about. But that’s all out the window now. Because I now understand that I am enough. And with “The Ring Cycle”, Meisner has saved me from jumping off a cliff. I can now, with confidence, go through moments with this formula and not let the script or heightened language intimidate me enough to quit this business and become an accountant. I go through my script and decide what I want. I figure out how I would go after it. And all the while Audrey and Laura’s lessons stay with me and inspire me to work hard and be fearless.

Audrey and Laura have a way with each individual student and allow everyone to advance at their own pace. I’m not going to color it rosy, it’s hard and I have gone to places I didn’t know I was capable of. But Black Box, and the women who started it, believe in their students. They have instilled a confidence in me in the past 6 months, a confidence to find my process as an actor, and a confidence in being a strong individual. The training has also allowed me to make some pretty huge decisions personally that I wouldn’t have been able to make without the studio and all of the people affiliated with it. We all push each other to the limit because we, as artists, know that we are all capable of honesty and fierceness in our work.

And damn, it feels good.

-Darci Nalepa (currently enrolled in H 1.0 – Hybrid: Meisner + Viewpoints)

By Black Box Acting
Comments (0)

BLACK BOX IS TEACHING ME TO BE A WARRIOR

by Black Box Acting

August 10, 2009

I, quite frankly, didn’t know what I was in for when I signed up for Meisner at Black Box. I knew that in my other acting classes something was missing and that I felt like I was “faking it” – that I could dig much deeper, but I wasn’t sure how to do that. I remember a friend taking Meisner years ago, saying that by the end of a scene you either wanted to kill your partner or have sex with them. It sounded unhealthy to me.

And how would you get to such an extreme response with a scene partner? How could you do that, safely, in front of other people?

Enter Audrey & Laura.

Black Box offers a safe space to explore the Meisner technique, observing human behavior and responding to it honestly in the moment. Responding HONESTLY in the moment to the behavior you see right in front of you, right now. Nothing planned or premeditated.

This is not as easy as it sounds. How many layers of politeness and propriety do we walk around with, filtering what we observe, not addressing the very thing in front of us that’s sticking out like a sore thumb, because it would be considered rude or inappropriate. Meisner helped me speak to what I really see.

Getting to that can be scary.

Black Box is teaching me to be a warrior. To face my own fears head on, and to be strong enough to face my own bullshit & push through it to the “real thing” that is underneath. You can’t do Meisner & bring your bullshit with – you just can’t!

Learning this was HUGE for me!!! And, it bleeds into my daily life. I’m much more tuned in to people’s behavior –when it is genuine, great, and when it’s not?! Good stuff to know.

Audrey jokes around that at Black Box, “You gotta put your balls on the table.”

But it’s very true.

Maybe the Black Box Motto should be “Bring your balls!”

-Todd Kiech (Meisner 3.0 Student)

By Black Box Acting
Comments (0)