Meisner Repetition

Here’s a fun theory about Meisner repetition based on fact.

The Fact:

• If you repeat a piece of information at least three times it generally starts to be accepted by your brain as truth.
• (If you repeat a piece of information at least three times it generally starts to be accepted by your brain as truth.)
• (If you repeat a piece of information at least three times it generally starts to be accepted by your brain as truth.)

The Theory:

The repetition exercise primes you to start hearing truths and react to them on stage. The unconscious mind doesn’t care where the information is coming from. It notices that the processing areas for hearing are being activated repeatedly with the same neurons and it starts to assume that the input causing these reactions is important. When you think about information that is “true” you will most often think of it as being more important that information that is “false.”

Your conscious mind kicks in when your brain starts laying down patterns and committing the repetitive information to memory. Your brain works like a muscle, when an area is stimulated often enough the brain fortifies that area to make the information flow more efficiently. When you work out consistently your body restructures the muscle groups being used to bring more blood flow and oxygen to those areas.

Basically, the repetition exercise hammers information into you. Once the information is accepted as “true” the mind starts processing what it means in context with all other “truths.” This is where the exercise starts to get colorful and the participants notice themselves changing the tone of voice or rate of speech.

Just because it may be a “trick” for you mind doesn’t diminish the exercise’s usefulness. The more “true” you think something is as an actor, the more you will react and express. This allows the audience to gain more from your performance. The exercise also conditions you to trust your partner. The repetition also works for the source of the information. If someone continues to provide you with information that you deem “true” then you will start to think of them as being “trustworthy.” Being able to automatically trust whatever you partner says on stage allows for quicker and deeper “in the moment” reactions to what is happening.

If you aren’t a Meisner fan don’t worry, Stanislavsky’s stuff works too just from a different angle.

Remember, its just a theory. Until you hear it a few more times…