Comments on: Lessons in Acting, Parenting and Life

By: Jacki Flynn

Jacki Flynn — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 16:50:10 +0000

Janet,

I like your posts and my sister sends them to me often as she is a parent of two young ones. Yet, I have to tell you that your representation of “repetition” is entirely inaccurate.

“… and ‘repetition exercises,’ which involve two actors repeating the same words to each other until they connect emotionally—’How are you? How are you? How are you?!'”

If you said, “how are you?” in a real Meisner class, you would be asked to sit down or kicked out. The whole point of the exercise is to quickly get to strong points of view (“I love you”, “You scare me”, “I need you”), so that when you need strong points of view in acting, you have those in your toolbox. In truth, the more detailed Meisner approach sounds a lot like what you said about:

“… spending hours daydreaming, imagining each detail of the situation from our character’s point of view as prescribed by the writer, until we began to believe our make-believe. Then, when it was time for us to act we would submit to the situation we had spent time imagining.”

I would suggest more research before putting down an entire acting technique, and repetition is a clear reference to Meisner. It’s disrespectful to a man who has brought a lot to the art and whose technique changed my life.

By: lena

lena — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 05:20:04 +0000

Hi Janet,
Thank you tremendously for this affirmative and inspiring article. I’m considering acting classes as a way of self expression and more importantly to rev my creative energy. I have 2 children and they have been in Waldorf schools since they were born. I truly believe in a childs imagination and love that acting is a way to keep my own imagination alive. This article helped me seal my decision to move forward with acting classes. Thank you!

By: Jaime

Jaime — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 00:17:10 +0000

I love the idea of not utilizing “props” like jumpers, walker and swings for infants but unfortunately when you have a child with an intense need for movement this seems unrealistic. my son, who has SPD, was unhappy unless he was moving. he would scream, almost as if in pain, unless he was being bounced or walked and therefore these props were very helpful to his development. in our home these props were not intended to “coax, entertain, or teach” our son but to soothe him. they were a lifesaver for us as i believe they are for many parents whose children are not neuro-typical.

By: Aunt Annie's Childcare

Aunt Annie's Childcare — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:22:25 +0000

Wonderful post, Janet. And what an insightful acting teacher.

I am eternally grateful to my parents for allowing me to develop an imagination and not filling my life with ‘amusements’. Yes, as a performer too I do still like applause- but I am also happy to imagine for the sake of imagining, and do for the sake of doing.

By: janet

janet — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 01:18:10 +0000

In reply to Nicole. Yes, you HAVE! :-)

By: Nicole

Nicole — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 01:06:30 +0000

Thanks for being so open about your own life experiences. Your words are both encouraging and inspiring, and it’s comforting to me that you can express things I feel and believe but struggle to say. This way of raising or working with children seems so obvious and right to me, but so foreign to others around me that I sometimes wonder if I’m from another planet. Maybe I am – but at least I have found people from the same planet at last!

By: janet

janet — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:48:04 +0000

In reply to Barbara. Thanks, Barbara, you make an excellent point about there being some acting involved in good parenting. I notice that most when I have to say, "No" with total conviction when it would be so much easier to say, "Yes"!

By: janet

janet — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:40:44 +0000

In reply to Roseann Murphy. Roseann, Thanks so much for the encouragement...and I agree about RIE transcending!

By: Roseann Murphy

Roseann Murphy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:41:34 +0000

Janet, The articles only get better. Each morning I wake up and take a quick look to see if you have posted anything new. If not, I read the older posts. This particular one is inspirational not only to parents, but to people of every walk of life and age.
I especially liked the statement:
“We grow in self-confidence when we stay in tune with our capabilities, when we overcome struggle and adversity to finally accomplish a goal, and when we survive failure. And, after all, aren’t self-reliance and self-confidence one and the same?”

It is so important to remember these words not only for my children, but for myself as well…I am going to pass this on to all my adult friends who have grown children…RIE truly transcends all age levels…..
I am so grateful for this early morning gift!

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:53:59 +0000

Acting is a very good skill for a parent to have or develop, Janet. (Your personal story is quite compelling!) What ‘acting’ for our children means to me is – subduing our own inner desires for the sake of the child. This is very much ‘maturation’. Thinking over reflexive behavior. Ah, well, you really said it better. Nice job.