Meisner technique: An acting method

Many approaches about acting have been proposed from past to present. Stanislavski who influenced subsequent theater practitioners with his works at the beginning of the 1900s created his method of acting on the basis of a realistic acting. Stanislavski's method inspired many important figures from the world of theater when they created their acting approaches. One of the representatives of these important names in American Theater is Sanford Meisner. In this present study, the Meisner Technique was dealt with as an acting method, and the systematics of this acting method was opened up for discussion using model practices. In the first part of the study, we tried to give a detailed description of the life of Sanford Meisner, especially based on the elements that form the basic idea of the method. In the same part, we investigated the roots of Meisner's acting approach from the American Laboratory Theater to the Guild and Group theaters. In addition, we investigated Stanislavski's, Lee Strasberg's and Stella Adler's acting approaches and discussed the points distinguishing them from Meisner. In the second part, we examined the exercises of the technique within the framework of Meisner's principles on the basis of examples from the Sanford Meisner Master Class documentary, Sanford Meisner on Acting and Larry Silverberg's book The Sanford Meisner Approach. In this part, we also tried to discuss how to approach the play text and stage practices using the Meisner Technique. In the conclusion part, we discussed how to use the Meisner technique in theater education after carrying out a general evaluation.