When I was five, my mother scolded me for smoking. Okay, I wasn’t actually smoking but parading around in one of her bathrobes, my child-sized ankles wobbling in a pair of her high-heels, a Bic pen poised between my fingers. Like in the movies. Was my imitation so convincingly spot-on that the stand-in cigarette could so upset my mother? The desire began there, not to smoke, but to express myself creatively, to step inside the shoes (quite literally at times) and hearts and minds of other people. It fascinated me then, and continues to this day.
A former student of Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, Rachael Adler, actor, instructor and founder of Adler Studio in San Francisco, has an extensive history of acting and modeling. Before moving to California and founding her own acting studio, Adler experienced tid-bits of what her calling would be one day. While studying in New York, fellow students often sought her advice. Helping others, she found, offered truly rewarding benefits. Her coaching services, free of charge, were helping her peers land professional acting work.
But it was not until moving to California, immersing herself in meditation practices, that Rachael heard the voice within advising her, “Teach! Teach! Teach!”
And so she did. She paid heed to the voice and immediately secured a teaching job.
Today, Rachael Adler heads her own studio, which encompasses Studio Magnetic, Adler Studio, and Steinberg Studio. She also teaches for the American Conservatory Theatre as well as Bay Area colleges and high schools. Recently, she expanded her geographic realm to include Europe, where she traveled to teach Master Classes last year.
Adler took time to elaborate on what drew her to teaching, explaining the Meisner Technique, and what her workshops entail.
It is about getting “in touch with your instinct and emotional impulses,” Adler explains. “Getting rid of the conditioning.”
So what does an average class session look like?
Within the six-level system, which guides students to more truthful work, Adler’s classes involve improv, scene and monologue work. Students write and direct their own scenes as well. Classes focus on the individual as an instrument, striving toward realizing “how we do what we do,” Adler says.
Collaborating with faculty members, Adler’s Studio Magnetic focuses on breath and movement, cold reads and audition techniques, and truthful approaches to acting. For an introduction to the more extensive studio program, Adler offers afternoon workshops at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center.
Apart from the voice within, what are the prerequisites to teaching acting?
Adler says that in those early New York years, guiding friends for free, “I knew what I liked, and what I believed.” She would listen, observe, coax more meaningful performances. Her instruction was very black and white, very clear within her what felt true and what did not.
“My teaching became more nuanced,” she explains, as she grew more familiar with the acting vocabulary to express her ideas. Which leads to another of her classes, a Level I course designed for actors pursuing teaching careers. The class helps artists develop a strong vocabulary to articulate and hone their instincts as a teacher.
“I wanted to help create life-changing theater,” Adler says. The kind that “leaves you forever changed.” Rachael Adler and Studio Magnetic strive to create and promote meaningful and passionate actors.
For more information:
Studio Magnetic (San Francisco)
The Sanford Meisner Center (Los Angeles)
The Neighborhood Playhouse (New York)
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