The Maggie Flanigan Studio trains professional actors ready to enter the business with a solid craft and a clearly defined work ethic. In this video Charlie Sandlan discusses what actors need to do to truly be considered great actors.
Our studio is not a place for everyone. We are a serious, professional training program, dedicated to the technique of Sandy Meisner. The incredibly hard work our students commit themselves to rests in their desire to be the best actor and artist possible. Our rooms bustle with creative energy, with actors who have the passion, grit, and determination to work through their creative issues. They are encouraged by all of our wonderful teachers to play full out with themselves; to strive to develop into a well-trained, professional actor and artist who's ready to enter the business with a solid craft and an inviolate work ethic. We believe in the actor as artist, one that courageously functions from the human heart in order to illuminate the human condition in all its aspects.
Acting is a collaborative, transformative art, which requires a well-developed instrument. Body, voice and temperament must be fully accessible in order to take on major roles. We train for the top of the profession; actors who possess the craft, self-discipline and artistry to breathe life into the characters of Eugene O'Neil, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Chekhov, Shanley, Mamet, Beckett, and Shakespeare to name just a few. You cannot bring pedestrian, everyday behavior to work like this. So the actor must train. And as is the case with any art form, it's not an intellectual pursuit. The best training helps the actor begin operating with spontaneity from their heart and not their head. Meisner's technique accomplishes this while also instilling in the actor the important fundamentals, which form the foundation of their craft. These must be second nature. Art is personal, and acting is no different. If it's not, what value is it? The audience lives vicariously through the actors on stage, and if an actor is tense, pedestrian or incapable of illuminating the circumstance of the scene, the audience will not experience very much.
Many people have the dream of being an actor and first-rate artist. My hope as a teacher is to inspire in my students the desire to work hard in order to achieve just that. I want to teach students who are willing to give their best effort every single day; who want to look at class as an opportunity to go the distance with themselves. I want our studio filled with hungry risk takers who put their deepest feelings to the service of their art. Maggie has often quoted the great poet Stanley Kunitz who said something once about the artist that has never left me; "A trapeze artist on his high wire is performing and defying death at the same time. He's doing more than showing off his skill: he's using his skill to stay alive. Art demands that sense of risk, of danger. But few artists in any period risk their lives. The most insidious enemy of the good is not so much the bad as it is the second best."
So as a teacher, I support a student's struggle to put the work together, but I will not take the struggle away. It would be a disservice to them if I did. If you are looking for a place to train, do your research, ask around, and look at our website ( https://www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/ ) to see who we are and what we stand for. The Maggie Flanigan Studio is intimate and nurturing, a home for serious actors to engage in the glorious adventure of the creative process. I admire and am inspired by all of them. It's what gets me up every day and pushes me to be the best artist and teacher I can. I love acting. I love actors. And I love the studio Maggie and I have created.
Acting Programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio
Learn more about the acting classes and training programs that the studio provides by visiting the acting programs page on the studio website. Students who have questions about the enrollment process can call the studio directly at (917) 789-1599.
The preceding article The Glorious Adventure of the Creative Process was first published on Acting Classes Blog
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