Realistic relationships are a huge emphasis of the Hybrid Meisner© training. How have you watched a movie, television show or a play and you didn’t believe the actors in the scene were engaged in truthful relationships? The characters are supposed to be married but they didn’t really live or behave naturally with each other. That is because the actors are usually working from an idea or concept of what they think the relationship is supposed to be. We believe that any idea in acting is a bad idea. An actor cannot act from an idea because an idea is not emotionally based.

Relationships are based in how you feel about someone. There are no two relationships that are the same. A relationship is shared experience, but that does not mean both people share the same feelings about the relationship. In our classes you get real used to engaging with other actors, both as yourself and in imaginary circumstances. You start to understand that each person makes you feel completely different about yourself. We also believe that actors need to have authentic relationships with each other, as well as relationship with themselves.

Much of acting is about the character’s feelings about themselves in the given circumstances. On numerous occasions directors and casting have complimented that our actors know how to have realistic relationships with complete strangers. That is because the actor has done the work to give themselves the permission to have these relationships with strangers, for this we are very proud.

Hybrid Meisner© conditions actors like athletes in what we call “doing the doings”. We firmly believe that acting is the reality of doing. You cannot watch a scene on film or television without the characters literally doing realistic activities while the action of the story moves forward. Moments in life and art are determined by what people are actually doing. Everyone remembers what they were doing when some major life event happens. The first question is what are the characters literally doing in the scene? So if acting is action; what are the characters literally doing? We get you literally living and doing in your first month of studying with us. We employ difficult activities that take great concentration to complete.

We have you make realistic entrances and exits with much attention spent on every detail. We deploy physical destination meaning: where are you coming from and where are you going? We have you live life and do in your own environment- looking for lost objects, while talking to multiple people on the telephone. All this training is to take attention off yourself, develop concentration, public solitude, and to get you out of your own way. Our process is very specific every scene you do as yourself in imaginary circumstances can also be done as role preparation for a character later in your training process. All Reality of Doing assignments have duality. Yes – there is a method to our madness.

Based on Meisner’s repetition exercise (but very different), Raw spontaneous human experience between two or more actors. To develop trust of oneself and create truthful organic impulses that the actor must act on with no apologies. The goal is to get you out of your head and into your body, to have complex relationships with complete strangers, to listen and respond, not just with your ears but from your entire body. To affect others and be affected, and to find out how others view you.

Basically, Raw Moments is an actor’s tool to get out of their own way and maintain a moment to moment connection with their partner(s). The Raw Moments make the actor respond with their own unique personal point of view. Raw Moments transfer to every aspect of the Hybrid.