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The Sanford Meisner Approach Vol 2: The Preface

"In 1970 I was blessed with the opportunity of studying with Sandy Meisner. The total sense and perfect truth of every stepping stone in those two unforgettable years of classes intoxicated me with a fervor that led me to teach. No one, no one, no one can teach like Sandy. But with a kind of messianic zeal, I presented his exercises as clearly and carefully as I could and, through the many years of teaching, my understanding of the profundity and resonance of his work deepened. But every year, the week before introducing emotional preparation I became anxious, insecure, sleepless and fearful that I might make a mess of it.

I knew the mandate: to present emotional preparation in a way that would entice the actors to make use of the most important ingredients in their personal larder, to whet their appetites to fantasize the fulfillment of their most vital wishes, to acknowledge who and what they most love and to then imagine the best or worst that might befall that love, to summon actors to dream a dream or to suffer a nightmare by inviting an encounter with the deepest and most personal imagery of their lives.

Larry Silverberg's book Emotional Freedom would have helped me to feel more confident to introduce this central element of an actor's training. Larry's systematic progression of the exercises and his careful explanations, his thorough evaluation of each actor's work, his clear and gentle guidance of the actors through the taking of an imaginary journey so that they might make a kind of alchemic use of the vital meanings in their lives.

I do not think it is possible to learn to act from reading a book. But, I believe that actors who read Larry Silverberg's book will know the difference between pretending to feel what the "character" feels and actually inhabiting that life with their own. They will also know, on yet another level, the meaning of Sandy's perfect definition: ACTING IS LIVING TRUTHFULLY UNDER IMAGINARY CIRCUMSTANCES. And because of the patient guidance in this book, they will, I hope, want to explore the infinite territory of their imagination.

I congratulate Larry on this book because of its usefulness to actors, to teachers of acting and to directors. It's importance is expressed by Robert Frost:

"Something we were withholding made us weak until we found it was ourselves."

Thank you, Larry."

-- Suzanne Shepherd