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ABSTRACT
This article presents how the concept of skill-challenge balance — derived from Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of Flow — can provide a key factor in the delivery and teaching of the Meisner technique as well as other actor training methods.
The American acting practitioner Sanford Meisner’s foundational actor training focuses on the redirection of attention, to keep the actor present and less self-conscious. His exercises are presented in a way that encourages external attention to be sustained by using a logical step-by-step process and gradually increasing the difficulty – either when the students’ skills develop or when the exercise becomes automated.
The article offers evidence that different attentional networks are activated depending on how much attention is directed to task, which rests on the challenge-skill balance being continually adjusted for the actor to sustain task-focus and avoid mind wandering. This demonstrates that finding the balance between skill and challenge in relation to task, while layering the exercises in an extended developmental training-process, is integral to the Meisner method.
As an acting tutor, the concept of skill-challenge balance has greatly influenced my own practice, as well as solidified the importance of the teacher’s ability to acknowledge the student’s understanding and growth. By focusing on the individual and the personal aspect of the skill-challenge balance, highlights not only the importance of seeing this balance as something fluid – needing constant re-evaluation and adaptation – but also as a something that should be adhered to in any forms of vocational teaching and development. .
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Shirley, The Reality of Doing, 121.
2. Durham, Acting on and off, 153.
3. One of the core concepts of the Meisner Technique is known as “the reality of doing”; this is what Meisner defined as the difference between actually doing something and pretending to do it. For example, if the script required you to read something on stage, one must actually read it instead of pretending to read it – if an actor does something they must really do it (Meisner, On Acting, 16). Reading is a task, something that is done; if one can engage with it authentically, one’s attention will be on what one is doing. If one is pretending to do it, the attention will be elsewhere, most likely on oneself. Meisner also believed that listening and conversing are tasks that can be done, and the Repetition exercise allows actors to engage fully in this doing. Listening and communicating are both activities associated with applying focus on the external environment; to listen attentively and communicate truthfully, the actor’s attention has to be on the scene partner and the action of the scene – anywhere else, and they are not actively engaged.
4. Hart, “Meisner Technique,” 53.
5. Moseley, Acting and Reacting, 128; Meisner in Practice, 8.
6. Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 25.
7. Kerns, Eso and Thomson, Investigation of a Direct Intervention, 274.
8. Sohlberg and Mateer, Cognitive Rehabilitation, 83.
9. Sweller, Cognitive Load During Problem Solving, 1988.
10. Ibid., 259, 261.
11. William James (1884) first distinguished between passive and active attention. However, in modern day psychology this is referred to as bottom-up/top-down, or stimulus-driven/goal-directed attention (Kinchla and Wolfe, Visual Processing; Egeth and Yantis, Visual Attention, 271)
12. Katsuki and Constantinidis, Bottom-down and Top-down Attention, 509.
13. Diamond, Executive Functions, 137.
14. Flow as a concept has been researched in a variety of domains including sport, gaming, educational settings and the arts, and appears to enhance learning and creativity as well as diminish self-consciousness. Recent advances in the research have been directed towards the measuring of flow and towards other related areas, such as computer-human interactions (Liu et al, Impact of Media Richness on Flow) and marketing and consumer behaviour (Drengner et al., Flow in Consumer Research). However, it should be noted that Csíkszentmihályi himself has played an integral role in much of the research into this area in the four decades since he first defined the concept, and the definition of flow has had very little adjustments made to it.
15. Csíkszentmihályi, Flow, 6.
16. Flow has been referred to within many different fields and topics, ranging from Buddhism and Daoism (Hallowell and Ratey, Answers to Distraction) to hyperfocus and ADHD (Ashinoff and Abu-Akel, Hyperfocus), trance (Hytonen-Ng, Experiencing Flow in Jazz), and mindfulness (Kee and Wang, Mindfulness, Flow Disposition and Mental skills). The particular aspects of flow explored in this article are the notion of flow as a quality of attention and the way in which the concept of skill-challenge balance can be used as a training tool for directing and sustaining the actor’s focus.
17. Carver and Scheier, A Model of Behavioural self-regulation, 35.
18. Jackson and Csíkszentmihályi, Flow in Sports.
19. Csíkszentmihályi and Csíkszentmihályi, Optimal Experience, 30; and Harris, Vine and Wilson, Is Flow Really Effortless? 10.
20. Csíkszentmihályi and Nakamura, Emerging Goals.
21. Kawabata, Mallett and Jackson, The Flow-state Scale.
22. Baumeister, Choking Under Pressure, 610; and Beilock and Carr, On the Fragility of Skilled Performance, 701.
23. Apart from boredom and anxiety, there are five other emotions that surround the flow tunnel: arousal, control, relaxation, apathy and worry (Carli, Fave and Massimini, The Quality of Experience, 270).
24. Csíkszentmihályi and Nakamura, Emerging Goals, 92.
25. Csíkszentmihályi, Flow, 58.
26. Csíkszentmihályi, Flow, 54.
27. Stinespring, Principles of Truthful Acting, 106.
28. Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 29.
29. It should also be noted here that the Repetition exercise can be introduced in many different ways; Meisner started the introduction to the Repetition exercise with repeating only one or two words of observation (for example “blue eyes”) called Mechanical Repetition, allowing the students to get used to just listening to changes in the words and observing each other in general. This was followed by the Three Moment exercise, which trains the observation of physical behaviour. The lead-up to the Repetition with a point of view (You-I Repetition) differs from teacher to teacher.
30. Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 39; Esper, The Actor’s Art and Craft, 59.
31. Silverberg, The Sanford Meisner Approach 1, 64.
32. Esper, The Actor’s Art and Craft, 62.
33. Hart, “The Meisner Technique,” 60.
34. Studies into our attentional control abilities have shown that dividing our attention tends to undermine self-control, as self-control requires focused attention (Schmeichel, Ego depletion, 25). Moreover, attention and self-control draw on the same resource, hence dividing the attention will lead to limited self-control, which manages our ability to manipulate conscious thought (Schmeichel, ibid, 2) and response inhibition (Kane & Engle, Working Memory Capacity). Yet, when the attention is no longer divided between tasks, the capacity to pay attention and maintain self-control are immediately brought back to full levels (Schmeichel, Ego Depletion, 2).
35. McVay, Kane and Kwapil, Tracking the Train of Thought, 860.
36. Giambra, Influences on Switching Attention, 1.
37. Seli, Carriere and Smilek, Not all Mind Wandering,750.
38. Agnoli, Corazza, Vannucci and Pelagatti, Mind Wandering, Mindfulness, and Creativity, 48.
39. Vannucci and Chiorri, Self-consciousness and Mind wandering, 57.
40. Ibid., 58.
41. Meisner, Meisner on Acting, 45.
42. Dixon et al., Default Network and Dorsal Attention Network, 644.
43. Raichle et al., Default Mode of Brain Function, 676.
44. Mason et al., Wandering Minds, 394; and Christoff, et al., Contributions to Mind wandering, 8722.
45. Northoff et al.,Self-referential Processing.
46. Mason et al., Wandering Minds, 394; Christoff et al., Contributions to Mind Wandering, 8722; and Smallwood et al., Default Mode Network and the Frontal-Parietal Network, 66.
47. Fox et al., Dynamic, Anticorrelated Functional Networks, 9674.
48. Corbetta and Shulman, Goal-Directed and Stimulus-Driven Attention, 202.
49. Fox et al. Dynamic, Anticorrelated Functional Networks, 9673.
50. Fox et al., Dynamic, Anticorrelated Functional Networks; Chai et al., Resting State Networks; De Havas et al. Sleep Depravation; Fornito et al., Schizophrenia, neuroimaging and connectomics; Josipovic et al., Influence of meditation; Yeo et al., Flexibility in Human Association; and Spreng et al., Anticorrelation Between the Default and Dorsal Attention Networks.
51. Spreng et al., Goal-congruent Default Network Activity, 14,111–2.
52. Gilbert et al. Wandering Minds, 43.
53. Lahnakoski et al, Brain Network for Social Perception; Baron-Cohen, Mindblindness; and Calero et al, Development of Theory of Mind, 1.
54. Blakemore and Decety, Understanding of Intention; Denny et al., Mentalizing in Medial Prefrontal Cortex; and Isoda and Noritaki, Dorsomedial Frontal Cortex, 232.
55. Beaty et al., Default and Executive Network Coupling.
56. Christoff et al., Contributions to Mind Wandering; and Handy and Kam, Mind wandering and selective attention.
57. Schmeichel, Ego depletion, 2.
58. Blakemore and Decety, Understanding of Intention, 565; and Cacioppo et al, Intention Understanding, 15.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Philippa Strandberg-Long
Philippa Strandberg-Long is an actor trainer, director and researcher who has taught extensively in several of London’s conservatoire drama schools. Apart from specializing in the teaching of Meisner technique – and being instrumental in integrating the technique into several curriculums – she also teaches Stanislavski based techniques and scene study, directs drama school productions, coaches professional actors and regularly holds workshops in other British cities and European countries.
Philippa has a PhD from the University of Kent, investigating the Meisner technique’s ability to influence self-consciousness in actors. Apart from acting technique and pedagogy, her research includes the psychology of attention, action-perception theory, mind wandering and the study of flow. Adding to her PhD and BA (hons) in Acting, she also has an MA in Actor training from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
In 2019/2020 Philippa was the Course Leader and Head of Acting of Fourth Monkey’s two-year actor training programme – a programme underpinned by the ethos of Meisner’s principles and the concept of “play”. She has recently left the role of lead acting tutor on Rose Bruford’s MA in Actor and Performance Training, to take up the position as Deputy Course Leader for Italia Conti’s BA (hons) Acting programme, where she continues to develop both her studio practice and research profile, always putting the individual’s creative potential in focus.