The Actor's Art and Craft: William Esper Teaches the Meisner Technique by William Esper

The Actor's Art and Craft: William Esper Teaches the Meisner Technique Reviews

• 
  Eric

  This book leads you through the course of training that many of the best actors go through. Esper's course is a continuation of the line begun by Stanislavsky in the late 19th century. The "method" school. Stanislavsky begat the American Group Theater, which begat Meisner, who begat Esper and others. Esper is one of the Master Teachers of the craft.
  
  Whereas the method originally required actors to fully live their characters, and to invent whole lives and memories for them, the modern actor uses a more limited and precise bag of tricks. The key is training your "instrument", which isn't, as some think, your physical body. It's your whole self, but most importantly, the availability of emotional expression. Through an exercise called "repetition", actors learn to listen to one another, and to respond viscerally to emotional stimuli, without thinking about it. For example, I might start by saying to you, "Your hair is shiny". You would respond by saying, "My hair is shiny", using my words, but reacting emotionally to whatever my attitude is. Then I might say, "Yes, your hair is shiny", and in your response, you'd have to use the "yes" as well, still responding to the emotional give and take, and so forth.
  
  After that, the exercises get more complex and precise, and more skills are built. One actor must now enter the repetition while engaged in an activity that requires his whole attention. Making origami animals, for example. The other actor interrupts by knocking on the door. Objectives are introduced. The actors must now have a reason in their heads for what they're doing.
  
  Next, "Criminal enterprise" exercises raise the emotional stakes. Imagine a simulated burglary where one party simulates sleep and the other enters quietly under cover of darkness and tries to find and get away with a specific item without being seen.
  
  Then scripts are introduced. The actors learn their lines by rote, with no vocal inflections in mind. They develop not only their objective, but also an emotional state upon entering, through lucid daydreaming. Then the scene is set loose, and the way the lines are delivered comes through the actors' responding honestly to one another, like surfing a wave.
  
  This may all sound very mystical, but a keen understanding of how human emotions work unconsciously goes into it. When good actors are working, it shouldn't be as if they are performing, it should be as if they're being overheard in a private conversation.
  
  All of the steps I've mentioned above take place over a year of practice, with another year to follow. That's why you can't become a great actor just by reading this book. But at the same time, if you are an actor who has never had the opportunity to go to an actors' Mecca and learn from a Master, you can take and practice a good deal of the methods and philosophy found in this book and use it. I've already used bits and pieces of it, and I feel as if I've improved.
  
  
• 
  Hani Eskander

  A brilliant transcription and analysis of a Bill Esper ‘Meisner Technique’ Acting workshop. One of the best books I’ve read on the craft of acting.
• 
  Sasha

  Incredibly inspirational!
  
  Reading this book really gave me an insight on what learning the Meisner technique at the Esper studio is like. I love how most of what Esper is teaching is basically guiding the actor to discover themselves in a way they probably wouldn't have if they had decided on another career path.
  This book is about truly living and how through your true self, you will discover how great of an artist you can become. I was really inspired to continue to pursue my dreams of being a working actress.
  Just this morning I received a call from the studio and was set for an appointment to interview for the summer intensive program.
  Great book and highly recommended. I would read this again and again...
• 
  Elisabeth

  This book brought me back to my acting classes at Rutgers. Bill was my director twice and he is so insightful. This book is a must-read for any actor interested in Meisner technique. Brilliant!
• 
  Lukas

  My god. This book is so good. I wish that I had read this book before I took Meisner in college. And I would encourage anyone about to take a Meisner class to do so. However I think that perhaps the sophomore in college me may not have been ready for this book. I've recently discovered, through the books I'm reading now that I had tried to read before, that I'm a firm believer in the idea that you can't read certain books until you are ready to read them, and to try before you are ready might be detrimental to your experience. I think that, at least for me, that might be the case for this book.
  Regardless, this is a great book, a wealth of acting knowledge and advice, a treasure trove, I devoured every word. I got a copy from the library and fully intend to purchase my own copy.
• 
  Diona Joi

  Not to be bias due to have already completed my training at The William Esper Studio, but I have to say that it was all because of this book. It breaks down in an interesting and pulling way what you'll experience in 1st year- which I also recommend. Even if you're not an actor- understand what Meisner meant when- I quote, to "find in yourself those things which are Universal". THANK YOU WILLIAM ESPER for continuing on with the legacy and breaking down magic in this book! Enjoy :)
• 
  Whit

  This was so much closer to my natural acting technique than I thought it would be. There were so many things about emotional truth that resonated with me. I loved the format of the book as different sessions in a class, working your way through in an orderly fashion, creating building blocks. Certainly thought provoking.
• 
  Dusty

  LOVED! It was a fantastic review of my first year at the Joanne Baron / D.W. Brown studio. The way Bill explains concepts and ideas of how the Meisner Technique works is so easy to follow and understand. I wish I would've picked this book up last year and read along with my class. Can't wait to start the 2nd book!!!
• 
  Jackie

  FINALLY! I understood the MEANING behind some of the strange exercises we do. I also learned the method of choice for me after going through Strasburg nightmares! I felt like I was right in the class and learned so much about the Meisner technigue. I felt like someone finally GETS IT!
• 
  David J.

  A truly brilliant and inspiring book. If you study acting or are curious about what a real acting class is about... read this book.
• 
  Quentin Nguyen-duy

  Fantastic! 👏🏻 Always so excited when a book about acting can help me retroactively breakdown all the weird shit I learned in conservatory. The writing isn’t great, but I can tell the author enjoys himself, and that’s all that matters. His friendship with Esper as observed through the two sequential books (Building a Character) is rather touching and makes me remember the info a lot better. The class is pretty hilarious and his impression of the characters (which is often admittedly overboard) is charming in its enthusiasm.
• 
  Matthew

  I had to wait for three weeks because my Spotify audiobook minutes were used up.
  
  So I have to preface by saying that I’m in recovery from some cult-like religious experience and have noticed in the last few years anytime I sense guru-like behavior, I want to start punching things. Again, I’m working it out. That said, it was hard for me to determine how much of this felt like my own trauma or complete bullshit from a pretentious guru.
  
  A couple of things that I found utterly annoying simply in viewpoint and how objective Bill was on certain things but I did take a few interesting key snippets that I haven’t heard before.
  
  It’s really hard to write a book on meisner and make it interesting to read. I thought the author did a great job.
• 
  g

  Required reading.
• 
  William Adams

  I struggle to create characters who don’t sound and act just like me. I’ve chosen females as my first-person narrator in several cases just to force me out of my own head. I’ve tried black people, immigrants, aliens (I mean space-aliens) for the same reason. It’s a struggle because I’m me and not anybody else. How do actors do it? They can be anybody. I read this book because I thought it might reveal the secret.
  
  Author Esper co-taught with legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner for nearly two decades and is apparently the heir-apparent. I’m no actor so I cannot fairly describe what the “Meisner method” is, but this book purports to transmit it.
  
  I did learn some lessons about acting, and indeed, actors gush over this book, judging from reviews and other books on acting by the same author. The chapters and scenes describe a series of workshops conducted by Esper with a group of eight actors with various levels of experience.
  Esper gives them instructions on how to execute a certain scenario, such as walking into a room, interrupting someone, and so on, and then each of them tries it, followed by extensive feedback discussion.
  
  Overall, I’d say the main lesson conveyed is to be a good listener, which means don’t worry about your own lines and how you’re going to deliver them but be open and receptive to the other actor(s) and let yourself react “naturally” to that person and the situation. Of course you will react with your memorized lines, not your own speech, but beyond that, your “acting” must be your genuine reactions. In other words, be extremely open to experience.
  
  Some people are naturally open to experience (their own and others’) and some are not. It’s a personality variable on the standard “Big Five” test. Some people live that way and some don’t. If you are not accustomed to feeling the presence of the other and to being open to your own feelings, then this book might be a revelation. Otherwise it might seem like a compilation of incredibly mundane observations masquerading as pseudo-wisdom.
  
  It’s certainly not well-written. The co-author, DiMarco is an MFA actor, and although he has written other books, his attempts to introduce drama into scenes that have none are cringeworthy, as are his attempts at elevated description. On the other hand, it seems like he did understand and convey the Esper acting lessons, which was the main task.
  
  Did I get what I wanted, insight on how to write better characters? Yes and no. I didn’t learn anything new, but my attention was shifted to the idea of openness. I decided that I could improve my characters by being more open to their presence (which presence I have to create first, of course – no small feat). I decided that I am already pretty good at having characters be open to each other, so that was satisfying. I didn’t pick up any new writing technique but I did shift my attention a little in a way that I think will be helpful.
  
  Actors, I still don’t understand their magic. I can see this openness technique being very practical for improv, but for a scripted, directed part – I don’t really see how it would help much. But I’m not an actor, so what do I know.
  
• 
  Dave Wagner

  The basic concepts of listening, connecting, and not anticipating are all valuable concepts to add to your acting toolbox, but most of the rest of this book seems to me to be of little use outside of a classroom. I can't imagine ever using one of the increasingly-contrived and structured classroom exercises in a real production of any kind, unless its a play whose director doesn't really care what happens on stage. In film? Forget it.
  
  Worth a read-through, if (like me) you're studying all of the acting techniques, to learn what each has to offer, but having read it, I can't imagine using Meisner as your foundational technique and being very successful as a professional, except in very limited instances. It's all based on spontaneous intuitive response, no two takes ever the same, with little room for craft. If your director ever says "Great! Now do that same thing again!" you're screwed, lol...
• 
  Simon

  This discursive application of the Meisner Technique is one of the most illuminating books on acting. While there has been many acting theories particularly focusing on permutations of "method" (Meisner, Stanislavski, Strasberg, Atlantic), it is the scripting of a succession of William Esper classes where students respond with varying success to his direction, that makes this book so influential. It is not just about hearing the correct acting approach from the teacher that illuminates but how students make errors and ultimately adapt. It is the justification questioning that the teacher gives which brings out the mastery. An indispensable read for actors which should be read in tandem with weekly acting tutorials (ETA: September).
• 
  Kavya Srinivasan

  Insightful and useful, I found a lot of answers I didn't know I was looking for in this book.
• 
  Jim Smiley

  Bear with me on this, in The Karate Kid (1984 — the good one), Daniel-son wants to learn the ways of the ultimate karate ninja so he can finally whoop them Cobra Kai. His first lesson from old man Miyagi is a simple one: wax the car. The boy uses his left hand to apply the wax and his right hand to remove it. The whole car.
  
  When I first watched it, I wondered the same thing as Daniel: where’s the damn karate? Miyagi’s second lesson comes as two Japanese sanders which the boy must use to sand the floor. Right circle, left circle; breathe in, breathe out. The whole floor. By the third lesson, Miyagi’s convinced Daniel to also paint his fence. As the old man says, “It’s all in the wrist.” Long stroke up, long stroke down, don’t forget to breathe. Small boards with the left hand, big boards with the right hand. Now paint the whole fence. By that point in the movie, I found myself wondering which young Maupinite I could convince to paint my house in exchange for no karate lessons.
  
  But, this ain’t a movie review for The Karate Kid; it’s a book review for The Actor’s Art and Craft by William Esper and Damon DiMarco. In short, the book’s about Esper teaching a class on the Meisner technique, a method used to learn the art of acting, while DiMarco writes it up. Both men have taken a Meisner class before. Esper studied under Sandy Meisner, the class’s namesake, for 17 years and spent the next thirty teaching and distilling the technique into a more potent form. Think White Lightnin’.
  During that time, DiMarco took Esper’s version and now, years later, Esper has entrusted him to write just what it is that goes on in a real Meisner course. Why? Because in his forty plus years of teaching actors Esper believes he has refined the technique into something a little purer than when he first learned it. And that he wants to share. But, more than that, like any good instructor, like old man Miyagi, like Sandy Meisner, Bill Esper knows that to be a teacher you must have a relationship with the student, and it’s this relationship that Esper cares most about.
  
  Chapter One begins in Esper’s classroom. It is an actor’s classroom. There are no windows and a small set of risers that face the wall with the room’s only door. Bill’s desk is placed off to the side and the only other furniture are two bed frames with worn mattresses and a cabinet of props.
  
  The first class begins and Bill spins a yarn about some student approaching the house of a great Zen master. This is the first allegory of many Bill will use to teach his class of sixteen students. He finishes and then asks the students why they’re there. One answers, “To study acting,” but this doesn’t satisfy Bill. He spends the rest of the first chapter clarifying the definition of acting. Each word is picked apart until the students achieve the same understanding of what acting is as Esper. The next chapter begins and Bill starts by asking the students if any of them grew up on a farm. A woman answers, Bill asks her how she’d grow the largest head of cabbage. The student answers that first she’d need a seed. He asks how she’d grow the world’s biggest oak tree and she laughs and replies again that she’d need a seed. Bill rhapsodizes on the symbolism of seeds and then introduces the seed of the Meisner Technique: repetition.
  
  
  Trevor responds, “You’ve got a funny hat on.”
  
  Bill repeats, “You’ve got a funny hat on.”
  
  The exercise continues a short while and then Bill stops it. He points out that while Trevor repeated his every word, just like he’d asked, something felt off. On hearing this, Trevor agrees, “It’s funny...I mean, my impulse was to say ‘I’ve got a funny hat on?’” On hearing the word impulse, Bill smiles. He uses this moment, one that naturally arose from the exercise, to adjust the meaning of the repetition exercise to the class,“See, while you do repeat, you must keep your impulses true. You must never sacrifice a truthful answer to the literalness of repetition.”
  
  The class continues and each student participates. They practice, Bill watches, they try, they fail, and Bill uses each failure as a teachable moment. And through this basic pattern Bill teaches and advances the students through the technique. Slowly. Step by step.
  
  I liked this book because it felt honest. Bill’s a good teacher who knows what teaching is about. It ain’t preaching and it ain’t ego rubbin’. To teach a student is like what my grandma Iris used to say about holding a bird in your hands, “Cup too lightly and it flies away, too tightly and you get one dead bird.” And for the student: good learning, like good growth, means taking time and accepting that during that time you’ll fail. A lot.
  
  There were passages where, just like in any good story, I found myself laughing aloud, slapping my knee, gripping the pages, and needing a breather. There are lessons here on teaching and learning that any teacher or student would greatly benefit from. And most important, the book teaches us to be ourselves because to be the best actor you can be you must know yourself, know your reactions, know how to draw on certain emotions and how to hide them away. You must be a criminal, a saint, a mother, and a dead-beat dad. You must be true and never simply nice. And in addition to this, Bill teaches us that through the simple act of repetition, failure, adjustment, good instruction, and time, we can become anything. All it takes is a seed. And all the while, while we seem to be stupidly parroting our partner, or waxing some dumb car, we are connecting with the folks and world around us and becoming a little better.
  
  If it appears as simple as I’ve described here then you’re mistaken. Bill’s exercises seem simple because of him. Like Atlas holding up the globe, Bill shoulders the weight of Meisner’s knowledge and transfers its mass down to his students bit by bit. That is what Zen masters like Bill and Miyagi do. One minute you’re waxing a car, and the next you know karate.
• 
  Laurie Perez

  For The Actor’s Art and Craft to succeed, the writing must pull the reader directly into the class — it must be experiential, not merely intellectual. That’s exactly what the book has achieved.
  
  Page after page the Esper and DiMarco invade your space and open you up to the challenges of the actor. You become the student, receiving the teachings directly — there is no cold, erudite curtain filtering the personal nature of what’s happening in Bill’s classes. Acting is visceral. It pushes buttons, stirs memories, demands vulnerability and confidence in equal measures. Intellect is circumspect — you have to learn volumes, then let go of thinking.
  
  Throughout the book, descriptive writing successfully evokes emotional texture while substantive dialogue makes scene work and discovery fully palpable. I expected to learn technical facets of the actor’s experience. I expected to gain practical insight into acting’s complexity and particular challenges. What I didn’t expect was to be so richly entertained.
  
  I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story and finds the inner workings of the human psyche as compelling as I do. For actors, aspiring and/or seasoned, I imagine The Actor’s Art and Craft must be an essential companion. For writers, novelists, storytellers — this is a lovely complement to books on literary craft.
• 
  Joe

  The book transports you into an acting course as you witness play-by-play accounts of fictional students (inspired by real students) learning a version of the Meisner acting technique. For someone who really knows nothing about acting as a craft, all the lessons were quite illuminating, even exciting to finally understand concrete ways of approaching acting.
  
  The book is keenly soured by the teacher, who acts like some sort of caricature of an acting teacher, over the top, faux sensitive, self-absorbed. I mostly remember pulling out red flags for how they communicated some of the lessons to the students, rudely shaming them in front of the class for things they are ignorant on. I'd have been happy to have walked out of their class and learn the same techniques from someone who was considerate.
  
  But I didn't walk out on the book, which provided a great foundation for exploring acting. Of course all this knowledge is useless without practicing it (which I'd like to play with).
  
  I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in wanting an easy read and introduction to acting (I own it if you'd like to borrow it). Of course this is just one technique, one approach. I'd be interested in reading of others.
• 
  Kyrion

  3 stars. I really wanted to like this book but the format of a fictional class ended up hurting it more than helping in my opinion. Bill in these fictional classes can be a total asshole and he makes crude remarks at one point even encouraging the students to fantasize about their scene partners.. The depictions of the scenes can at points just read like bad fan fiction.
  Despite those negatives this book does a good job of introducing the different Meisner exercises and more importantly the meaning behind each one and how they all come together to form the Meisner approach to acting.
• 
  Matthew

  A book I randomly found in a second-hand bookstore, all about acting which is my path of learning at university and passion in my life. The mere coincidence of seeing the book’s foreward written by David Mamet, and having done one of Mamet’s plays, I instantly purchased it.
  
  What I have learnt from this book so far is immeasurable! I feel this is a new, exciting path I am ready to follow for the adventure that awaits.
  
  This book was amazing and is one I shall reread and study as time passes. I recommend this for all who are interested in acting and the craft of acting. This was amazing.
• 
  Hai Le

  I thought this book was okay but it was more of a narration from the author of William Esper’s classes. The narration included Bill’s teachings on the Meisner technique that included repetition and other techniques. I feel it’s something you really learn by being in the class itself instead of reading a narration of it.
  
  However, the book did offer some useful insight into the mind of William Esper and some helpful tips and hints for the actor!
  
  If you’re interested in learning about the Meisner technique then get it.
• 
  Joe McGranaghan

  This is an outstanding, exercise-by-exercise class on the Meisner Technique from one of America's foremost teachers. There are so many small gems of wisdom, so many quotable bits of advice that I found myself reaching for a highlighter over and over. There is some bit of yellow on almost every page of my paperback copy. I highly recommend this book for anyone studying acting or interested in the actor's training process.
  
  
• 
  Helen

  A detailed exposition of the work and craft of Sandord Meisner - this expands on Stanislavsky's 'method' and encourages actors to be truthful in an artificial setting. A must read for all actors and acting students - it is the starting point of Meisner's technique ... there are other books that follow that explain how his actors develop.
• 
  Cameron Krogh Stone

  Clearly, Meisner technique is all about seeking the most truthful performance possible, and also quite clearly, Bill Esper has mastered and further developed it into a set of just a few simple, practical exercises, gradually adding layers that will make the actor increasingly able and confident in conveying truth. Highly recommend!