I'm interested in doing the 2 year professional program at a meisner studio. I've been at Ivana Chubbuck for the past year but I feel like I got ahead of myself, jumping straight into scene work before I established a solid foundation in technique. What are everyone's thought's on these two, or any others (elizabeth mestnik perhaps)? Also, what is the schedule like. Are they all 3hr, 2x/week? Thanks.

Did you not like Ivana? I liked playhouse west

I did like Ivana's. My teacher was michael monks and he's brilliant. The problem for me was, as a beginning actor, I never developed my listening skills before jumping into scenes. I think Ivana's is good for more developed actors but, for me, it was not the right place to start. She focuses largely on objective and actively affecting your partner. I would see people being so focused on their objective and on the results that they are constantly in their heads and not in the scene. Right now, I think I could benefit a lot from repetition drills in terms of developing listening, impulses, improvisation, and learning to be affected.

That being said, I'm trying to get some opinions from people about PW, Baron/Brown, Mestnik, or any other Meisner studio. My concern is that sometimes studio's gain a great reputation but then teacher who earned that reputation ages or gets lazy. Then, the studio becomes more of an institution that can rest on their laurels while hiring less competent or less passionate teachers. I want the place where teachers still have the passion for the craft with the experience to back it up. I'm definitely NOT accusing any of these places of that but I wanted to know if anyone else had such a positive experience with a particular studio or teacher that they wanted to make a recommendation.

Why did you like PW?

Joanne Baron/DW was my first acting school, i learned a lot, and basically learned how to be a sharp, disciplined, actor there. But the studio/teachers are very very strict.

I dont know how far along in your career you are, but if you are auditioning a lot etc. then you will probably have a difficult time there, last i remember they did not want you to be auditioning, they wanted you to finish the 2 yr course and learn how to act first, before going out there and trying to get some work.

Now thats where i came across some problems w/ the school, I was a beginning actor at the time and the youngest in the class, and i was almost the only person in the class w/ an agent and auditioning consistently, i always had problems at the studio- teachers being upset that i had auditions, and couldnt make a few rehearsals etc. they really take rehearsals seriously, you basically cant miss any!

yet i still managed to finish the program while auditioning, even though it was difficult.

But all of that being said, it is a good school, the teachers are very solid, and they stick close to Sandy Meisners original approach. I learned how to really act there, and became a very focused, disciplined actor.

I hear that Playhouse West is a little relaxed in their Meisner approach, and not as structured as most Meisner programs, but its the cheapest out of all the Meisner schools in LA so its probably the most popular.

You should also try The Willaim Alderson Studio, he worked with Sandy Meisner for like 25 yrs at the Neighborhood playhouse in NY. And he has his studio in Hollywood. Hes really good.

Hope this helps, Good luck with everything.