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Alex (Sandy) Egan is an award-winning actor, director, and teacher. He has been on the

faculty of the Elizabeth Mestnik Acting Studio, Los Angeles’ premier Meisner training

studio, for 18 years and has introduced hundreds of actors to the Meisner Technique. Known

for his empathetic style of teaching and his direct approach, Sandy’s students have had great

success in theater, television, and film. Sandy received his bachelor’s degree in Theater from

Occidental College. He completed an internship at New York’s famed Circle Repertory

Company, the home of playwright Lanford Wilson. He completed his professional training at

the William Esper Studio with William Esper, Sanford Meisner’s associate at the

Neighborhood Playhouse for 17 years. A Los Angeles based actor and director for over 40

years, the Los Angeles Times has praised the “naturalism” of his acting and the “particular

adeptness” of his direction.

Introduction to the Meisner Technique: An Actor’s Workshop

The Meisner Technique, as developed by famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner, has been used to train actors for over 80 years in the United States and around the world. Meisner’s two-year program is a step-by-step series of improvisational acting exercises that train the actor to become spontaneous, emotionally available, truthful in their behaviour, and confident in their abilities. This four-hour introductory workshop will give participants an opportunity to learn and practise the beginning exercises of the technique, and an understanding of how it is applied by actors in performance.

This introductory workshop will include:

• Actor warm-ups and exercises
• A brief history of the Meisner Technique and its origins
• A shared discussion on Meisner’s definition of acting and his concept of the reality of doing.
• Partnered participation in the beginning exercises of repetition and the beginnings of improvisation.
• Group and individual practice and coaching on exercises.
• Application of work on short text “contentless” scenes

Participants are encouraged to dress comfortably in clothing they can move in and to bring a notebook to write down their thoughts and notes about the session.