Prague Playhouse

Meisner Acting Class Blog on “Relaxation” part 2

May 13th, 2009 at 02:19am boris

Hi everyone!

I’m Boris Wilke and member of the Prague Playhouse Meisner acting group. I blog about our class activities.

On Monday, May 11th, our teacher Brian Caspe let five of us try out relaxation prior to our respective exercises.

Click on the “ACTING CLASS” button above to read more about the class itself and where we meet!

Click the “(more…)”-button below to read about Monday’s class!

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Relaxation is easy and hard to achieve at the same time. Everybody is able to calm down a bit during a break, during lunch, while waiting for something. That’s easy. But to use relaxation to become more astute, to concentrate and thus to perform better, can be hard.

On Monday Brian let five of us slightly more advanced class members leave the room before our respective exercises. We were to relax for a while to be better prepared for them. While I tried to calm down, Frederic had his exercise with John-Paul and Jana. And the former was yet again a “tsunami of truth” as Brian called it afterwards. Although I did not see the exercise, I could hear it well and was totally wrapped up in listening to Frederic’s and J.P.’s yelling and cursing – and Jana’s sneering.

It’s normal to having to relax under less than perfect circumstances. I don’t know, if I did well. But during the two exercises, that I had the luck to be able to do that evening, I felt myself much less than usual. I was more in the moment and did not at all think about myself. I hope that meant, that I was more focussed on my partners. What that relaxation did not do: It did not give me a sense of certainty in what I was doing. I might have been better prepared after all. But I didn’t really notice it.

Only time and more practice will tell, if in the long run I will be able to forget about anything that goes on around me, in order to clear my mind completely during relaxation.

But I will certainly try.

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General stuff:

Our acting class consists of some ten active members, who meet every Monday and Wednesday from 6.30 pm to about 8.30. We do Meisner. And the Meisner-technique really rocks!

If you want to connect with your inmost feelings, expressing them freely in an acting environment and thus getting to know yourself better and better, feel free to join us!

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About the author:

I am Boris Wilke, a German expat in Prague. I am a writer at large and have been studying Meisner since January 2008. If any of you know of any kind of acting work, that befits a laddish, tall 40-year-old, please leave a note!

Acting,Classes