Learning to Act in the Czech Republic: A Beginner Struggles with the Meisner Technique

The Prague Playhouse is a theatre group in Prague, the Czech Republic which is dedicated to promoting English language theatre in Prague. They began in early 2003 when they presented "American Evening", a set of short plays from American playwrights. They recently started working with The Prague Post on their Playwriting Contest, overseeing production, which greatly increased the visibility of the group.

In 2003 they started giving classes in the Meisner Technique, to provide an opportunity for people living in Prague to work seriously on their acting craft. The class is taught by Brian Caspe and Ben Steel, both graduates of Playhouse West, the Los Angeles school started by Sanford Meisner, who developed the Meisner Technique.

I joined the class about 2 months ago. I knew nothing of the Meisner Technique, even though I've studied drama and like to think I know something about this acting jazz. I joined because I wanted to get involved in the theatre, and liked the sound of what the Prague Playhouse were doing. For my first class I mostly watched and listened. Ben, the teacher that day, started by asking the other class members if they had activities and doors. I listened as if they were speaking another language, which in a way they were. After that a couple of class members got up to do an exercise. One guy sat and took out some work to do, an activity in Meisner speak, and another came and knocked on his door, called a door. The other guy knocked on the door, came in and they interacted with each other by telling each other what their behaviour was, and repeating what each other said. If it sounds like it makes no sense, well it didn't make much sense to me either. At the end of the class I got up and did some very simple repetition exercises with another person, as simple as telling him he had blue shoes, and he told me he had blue shoes and on and on and on. At the end of the class I was told to practice that for the next class. I didn't have to worry about having an activity or a door yet, that was for the big people. I had to take baby steps.

I started doing activities and doors after about a month of going to classes, which was about a month ago, and I'm still very much at the beginning stages. It's a lot of work, 2 classes a week and at least 2 rehearsals a week and coming up with new doors and activities all the time, neither of which are easy, but the training is worth it. The Prague Playhouse wants to build a core group of actors from this class that can be depended on for future productions of plays and films in English, and when that time comes, I want to be part of it.