Fundamentals of Acting for Adults with Carey Eidel

Over eight weeks at Auburn Public Theater, this class introduces adult students to basic acting skills that include The Meisner Technique, the training method Sanford Meisner developed and taught for nearly fifty years at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Mr. Meisner’s method of acting truthfully remains one of the most widely respected approaches to acting in the American theater.

You’ll learn to take your focus off yourself and put it on the person you are working with to notice what they are actually doing and to respond honestly, moment to moment, rather than planning a performance in advance. From there the class builds through a progression of theater exercises designed to loosen habits, sharpen listening, and free the impulse to act on instinct instead of intention. In the later weeks, those lessons will be applied directly to scenework, where you will rehearse two-person scenes from contemporary plays with individual coaching from the instructor.

The class is designed for students who have never set foot on a stage, but have wondered what it would be like if they tried and local actors who have already appeared in community theater and want to understand why some performances feel alive and others feel effortful, this class gives you the vocabulary and the technique behind the difference. For both groups, the class will be a supportive, safe place to find out. No monologue, no audition, and no prior training required.

Class size is limited so that every student receives hands-on coaching in every session.