Principles of truthful acting: a theoretical discourse on Sanford Meisner's practice

The focus of this dissertation is the exploration of one acting teacher's methodology. This teacher, Sanford Meisner, has been well-known for years among professional theatre circles, and more recently, since his death on February 2,1997, the wider academic theatre community is becoming aware of his contribution to the field of actor education. As one of his former students I can only look back with amazement at the genius which informs this approach to acting.

History will be more than kind to this twentieth-century actor and acting teacher who bequeathed his generation and subsequent generations a body of work already recognized by many as perhaps the single most important contribution to the actor's art. For more than fifty years Sanford Meisner sat behind a desk in his classroom at The Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan committing himself to the painstaking work of engaging his students in the technical training of the craft of acting.