Training & Development:
Instructors

Gary O'Brien

Gary O'Brien originally hails from historic Boston, Massachusetts, where he mastered the classic Boston "pahk youah cah in Hahvahd yahd" accent! After graduating from Boston University, he headed to the Big Apple of NYC to pursue his acting career. During Gary's seven years in NYC, he studied the Meisner Technique (created by Sandy Meisner) at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater, HB Studios, and Stella Adler's Conservatory of Acting (with Stella Adler herself!). He also participated in many on-camera commercial and soap opera scene study classes at the Actors in Advertising Studio.

Gary performed the lead role in the world premiere of "Guilty Innocence," which premiered Off-Broadway at the Actor's Playhouse in the West Village. He also was a member of the Cubiculo Theater Company, creating and performing numerous roles in their Off-Off Broadway productions. While in NYC, Gary booked a recurring role on ABC's "One Life to Live,"  as well as a string of national commercials, including Dr. Pepper and Miller Lite. Gary also graced the cover of all national packaging for Dr. Scholl's athletic insole packages for three years.

After training and working as an actor in NYC, Gary headed west to Tinseltown to pursue the industry in Hollywood, where he has lived for over 14 years. Gary has trained with LA's Cameron Thor (who has coached Christina Applegate, David Arquette, Drew Carey, Cameron Diaz, Faye Dunaway, Chris Klein, Sylvester Stallone, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Tom Welling, and many more). Gary also participated in David Schmoeller's Directing Workshops, where he worked with established film directors such as Joel Shumacher and Griffin Dunn. In LA, Gary has booked a number of films, commercials, voiceovers, industrials, and print gigs, including a recurring role on "Days of Our Lives" and a co-starring role on UPN's "Star Trek Voyager."

As much as Gary enjoys acting, he possesses a passion, gift, and energy for teaching actors. Gary teaches film acting, character development, on-camera performance, the Meisner Technique, commercial acting, improvisation, and theater games to actors in Beverly Hills, CA.  He utilizes a variety of techniques that he learned himself over his 20+ years as a professional actor and teacher in New York and Los Angeles. Gary thrives on continually growing as an artist while sharing his experiences and expertise with fellow actors.

Gary guides actors to keep their craft honest, pure, and alive using their own unique energy and spirit. Acting is about conviction to one's personal truth... to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances. The actor's greatest tool is him/herself. In many ways, art imitates life. There is no character that cannot be brought to life by the actor! Through the act of compassion, life experience and a vivid imagination... actors can have the opportunity to play with creative freedom and have fun!

The objective of Gary's workshops is to lead actors to relax and focus in a way that will help them make strong choices and free up their imagination. The most successful auditions are a result of good preparation and effective choices. Each student will gain effective tools for auditioning and acting, and will also feel reinforced in remembering how much FUN acting is supposed to be!

Gary's goal for actors is to create a determination to audition effectively, to commit to strong choices in their work, and ultimately, to have the freedom to act with confidence, by truly trusting their gut instincts as artists. Acting, like life, is simple.  We, the actors, tend to get in our own way and complicate the process. Gary's workshops will focus on keeping the work simple, yet strong and focused... thus enabling the actor to focus on getting the best results with both the personal and professional levels of their craft. 

Gary teaches actors how to trust their gut instincts, and to use their creativity and imagination through the art of making strong choices in the audition process. He develops self-awareness, confidence and individuality in his students, while reinforcing their wonderfully unique talents. Gary will lead actors to stand out from the competition. Every actor has a unique quality, and it is up to each individual to bring such qualities to each character... for every audition. 

COMMERCIAL ACTING/AUDITIONING TECHNIQUES

During commercial sessions, students will be presented a variety of audition materials and exercises. Sessions will begin with fun warm-up exercises, theater games, and improvisations. Gary is a big fan of improvisation - particularly for commercial technique - because many commercial casting directors require actors to create on-the-spot scenarios at auditions. Gary will also facilitate the actor to slate effectively with big smiles, confident voice projection, and solid eye contact with the camera. Commercial copy will be provided for students, consisting of one-liners, two-person dialogues, and public service announcements (PSA's). On camera exercises will include slating, interviewing, food tasting reaction shots, and expressions. Students will review their work on tape.

MEISNER TECHNIQUE/SCENE STUDY

(certain text from Wikipedia)

Sanford Meisner developed the Meisner Technique after working with the Group Theater at New York City's Neighborhood Playhouse,< and continued its refinement for fifty years. Today the technique is part of a two-year program at the Neighborhood Playhouse and at the Sanford Meisner Center for the Arts in North Hollywood, California. The Meisner Technique is also practiced at Universities all over the United States. [The saying at the Neighborhood Playhouse is that it takes two years to learn the technique, five years to learn how to use it, and twenty years to become a master.]

Meisner training is an series of exercises that build upon each other. The basic exercises are critical for later ones. Meisner students work on this series of increasingly complex exercises designed to develop an ability first to improvise, then to access an emotional life, and finally to bring the spontaneity of improvisation and the richness of personal response to scripted text. By emphasizing "moment-to-moment" spontaneity throughout these exercises, actors learn to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances. The technique builds upon teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski (father of the Stanislavski System and grandfather of the elusive American "Method").

Character-based techniques are often used in Meisner training, as well as the study of style, physicality, period, motivation, "doing," and goals (what the actor ultimately wants from the other character(s), actions (the emotionally active verbs that determine how the character can obtain what they really want), and conflict (what is keeping the actor from getting what they really want). The questions: "What are you playing?", "What are you doing?", "What are your given circumstances?", "Who am I?",  "Where am I?", "To whom am I speaking?", "What is the relationship between the other actor and myself?", and "Why do I need to say this?" are frequently asked in class to remind actors to commit themselves to an objective rather than a script.

Silence, dialogue, and activity all require the actor to find a purpose for performing the action. By combining the two main tasks of focusing one's attention on one's partner and committing to an action, the technique aims to compel an actor into the moment (a common Meisner phrase), while simultaneously propelling him forward with concentrated purpose. The more an actor is able to take in his partner and his surroundings while performing his action, the more Meisner believed he is able to leave himself alone and "live truthfully."

The most fundamental exercise in Meisner training is called Repetition. Two actors face each other and "repeat" their observations about one another back and forth. An example of such an exchange — "You're smiling."  "I'm smiling."  "You're smiling!"  "Yes, I'm smiling." — illustrates this exercise. Actors are asked to observe and respond to their scene partner's behavior and subtext. If they can "pick up the impulse" — or work spontaneously from how their partner's behavior affects them — their own behavior will arise directly from the stimulus of the other actor. The principles of "listen and respond" and "stay in the moment" are fundamental to the work.

Repetition exercises teach effective listening and answering skills that are utilized, and is a great tool to use when warming up before a scene, as it completely forces the actor to work off of the other actor, while not being too self-involved.

For a Meisner actor, traditional line memorization that includes vocal inflections or gestures makes no sense. Doing so merely increases the chance the actor will miss a "real moment" in service of a rehearsed habit or line reading. Meisner actors learn lines dry, without inflection. When the line is finally ready to be delivered, its quality and inflection are derived from the given moment.

Reactive spontaneity can result in Meisner actors being excellent improvisers, enabling fresh performances. Meisner training includes extensive work on crafting or preparing a role. Characters "come to life" through informed, provocative choices. Actors prepare emotional responses by "personalizing" and "paraphrasing" material and by using their imagination and "daydreaming" around a scene's events.

Characteristics of Meisner-trained actors include a confidence with improvisation, an easy spontaneity, a regard for truthful behavior and a devotion to the "reality" of a moment. Benefits of training include strong improvisational skills, an ability to accurately read another's behavior, and the confidence to "live" onstage, moment-to-moment, with an outward focus.

Some prominent actors (including numerous Oscar winners and nominees) who trained at The Neighborhood Playhouse in the Meisner Technique include: Robert Duvall, Allison Janney, Jon Voight, Joan Allen, Christine Lahti, Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, David Mamet, Jeff Goldblum, Grace Kelly, Gregory Peck, Joanne Woodward, Dermot Mulroney, James Caan, Sydney Pollack, Kim Basinger, Tom Cruise, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.