The Directors Guild will be running an INTRODUCTION TO MEISNER WORKSHOP FOR DIRECTORS with Director/Producer/Actor Stephen Bayly

 ‘Take it from a Director.  If you get an actor that Sandy Meisner has trained you’ve been blessed.’ Elia Kazan.

A one-day introduction to the methods of Sanford Meisner, as used by actor/director Sidney Pollock, writer/director David Mamet, etc. to draw truthful emotionally rich performances from their actors, whether on stage or screen.

Unbeknownst to many of us in Britain, many of America’s most dynamic and watchable screen actors have been trained by Meisner (Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Robert Duvall, Joanne Woodward, Jon Voight, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dianne Keaton, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, to mention a few). How do these actors work?  How can directors use these techniques to get more honest and intense performances from their own cast? Fellow Stephen Bayly’s workshop will offer an alternative to Method Acting, and teach directors to help actors ‘personalise’ the text as a way of bringing it to life.

Stephen Bayly has produced such films as Richard III and Mrs. Dalloway and has directed, among other things, the Cannes sleeper hit Coming Up Roses. He was Director of the National Film and TelevisionSchool. Stephen has studied Sanford Meisner’s methods intensively for five years at The Actors Temple in London, where he now teaches directors.  He also teaches regularly in Cuba, Nigeria, Spain, and Wales.

Date:      Saturday 21 November 2009

Venue:   The Shaw Theatre, 100-110 Euston Road, London NW1 2AJ.

Time:      10am – 6pm (with lunch break)

Fee:        £35 DGGB members, £55 non-members (£35 concessions, £25 Guild student members)

To book or for more information about the workshop and fees: contact directorsguild@dggb.org. Places are limited.