The Meisner technique has a clear system of exercises that train the actor from the ground up. The goal is to learn to "live truthfully under imaginary circumstances." Here, we will go over the second exercise in the Meisner technique, known as Independent Activities. (If you haven’t yet read about the first exercise, you can do so here: The Repetition Exercise - The First Exercise in the Meisner Technique).
What is the purpose of Independent Activities within the Meisner Technique?
By engaging in independent activities, the actor practices doing everything in front of the camera or on stage for real; this is referred to as "the reality of doing". You train yourself in using your imagination and to be specific in your preparations — both are essential qualities to have as an actor. When you learn to use your imagination, you can play almost any character. Specific choices make your acting clear and interesting, in contrast to broad and general choices that make the performance flat.
Preparing Independent Activities
1. Choose a difficult but not impossible activity that requires 100% of your concentration.
The greatest gift you can give yourself as an actor is often to choose the most challenging activity possible. The only limitation in difficulty is that it should not be impossible or so difficult that you give up — you must feel motivated to complete your activity as if your life depended on it. Examples of activities might include gluing something broken back together, building a house of cards, or learning a dance.
The activity must involve one or more physical objects, e.g. a broken vase and glue, a deck of cards, or a laptop/mobile with music and dance steps.
Avoid intellectual activities at first, such as reading or writing. Focus instead on activities that involve using your hands or body.
The activity must have a "standard of perfection", meaning you must know what it looks like when you succeed, for example, the vase should look as if it never broke, the house of cards must have four stories, or the dance must include specific steps in a precise order and rhythm.
Do not choose an activity where you risk hurting yourself if you fail (e.g., standing on your head, roller-skating, etc.).
2. Come up with a simple and specific reason for doing your activity.
Use your imagination but stick to reasons that are believable and close to your real life. Examples of reasons might be: "I accidentally broke my sister's vase, and I need to glue it together before she comes home", or "If I nail this dance, I get the chance to book my dream role", or "If I can build this house of cards, I win the money for charity."
Have a "point of reality" in your invented reason, i.e., a real person or something that actually matters to you as a person (e.g. you win money for a charity that you actually are passionate about, it's a chance to book a role where you will work with your favorite director). It's often easier to use a real person in the imaginary scenario. So for example, don't make up that you have a sister if you don't have one in real life.
3. Set a time frame that makes it urgent to complete your activity.
For example, your sister, whose vase you broke, comes home in 15 minutes. Depending on the activity, the time frame may vary—make sure you have less time to complete the activity than you would normally need.
4. It must be important for you to succeed at your activity.
Ask yourself: What’s the best that can happen if I complete the activity? What’s the worst thing that can happen if I fail?
Note: Do not break something that is actually valuable or meaningful to you. Use something that doesn't have real value to you and pretend it is significant (you must still believe it is significant, so it's preferrable to use something that looks important).
Things to keep in mind for Independent Activities:
Do not practice the activity itself on your own, but feel free to daydream about the invented reason why you must complete the activity.
Do not choose overly complicated reasons as it will make them harder to believe. Keep it simple.
Be very specific in all your choices. Have a specific reason, a set deadline, a "standard of perfection", and a very clear idea of the consequences that will occur if you don’t finish in time.
How does the Independent Activities exercise work in practice?
During the exercise, you will carry out your activity as you have prepared it. The imagined location is your home. At the same time, another Meisner student will perform the Repetition Exercise with you. You now have an activity that is important, urgent, and requires 100% of your concentration, as well as repetitions to perform. You must not shut out your scene partner but still fully react to each moment.
The exercise builds up in several steps:
You perform your independent activity, and your scene partner sits in a chair and does the Repetition Exercise with you. Your scene partner initiates the verbal interaction and starts with what’s happening within you (see The Repetition Exercise - The First Exercise in the Meisner Technique).
You perform your independent activity, and your scene partner will knock on the door with a specific knock, e.g., an angry, playful, happy, or cautious knock. The knock does not have to match how your scene partner feels at the moment. You forget that someone will knock and have the first verbal moment, where you express what the knock made you feel, e.g., "you scared me," "you’re bothering me," etc.
You perform your Independent Activity, and your scene partner knocks on the door with a specific knock. You imagine an expectation regarding who you think will be coming through the door that does not match your scene partner — choose an expectiation that is either much better or much worse than your scene partner. Your scene partner comes up with a simple and specific reason for coming to your place—for example, to borrow a cup of sugar, invite you to a movie, etc. The reason won’t come up in the repetition exercise, but it helps your scene partner to know why they are there so that it feels more real. You initiate the verbal interaction and express what you feel when you see your scene partner.
We use everything from point 3 but also add a specific relationship between you and your scene partner so that you are no longer "two objects in space."
You can do a variant where you are roommates (living together). One of you performs an Independent Activity, and the other comes home without knocking. The one who comes home has done an emotional preparation and need something in the room that they either do because of the feeling or despite the feeling.
Developing Independent Activities
At a later point, you can do Independent Activities that target a certain emotion within the actor. The actor then selects an emotion to work with and an activity and reason that evokes that emotion. Some moments in the preparation may then need to be adjusted. For example, you might need to make the activity less urgent and somewhat easier if you are aiming for a positive emotion.
This material explains the exercise but cannot replace practice together with a skilled Meisner teacher. To develop in the right direction, you need coaching from a teacher experienced in coaching specifically in the Meisner Technique, who can see your inner life and guide you in the right direction. The exercise may appear simple, but there are many nuances in your performance that will emerge in the exercise, and a skilled Meisner teacher can see exactly what you need to fine-tune your instrument further. However, this text can be used as support and to make notes when you practice between your Meisner lessons.
If you are a Meisner teacher and want to use this text in your teaching, please feel free to do so, but you must either link to the blog or download the PDF. You are not allowed to remove the Elin Hilläng Studios logo, the text about Elin Hilläng Studios, or Elin Hilläng’s name.
Would you like to learn or develop in the Meisner Technique? At Elin Hilläng Studios, we offer Meisner Technique (Level 1), Meisner Technique (Level 2), and Meisner Technique (Level 3). We always work in a small group of a maximum of 6 students to receive plenty of individual feedback and truly develop as an actor. Click on the links below to learn more!
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