COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
ONE DAY INTRO TO MEISNER COURSE
A one day workshop with Kate Maravan exploring the exercises central to Meisner Technique.
“Acting is living truthfully under an imaginary set of circumstances”
The key exercise The Repetition Exercise teaches participants to take the attention off themselves and put it on to their partners' behaviour, allowing it to affect them and cause a spontaneous and authentic response. It encourages a moment to moment capacity to listen/observe and respond with an emphasis on staying firmly rooted in the present.
Repetition encourages us to put our acting/daily habits aside and observe and respond from as true a place as possible. We will explore how to challenge our habitual ways of seeing and responding in order to discover what lies behind our armour and open up all that is available to us.
“The Meisner Technique is a valuable tool for unlocking impulse and spontaneity on the stage. Kate Maravan is a first rate teacher; encouraging, specific and methodical in her approach. When I studied with her I felt that within a short space of time, I had a clear grasp of all the basic principles of Sandford Meisner’s process.”
“I first attended Kate’s Intro to Meisner course whilst appearing in a play at The National Theatre. I was surprised at how quickly and effortlessly I was able to engage in the moment and inject a new life into my work, taking it to a higher level. Directors noticed it too.”
Completion of the course ensures access to Kate’s weekly drop-in classes and other workshops.
TEXT / SCENE WORKSHOP
A 3 session ONLINE workshop discovering how to apply the Repetition exercise to working with text/scripts.
This course focuses on how we can find the same level of expression, aliveness to the moment and presence whilst working with scripts. All too often we fall back into ‘acting habits’, allowing the head to be in control and feeling disconnected from the material we are working with.
“Working with Kate is always energising. Kate is warm, engaging, funny, emotionally astute. She manages to make a group of people feel that they are discovering things together regardless of how experienced they are in the Meisner Technique. I always feel a renewed interest in the craft of acting after working with Kate. ”
Each student will work with a partner on one scene throughout the course. The scenes will be allocated prior to the course and we will go through series of stages/exercises exploring and developing the work.
This workshop is open to anyone who has completed a Beginners Meisner course.
MEISNER WITH COSTUME AND MASK
A one day workshop exploring costume.
“I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.”
This one day workshop will give participants an opportunity to do Repetition whilst dressed in a range of different clothing and explore the work using neutral masks (provided on the day).
You are invited to bring clothes that you least feel represent you, those that you would love to wear but never dare. Choose clothes that excite you, repel you, intrigue you.
Are there parts of you hiding in the shadows? If they could express themselves what would they choose to wear? Have we become habituated in dressing in a particular way and does this contribute to restricting our breadth and range of expressive response? Are we contributing to our own typecasting?
By changing our clothes and incorporating masks can we change the stories we tell about ourselves and others and open up our palette of responses?
This workshop is open to anyone who has completed a Beginners Meisner course.
“I am absolutely in love with the Costume Workshop. the freedom she gives the actors is liberating and brings magic. It is a joy to watch and be on the floor. I love to unleash the child mind, to free up blockages and this workshop ticks every box to unlock barriers. It gives an amazing amount of physical freedom so I don’t have to think about anything and am able to act with truth. ”
“Kate taught me how to be truly present with not just my fellow actors but in all interactions moment to moment. In every class she digs for truth, depth and authenticity while maintaining a gentle touch and a sense of humour. With Kate, vulnerability, the essence of honest acting, is handled with sensitivity and the integrity it deserves. She has the ability of inviting you to your edge, jumping is up to you.”
INTRODUCTION TO MEISNER FOR DIRECTORS
A one day workshop introducing Directors to the Meisner Technique.
An opportunity to explore the repetition exercise first hand and understand the work from the actor's point of view as well as the director's.
This workshop is open to directors and actors and follows the same format as the Intro to Meisner Course.
“For me, life is now divided into pre and post Meisner. And by Meisner, I really mean Kate Maravan. As a director, I’ve always known that truth is the treasure at the end of the dramatic rainbow, but what I lacked were the tools and probably the courage to get there. Kate’s introduction opened up pathways that I never knew existed — I’m still finding new ones all the time. And the best bit is, though the objective is a serious one, she has somehow managed to make the journey exceptionally good fun.”
