Have Faith?

One of the names of possible schools that came up in Saturday's discussion was the Actors' Temple (I've added the apostrophe - it makes more sense) near Warren Street in London (actorstemple.com). It has a good reputation and the website is professional and attractive. But the website also says that their courses are coming to an end as the Temple transforms into a fully-fledged acting company, so if I want to take advantage of their expertise, I should get in there quick, particularly when there is only one introductory week available, for an astonishing low £50.

The Temple specialises in the [Sanford] Meisner Technique (that's him on the left, see Wikipedia for more on the Technique), using "an inter-dependent series of training exercises". According to Wikip, several actors I respect and enjoy, from Robert Duvall to Leslie Nielsen, reportedly trained in the Technique. So far, so good. Back to the Temple website, I start watching their 45 minute film showing extracts from the classes and discussions and comments from teachers and students giving their views on the Technique and its results.

Five minutes in, I have Questions about the course as I watch students wind each other up by continuously repeating short phrases about how they feel. By the twenty-minute mark, seeing a student first humiliated and then berated because he has not burst into tears (there appears to be a lot of crying in the Temple, as well as some laughter and rolling around the floor in ecstasy), those Questions have solidified into Doubts; by the end of the film, Doubts have become Certainty that this is not a line of training I want to follow. Why? Because the Technique, as applied by the Temple and presented in this documentary, comes across as something between a religious cult where each follower's personality must be broken in order to be moulded to the leader's bidding, and an intense therapy session where deeply wounded souls are encouraged to cry out their anguish.

The theory underlying the training - if I understand correctly - is that actors can only give a true performance if they are true to themselves. The only way to become true to oneself is to open up to every emotion. And to open up to every emotion one has to go through a series of exercises that - from the evidence of the film - rely heavily on endless repetition and regular humiliation. (I assume there is more to the course than that, and there is a point where students actually act, but the emphasis appears to be much more on the challenge of the Dragon than the prize of the Princess.)

There are certainly some plays and films, and styles of theatre, cinema and television which require extreme performances, and I am sure that such a Course would help some actors achieve that goal. But just as in Art the same scene can be portrayed with truth in many different styles (think of Art, and painters from Rembrandt to Picasso, Duchamp to Hopper and so on), so too can truth on the stage be portrayed by actors from many different traditions and training techniques. I don't believe the Meisner Technique is a prerequisite of good acting; it's simply a tool that some individuals may find useful.

It could be argued that my distaste for the Temple technique is because I'm unwilling to put myself through the various extremes that it requires. There may be some truth in that, but as an older man, I have already experienced most of the traumas and elations that the course would want to me relive. I believe I know myself well and there is little of my personality left to uncover. And while I'm willing to express profound rejection or celebration on stage to convey an emotion or message to an audience, I'm not interested in repeating emotions for the sake of an exercise.

The Technique, as demonstrated by the Temple, almost certainly has greater impact with young actors, who have less experience of the world and who are in many ways more defensive and insecure. It is more difficult for the young to express deep and complex emotions - which is why so few 14 and 15 year olds can give a good performance of Romeo and Juliet and so few 19 year-olds can convey the complexities of Hamlet, while older actors portraying Lear are so much more compelling. A young person who goes through the intense experience of this course, who gains a clearer understanding of the complex emotions that make up a human being, and who emerges from it with their personality intact will almost certainly benefit as an actor.

The young student who was humiliated in the film is shown later speaking happily about the benefits he has got from the course. And I doubt that those who enter the Temple are expected to give up all their possessions and cut off all contact with their family. But I am also sure that the name of the Temple was not chosen by chance; this is the place where acolytes must abase themselves before the God of Acting, where they must undergo Ordeals to be accepted as Initiates, and where some may one day become Priests. Such a place is not for me. As an atheist in the Real World, this is one place of worship I can easily pass by.