Berks Barrister Winter 2018 - 27

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O'Hara Award for Lifetime Achievement
in Arts and Letters. Currently, Mr. Terruso
is conducting master classes throughout
Europe, and was recently named Artistic
Director of the B.E.S.T. divadlo, central
Europe's newest English-speaking theatre.
Most pertinent to the instant article,
Mr. Terruso is a nationally recognized
authority on the Sanford Meisner process,
having studied with both Mr. Meisner and
his protege Bill Esper, and having assisted
Mr. Meisner at his Los Angeles studio
over a two-year period. In his obituary of
Sanford Meisner published in The New
York Times on February 4, 1997, Peter B.
Flint described Mr. Meisner as "...one
of the most influential American acting
teachers of this century..." Mr. Flint went
on to state: "Mr. Meisner, an unassuming
but charismatic man who began his career
as an actor and occasionally undertook
directing, was one of a handful of master
drama instructors. He exhorted several
generations of students to be truthful,
spontaneous and emotionally credible
and to act with other actors, not against
them." Mr. Flint states further: "For Mr.
Meisner, who performed in many of the
plays, including all those by Odets, acting
was 'the ability to live truthfully under
imaginary circumstances.'"
For me, an interesting subtext of this
piece concerns my interviewing a beloved
relative with whom I grew up, and my
discussing with him, at some length, a
topic at which he excels, and which he so
clearly loves. Gene was always putting
on plays when we were children, using
me and other cousins as the actors. Our
little repertory company would perform
for any group, of any size, at any time, and
Gene kept us quite busy over the course
of the many summers when we were
together. I never got the lead in any of
those productions, but I never deserved
the lead; I was a terrible actor. I was able
to memorize my lines with little difficulty,
but perhaps that was due to the fact that I
didn't have that many lines to memorize.
Gene, should you read this, I am requesting
another chance in one of your productions.
I feel that my acting abilities have grown
since we last worked together. I do miss
those days.
Mr. Terruso spoke to me insightfully
about the Meisner Technique, and I fear
and know that my rather short treatment

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of this subject in this article will not
convey even remotely much of what I
was told. He advised that the focus of
the Technique is performance rooted in
conversational reality and "the reality of
doing." He stressed that on stage, the
actor needs to be open and responsive,
emotionally, to the other actors on stage,
and to listen ardently to their lines. The
actor asks himself/herself how he/she
feels about what the other actors in the

scene are saying and doing. The actor
must adapt to the other actors on stage
with him/her, and be able to respond
emotionally to perhaps subtle changes in
how the others' lines are being delivered,
and to perhaps subtle emotional changes
exhibited by the other actors, from one
performance to the next. One reacts/acts
emotionally in response to the acting of
Continued on page 28
Winter 2018 | 27
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Berks Barrister Winter 2018

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