BUILDING THE
PHYSICAL LIFE
OF THE CHARACTER
SO WHAT IS IT ABOUT PHYSICAL LIFE?
This intensive character workshop is the pinnacle of 40+ years of personal and professional examination of the Meisner Technique through the filter of experience and what satisfies character most.
Apply Meisner's process to Film & TV. Learn what two things are most important to satisfy character for auditions.
Experience training that bridges the gap between stage and screen through character.
No more theory. Characters are not theoretical, they are human, and the writers have given you everything you need to let go into remarkable and moving work.
Liberate yourself by unfolding the truth of the character physically not mentally, and do in it a such a way that you completely bypass effort & anxiety.
At the Beginning
Receive your materials, chosen scene, and partner. Learn how to draw clues to character from the text and immediately incorporate the two tools most useful for your auditions.
Midway Through
Eliminate the brain/body split most actors have been trained into by unfolding through a process that can only be experienced, not explained.
Wrapping This Process
After finding yourself in the character's physical body, branch out to explore the world surrounding your character through working the scene and learning the difference between physical life for stage and film.
"You have to go through this process in order to actually own it, otherwise it’s just a thought. We're building the spine of your character, not a judgement; working this way, you discover it’s just true, you don’t have to justify the work, it's simply physical, isn’t it?
This is strange to many actors because it requires almost no thought. It’s the ultimate "pinch ouch". You know how when you stub your toe you go, “Oh fuck?” — It’s that. It’s absolutely truthful."
TIM PHILLIPS
Originally Meisner-trained, Tim Phillips realized the need for a process that would bring the truthfulness of character and object work to the high-paced turnarounds the Film & TV industry demand. Sherlock Holmesing The Text was invented to meet that demand.
In returning to his first love in great plays, Phillips continues to raise the craft required for great work to an art, teaching highly committed, free and independent artists how to be prepared, willing, and down to play on their own terms - no matter the work. Each round offers new insight. Tim is constantly evolving the process - focusing on paring away extraneous language and stripping it to its essentials for direct access.
Building the Physical Life of the Character refers to Stanislavski's original brilliance (read: An Actor Prepares, Building a Character and Creating a Role), which Adler, Strasberg, Meisner, and Clurman all championed in different ways. Tim, trained by Robert Patterson in The Meisner Technique, continuously evolves the training further by grounding it in simple language that can't help but generate specificity of relationship through character to every person, place, thing, or event in the world of the play. This allows each artist to return to the root of "play" and creativity - supported by the text.
What disappears?
The hesitation and intellectualizing that prevent many good actors from being great.
Most common feedback?
"I forgot everything else."
"It feels like flying."
THE NEXT BUILDING THE PHYSICAL LIFE OF THE CHARACTER INTENSIVE IS CURRENTLY TBD, NO EARLIER THAN LATE FEBRUARY 2024.
BUILDING THE PHYSICAL LIFE
OF THE CHARACTER
ACTOR INTENSIVES
M-F, 6:30-10pm Eastern
10 Actors | $400
Should you reserve a limited spot and then cancel, TPS reserves the right to a $125 fee, and will refund the rest.
