Meisner, Adler, Chekhov, Viewpoints: 4 Acting Techniques Explained

Once actors get past their first course, the questions change. It is no longer “What do I do with my hands?” but “Which technique should I study? Meisner? Chekhov? What is the difference?” The names get thrown around in interviews and acting books as if everyone already knows what they mean.

I have been working as an actor in Thailand since 2008 and teaching at MasterClass Studio since 2018, and I don’t believe in one “correct” technique. Each of the great teachers found a different door into the same room: truthful behaviour under imaginary circumstances. Here is a plain-language guide to four of the most useful acting techniques, what each one trains, and who it tends to suit.

Meisner: get out of your head and into your partner

Sanford Meisner was one of the American actors of the Group Theatre in the 1930s and later taught for decades at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. He described acting as “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”, and his whole approach is built around one idea: the truth of a scene lives in the other person, not in you.

The best-known tool is the repetition exercise. Two actors face each other and repeat a simple observation (“You’re smiling.” “I’m smiling.”), letting the way they say it change with every impulse. It sounds silly. It is not. It trains you to stop planning and start reacting.

What it trains: listening, spontaneity, emotional honesty, working off your partner.
Good for: actors who over-prepare, “perform” their lines, or freeze in their heads. Very useful for screen work, where the camera picks up real reactions.

Adler: imagination, action and the world of the play

Stella Adler was also part of the Group Theatre. After studying with Stanislavski in Paris in the 1930s, she moved away from using the actor’s personal memories to create emotion. Instead, she taught actors to work from the imagination and the given circumstances of the script: where am I, when, who am I talking to, what has just happened?

Adler put great weight on script analysis, on understanding the social world of the character, and on clear, playable actions. You don’t try to feel sad. You fully imagine the circumstances and pursue what the character wants, and the feeling follows.

What it trains: imagination, script analysis, specific choices, a bigger range than your everyday self.
Good for: actors who keep playing themselves, or who want to tackle classical and period material, and anyone who prefers working from the text rather than from personal memories.

Chekhov: the body and the imagination as one

Michael Chekhov, the nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov, was one of Stanislavski’s most gifted students at the Moscow Art Theatre. His technique is physical and highly imaginative. Instead of digging into your own past, you use the body and the imagination to awaken feeling.

His best-known tool is the psychological gesture: one strong, full-body movement that captures what a character wants, for example reaching, pushing or pulling. You rehearse the gesture fully, then hide it, and its energy stays in your voice and body while you play the scene. Other tools include the imaginary body, centres, atmospheres and qualities of movement such as moulding, floating, flying and radiating.

What it trains: physical expressiveness, transformation, energy, a playful relationship with character.
Good for: actors who feel stuck or “too small”, who want bold characters, or who prefer a safer path to strong emotion than personal memory work.

Viewpoints: time, space and the ensemble

Viewpoints began with the choreographer Mary Overlie, who developed the Six Viewpoints. Directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau later adapted it for actors. It is less a method for building a character and more a vocabulary for awareness on stage.

The Viewpoints of time include tempo, duration, kinesthetic response and repetition. The Viewpoints of space include shape, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship and topography. In practice, a group improvises in the room, moving and reacting to each other with full attention, without words or a story to start with.

What it trains: presence, physical awareness, ensemble connection, staging instinct.
Good for: stage actors, devised theatre, anyone who feels disconnected from their body, and groups who want to work as a real ensemble.

So which acting technique should you choose?

You don’t have to choose just one. Most working actors I know have a personal toolbox: a bit of Meisner for listening, Adler for script work, Chekhov when a character needs a body, Viewpoints to wake up in the space.

• Stuck in your head? Start with Meisner.
• Always playing yourself? Explore Adler and Chekhov.
• Stiff on stage? Try Viewpoints.
• Completely new? Learn the foundations first: listening, objectives, imagination and partner work. The techniques make much more sense once you have them.

Why it matters

Techniques are not religions. They are tools for the moment when talent alone is not enough: a scene that won’t come alive, a character that feels far away, a nervous audition. The more doors into the room you know, the less often you will stand outside it.