Category: Technique

Drop in Sunday is tonight!

8/17/2014

Its the morning and I'm raring to go! It is going to be a beautiful day:)

If you have never experienced a Meisner Technique class before or if you have but you want more, here is your chance!

Every Sunday evening, 5-8 pm I offer a Sunday drop in class. Its a 3 hour class that will get you out of your head as you actively focus on something outside of yourself.

RSVP to reserve a spot in class HERE

Just one class can make a difference in your acting and improve your listening skills. So come in for a great workout! If you have any questions, please email or call me directly
416.312.9188 info@robynkaystudio.com

Starts at 5 pm and goes until 8. Every Sunday evening. We work on Sanford Meisner's repetition exercise to improve listening and get you working moment to moment. The most exciting acting class you will ever take.
$20 includes tea and biscuits RSVP

Regular class is still only $250 tax included till September 1. Register now!!! HERE

Beginner Meisner Technique for adults starts September 3rd
$149 plus HST

Want to come by and audit a class? RIGHT THIS WAY
$20 Audit

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Get Out of Your Head. For Good.

7/21/2014

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Everyone knows how to be a good actor right? Its easy. Just get out of your head. Go ahead, do it. I'll wait....Are you out of your head? Probably not. Because as simple as the concept is, actually doing it can be one of the most difficult things for humans to do, and impossible the more you TRY to do it. You are your thoughts, your behaviors reflect where your focus is. So the more you focus on being out of your head, the deeper you bury yourself in the thought of it, the more trapped you become in your thoughts. That is death for an actor. So hear are some ways to get out of your head:

1. Dance I said, dance.
Any kind of movement will do really but dancing just may be the most fun. Too many actors come in to my studio completely stiff from the neck down. Too many people end up glued to their chairs, keeping their instincts quiet. Moving around immediately ignites your instincts and allows you to feel. Emotions are awakened through heavy workouts, long walks and dancing

2. Children and animals
They say never work with children or animals. They steal the show. Why? Because they are always instinctual. Never in their head or confined to societal norms. They have no filter. They are compelling to watch. So play with a kid, or pet some animals. Roll around on the floor with a dog for ten minutes or play superheroes with some kids. That sense of play that we all had as children is instinctual and vital for your acting.

3. Meisner Technique acting classes
In order to get out of your head you must focus 100 percent on something outside of yourself. You must get your attention off yourself completely and leave yourself alone. Great acting can only happen when you completely allow everything going on in you to go on, never being aware of how you look, or how cool you are or how relaxed your forehead is. This is not easy.

Getting your attention off yourself is a muscle. A muscle that must be worked like your bicep or your gastrocnemius. You must actively train yourself to focus fully on something else. The quickest and most effective way to accomplish this is through Meisner Technique acting classes. Think of class as a gym for your instincts, working moment to moment, consistently working the muscle of getting your attention off yourself. Think about it. You would not expect your tushy to tighten up by sitting on the couch an thinking about it. Well neither will the muscle of getting your attention off yourself. Building a strong foundation in a technique you can rely on is the way to keep you out of your head and keep your focus where it needs to be, when there a million other places for your focus to go.

Interested in trying out the technique? Summer promotion is on now: $250 tax included for a 4 week session. There is also a beginner class starting August 4th for $149. There really has never been a better time to learn a technique that can take you to the next level of your acting, no matter where you start from. Here's people are saying:

For more information or to book a free consultation with Robyn Kay please call us at 416.312.9188 or info@robynkaystudio.com

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5 Ways to Ensure Success

7/20/2014

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Alright, I will give you the secret to success right now, right here. The secret is that there is no secret. There is no one right way and all ways take hard work, discipline, focus and flexibility. There is no such thing as a get rich quick and there is no overnight success. The long way is the short way. This is all good news. This is why they say "if at first you don't succeed, try try again". You must become a collector of "No" and fail more than you succeed. For in the journey towards success, is not only a means to an end, but an end in itself. If that's not meta, I don't know what is. Here are 5 things to consider:

1. Do it when you don't feel like it.
If you keep waiting for it to feel right before you start, you will die waiting. Yes, die. No matter what you are trying to achieve, you must just start. It will feel awful. You might complain like a teenager having to hang out with her parents. In public. The more you do this the more you will feel like doing it. Its true. We are creatures of habit, so the more your efforts become habit, the more you will crave doing it. Go to the gym at 6 am for 30 days and I swear you'll start looking down at people who sleep in.

2. Surround yourself with people more successful than you.
Some people love hanging out with unattractive people. It makes them feel pretty. The problem is the more they hang out with the unattractive, the more they pick up their habits, the more they start to blend right in with them. You cannot soar like an eagle whilst you are surrounded by turkeys. All around you there are people who are achieving more, booking more jobs, getting in better shape. Be around them. Listen to what they say. Sitting at the pub listening to your unemployed friend's theory on how the credit card companies are out to control him will not make you richer. If you can't find any real live people, there are many teachers and mentors who have written books and talk about success all the time. Pop some popcorn and have a drink with one of these videos.

3. Constant training
Get to class. I cant stress this enough. Actors need to be in class all the time. You need to be growing, you need to be pushed by a coach who will not just tell you how great you are. You must learn to express and allow your emotions truthfully and fully. In any industry you are in, you must be learning new things on a daily basis. The world is changing at an alarming rate. What worked 5 years ago will not work today. If you don't think that is so, you must be still writing in Grafitti on your palm pilot and calling people you met off Myspace on your shiny new Razr. If you cannot find the right coach there are resources online www.tedtalks.com.

4. Be uncomfortable
Any or all of the things on this list will make you feel uncomfortable if you do them right. You must push out of your comfort zone to start achieving things that you never have before. Actors must push to sit in the uncomfortable space where they are being emotionally affected by another human being. At the gym you must lift weights that feel uncomfortable in order to build muscle. In your daily life you must constantly take risks to stay young and feel alive. Talk to a stranger, call in to a radio station, go to an open mic and sing something acapella. Risk looking bad. The rewards will blow your mind.

5. Don't make it personal
Life is about something bigger than you. People will tell you all sorts of things to bring you down or lift you up, depending on what they need from you. Whatever they say says more about them than you! That is very important to know if you wish to be successful. Whether feedback is positive or negative, take what you are getting without making it mean anything about you. Consider criticism and think it through to see if it may help your work. Accept compliments but go home and work harder. Your pursuits are a constant process and nobody is responsible for your success but you.

Robyn Kay is an acting coach and founder of the Robyn Kay Studio in downtown Toronto. Meisner Technique classes run continuously with drop ins every Sunday night. For more info please contact Robyn Kay at
416-312-9188 or info@robynkaystudio.com

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Go naked. For the sake of greatness.

7/13/2014

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It has often been said that all the greatest things in life are happening right outside your comfort zone. In order to grow you must be willing to feel uncomfortable. You must do things you are afraid of because the greatest of risks bring the greatest of rewards. So I want you to go naked. Drop pretense. Drop social conventions, expectations and working for a result. This ocean of risktaking can be scary as it is more vast than the human eye can see. So why not take some babysteps? Here are a few things you can start doing today to get you in the habit of running towards greatness in the uncomfortable.

1. Walk around naked
Ok, please don't just do this anywhere- but in those places where it may be appropriate to let it all hang out, why not give it a go? A spa, a sauna, a nudist colony. We spend way too much time being comfortable in our clothes. Even spending a Sunday morning walking around the house naked can take you out of your comfort zone and change your experience of life.

2. Leave the house without your phone

Our phones have become, like clothing, an extension of ourselves. Any slight sense of discomfort, we reach for our phones. Alone in a public place? Well lonely no more when we can stay connected 24 hrs a day. You can continue your game of Candy Crush or post an extremely happy looking selfie to Facebook, lest anyone think for a second that you were either unpopular or not "living the dream" every waking moment. Well we see through it. This newfound smartphone connected world leaves us more disconnected and dying on the inside than ever before. So try leaving the house without it. See if you can be with yourself, make eye contact with actual other people, even meet someone in a bar without using tinder. Oooh.

3. Go to acting class
Whether you are an actor or not, acting class will take you out of your comfort zone- if it is a good class. The great Rosalind Russell said “Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly.” A good acting class will teach you to focus on something outside of yourself so that you are free to express your truth. The deepest truth of ourselves, through imaginary circumstances. Dropping the pretenses of the social world and just being seen for who we truly are takes naked to a whole new level. Wanna experience it? Drop in class is every Sunday 5-8 pm- Click here to reserve your spot!

Robyn Kay is an Acting Coach and founder of the Robyn Kay Studio. For more info on classes and private coaching reach her at 416-312-9188 or info@robynkaystudio.com

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You could fall in love tonight. And other reasons to come to drop in #acting class...

7/6/2014

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Ok so Super Sunday evening is upon us yet again and I am looking forward to seeing you. So what exactly happens at a Meisner Technique drop in class? Drop in class is much like my regular weekly adult classes. We work on the fundamental repetition exercise for a solid 3 hours and all levels of experience are welcome. It is great for beginners and non actors and great for actors experienced in all techniques. Why should you even come? Here are just 3 of my top reasons:

1. You could fall in love. In fact, if you're doing it right, you will. It is quite a common occurrence to see 2 actors go through an entire relationships worth of emotions in a matter of 20 minutes or less. This is part of the fun of the Meisner technique! You get to act on your emotions without thinking rationally about the future. You truly live every moment having no regrets about the past or worries about the future. Its like eating pasta before we realized carbs were evil. So come in and fall in love, kiss someone, scream at them till you're sad, cry it out and if after all of that he/she is still with you, it could be meant to be. Then you get to do it with someone else.

2. You need to be expressing creatively every day. Actors need to constantly be acting. You cannot walk in a room and dazzle a casting director with your dangerous compelling performance if you have not acted in front of other people for 2 weeks. So if you haven't done any acting today, here is an opportunity to work your muscle. You can't expect to stay strong without going to the gym, acting class is there for you to get a workout.

3. Begin to see greatness in other people. The basis of the Meisner Technique is listening- actively listening to the person across from you. No cell phone to look at, no text message to decipher, no photo to "like". You simple listen and react to another living breathing human being. The more you do that, the more connected you become to humanity and the more fulfilled you will feel inside of yourself. If you still need to find yourself, it just may happen while your attention is focused on another person.

So I hope to see you in class tonight. 5-8 pm $20 480 Adelaide West, Toronto. To RSVP CLICK HERE
For more info on classes CLICK HERE
To contact Robyn Kay email info@robynkaystudio.com or call 416-312-9188

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How To Stay Young. Forever.

6/24/2014

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No matter how old or experienced you are, there are still things you have yet to learn. True? Truer than true- it is actually the purpose of life.
If by chance you are thinking, nah, I know most things by now, think back to 10 years ago and remember what an idiot you were. Do it. Now. How little you knew! Now think ahead to 10 years from now. My hope for you is that in 10 years you look back on this day and say, "woah, I was such an idiot back then, how little I knew!"
The only constant thing in this world is change. The only thing we know for sure is that tomorrow, we will be older, the clouds will move across the sky, the ocean will change the shoreline. We have no idea what will come for sure tomorrow, we just know that it will be different from today. So what you already know will only help you to a certain extent. You must continue to grow and learn and challenge yourself. Congratulations on that corporate job you got right out of university- but what skills have you developed since then? You were great at volleyball in high school- have you played sports since then? You learned how to act, took a reputable theater program, but have you studied new techniques lately? Constant learning is what will keep you young.
That is the beauty and wonder of life.
Every single day, we get to experience a rebirth. We can be children every single day as long as we stop and remind ourselves that we don't know shit. So its okay to feel uncomfortable when learning something new- in fact it is desirable to feel uncomfortable- that is how you know you are growing. Its okay to take the risk and look bad because the truth is that pretending to already know enough makes you look worse. The minute you stop growing is the minute you start dying.

Beginner Meisner Technique class starting next Monday. Is it time to learn a new technique that will really challenge everything you thought you knew? Actors and non actors are welcome.

For more info on classes contact Robyn Kay 416.312.9188 or info@robynkaystudio.com
Come in for an audit, a chat or a Sunday drop in CLASSES

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Drop in Sunday is tonight!

Get Out of Your Head. For Good.

5 Ways to Ensure Success

Go naked. For the sake of greatness.

You could fall in love tonight. And other reasons to come to drop in #acting class...

How To Stay Young. Forever.

Robyn Kay

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