The Maggie Flanigan Meisner Intensive trains professional actors utilizing the teaching and work of Sanford Meisner.

Q: Tashima, what did you think training as a celebrity before you began the six-week Meisner intensive?
A: Well, to be very honest, I’m just going to discuss my introduction to the studio and what my expectation was in coming to researching here for the summer. I looked at it as it would be another class I would take. That is kind of the way I seemed coming to, studying in the studio, that is the way I looked in my expertise. I was like,”I’ll do this. I will study a bit, I will add it to my resume and flourish, I’ll be useful.”
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Q: What do you think celebrity training is now that you’re on your last week of the six-week program?
A: It’s been, for me, incredibly life-changing. I’ve seen it help me grow up to my artistry, and that I feel like coming to it, I had the esteem for acting as an art. I am an artist. I say,”I’m not only an actor, I’m an artist.” I’ve had a deep esteem for artistry, but I really don’t think I saw just how deeply flawed I was in my view of my artwork and how I set constraints on what I did with my art.
I really feel like being at the class using Charlie has been mind-blowing. It has impacted my personal life. If something is going on this I would like to do, I’m thinking, What’s more important, exactly what this person is doing or what you need and want? It has helped me to become clear about what I wanted in my entire life, and there is no turning back, I feel like today. It’s no way for me to go back to whatever I was doing before as a celebrity. It has completely altered how I view training.
Q: Was there something special that happened over the course of the six weeks that changed your perspective on the training?
There were so many moments, not just for myself, but seeing other people work, but I will say there was one moment in which I was doing an activity, and that I used a very personal experience. I wept in a way that I’ve never cried in front of anybody. No one in my life, my family, friends that I’m close to that I know has ever seen that part of me. It was something I have done privately by myself, but never in front of people.
For me, that atmosphere is very addicting. It also it showed me that’s what I need to share more as a celebrity. I want to expose more of my personal moments. When I am by myself, once I’m my ideas, when I’m at the car, whatever that is, I wish to showcase that. I feel like this opened my eyes to what I’ve been a wall that has been around for myself. It has been like, I can be strong, and I will do this small part of myself but this personal moment, feelings, and feelings that I talk about, I don’t want to share this.” I feel like this was the moment where it opened it up for me, and I was like, Hey, just do whatever you feel what is real.

Q: What did you find out over the course of the six months which has been a surprise or that changed you?
A: That I had training. I came into it thinking,”Well, I am going to perform this class and then I’m just going to place it on my resume. I do not even have to move ahead in anyway.” Just how much I had to unlearn and grow as a performer and the way I had emotional blocks in places I was not even aware of. I feel like that was a big thing for me, but also to be of myself and be real and authentic.
A: I will say that I did take things away which were great from other conditions or adventures that I had since it can to where I am, but I feel before, I was enjoying at acting. I wasn’t tried and right coming out of my heart and my spirit more. I really feel like being studying at Maggie and researching Charlie has taught me how to bring my soul ahead, and it is not a thing that I am playing at but being real and being authentic. I feel like that’s the gap, not beingalso, about Charlie, is Charlie is not trying to sugarcoat anything. He is keeping it all the way real.
I even tell people that the thing he’s noticed about me and about matters that I will do and the way that it materializes in class, I am not even aware. He has been so on point and true in a way that no additional acting coach has performed with me before. I feel like this is where it is all about the artistry, it’s about the craft. It’s about respecting it, and it is not about, Let us see what jobs you’re likely to publication. No, it’s like, No. Where’s your heart? Where is your spirit? Where is the atmosphere?”
Q: How would you describe Charlie as a teacher?
A: Well, he’s rough. There were moments in the beginning, as I had been getting to know him, that he does not even know this, but I had been p***** off at him. I could think in my head like, I will walk out” I’m telling myself calming myself down and turning, I’m going to walk out,” but I understood I want his teaching style. It is not likely to be all about making you feel good, it is likely to be on the fact, and sometimes, the truth hurts. It doesn’t always feel good. I feel like Charlie has a respect for the craft, respect for the art, and he is not about making people feel great. I have seen myself and people cry because of that.
Q: What would you say to someone who had been considering signing up for the Meisner intensive next summer, but is stating, I really don’t require the training. So is a famed actor and they didn’t do some training.” Or, I’m 24, I am too old, or I don’t have enough time. What could you say to this person?
A: We all must grow. As anybody has learned it had been that there was so much in me that needed to emerge. I hadn’t even at all touched my maximum potential. I do not even feel like this I have reached that in six weeks. It’s been like grazing the surface of what I am capable of doing. It’s well worth the investment; it’s well worth the time. Who cares what anyone else is doing? What do you see yourself needing to do? What do you know which you have to bring forth? What about yourself needs to shape and change?
If someone’s even inquiring about it, then there’s a part of you that understands you need it. Do not sell yourself think, No, I am good because I have done that before.” You need to grow” If you want to be great at anything, then it requires training.
Q: There are a lot of intensives all over the country and lots of Meisner intensives in New York, so why would you tell someone that Maggie Flanigan Studio is the best location for them to train?
A: Before arriving here, I looked at some other areas. From what I have seen, in the folks that have studied this was a tried and true like, This is where you need to be.” I came to a motion performance, it was their final movement functionality, and that I was moved to tears. Not even just since, Oh my gosh, these are great looking people and they’re great,” but every single person’s soul was infused in what they were doing.
I feel like studying in Maggie has shown me exactly what everyone is. It sets a standard for every person in the class, professionally as far as artistically. I simply have not experienced that anyplace else. I’m tough– What is it, such as a hard egg to crack? It is the truth for me, and it’s opened me up in so many other ways. I feel like there is no other place for me .

Acting Programs and the Meisner Intensive at Maggie Flanigan Studio
To find out more about the acting programs in the Maggie Flanigan Studio, including the Meisner Intensive, visit the acting programs and enrollment pages on the studio website. Call (917) 789-1599.
This interview summary first appeared in the Maggie Flanigan Studio blog:
http://www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/acting-programs/meiser-intensive-tashima-evans/