Why The Actors Temple? With Tansy Adair

Q: What’s the biggest lesson you learnt during your own training at The AT?
That I was not alone in feeling that truth was the basis for the craft of acting. As William Esper so accurately puts it ” …To an actor every moment is a peak moment. He/she may live an entire lifetime in two hours or less. An actor knows that this thing called ‘life’ is nothing more than a series of moments strung together in a mystical chain…..he/she learns to live mindfully, beholden only to his/her sense of truth, without anticipation, without fear….”
Meisner said “Acting is the ability to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances”, previous to my training at the Actors Temple, I often felt that on other courses and watching shows and films etc that the ‘living truthfully’ part was often missing. I got a full experiential understanding of how to do this.
Q: What area of the work do you most enjoy?
The spontaneity and beauty of true connection unfolding moment to moment.
Q: What are the fundamental principles you teach?
At the beginning it is more of an uncovering or restoring of ourselves to our most natural form. Getting back to the essence, truthfulness, connection and spontaneity.
Q: What can students expect from the core training?
It’s a fully practical and intense training. You will be guided through a set of rigorous exercises and finish the training with a tool kit that will enable you to ‘play’ many characters living truthfully under the imaginary circumstances that you have been given – from a monologue, to a scene through to a full script. Whether it be for film, TV or theatre, these tools will enable you to take the audience on a journey with you and each performance or take (in the case of screen work) will be unique.
Q: What can students expect from the foundation course?
Transformation.
The repetition exercise forces you to really listen and truly answer and this is the dead from which good acting grows. The repetition exercise gets you into emotional contact with your partner which allows you to work freely and instinctively from your impulses, moment to moment. How can you play a character if you are already playing one in your daily life?
Q: What’s your favourite thing about teaching?
Totally honestly I feel like society is in a bit of mess at the moment and teaching restores my sometimes dwindling faith in humanity. I love seeing the transformation of the students as they connect truthfully and begin to understand the work.
Q: What makes the actors temple unique/special/different?
The Actors Temple strives for truth in the art rather than placing importance on external accolades. People come from all walks of life, more so than I have found on other courses and this diversity is both wonderful to work with and more importantly a true reflection of society.
Q: What do you learn from your students?
Self defence mechanisms and conditioning come in many different forms and that when we find truthful connection, it is always liberating.
Tansy Adair will be leading The Core Training starting on June 1st: Saturdays and Sundays 2 – 6pm. To join this training you must have completed The Foundation Course. Please contact us for more info bookings@actorstemple.com.
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