“….this work is both the most difficult thing that I’ve ever done and also the most fun….”
In January, I started training as an actor at Terry Knickerbocker Studio in Brooklyn. I took a leap of faith, moved to New York, and enrolled in this full-time program. My teacher Terry Knickerbocker asked me if I wanted to come do this work with him, to learn about myself, and to transform. With COVID-19, the experience has been different than I expected, we transitioned the learning onto Zoom, but the work and my excitement for it are as alive as ever.
This work is teaching me what it means to “behave truthfully”, which is hard in a world that thrusts so many social norms and conditioning upon you. It becomes harder in a time like this when many of us disconnect from how we feel because feeling would be too painful. I came to this work because I wanted to explore what it meant to be more available to myself and to un-peel more layers of the onion that is me.
I’m also becoming a child again in rekindling my imagination, something that I wish I could have played with more as a child. The imaginary world is alive. It keeps me fresh, adaptable, and curious about this crazy thing called life.
The friends that I’ve caught up with during COVID have asked me how things are with classes online and how my transition has been. My answer is that this work is both the most difficult thing that I’ve ever done and also the most fun. It’s the most fun that I’ve ever had, and it’s really rich and deep. Terry has been teaching this work for 35 years. He’s committed, all-in, and he loves teaching Meisner. It’s his purpose.
If there’s any part of you that is interested and wants to know more, this is a great opportunity to dive in and learn more. It’s life-changing work (even if you don’t want to be a working actor) that you’ll never forget. It’s showing me how to be truthful and, most importantly of all, free.
Chris Y.
Conservatory Student