“Being present isn’t about performing — it’s about living truthfully.”
Presence Is the Heartbeat of Acting
Solid acting is present acting.
But how does one achieve being present from the start to the finish of every scene?
The most captivating performances don’t come from perfectly memorized lines or rehearsed emotions.
They come from actors who are fully present — alive in the moment, listening, feeling, and responding truthfully.
Whether you’re on stage, in front of the camera, or exploring the craft in class, presence is what makes your work truly magnetic.
Here’s how to cultivate it.
Presence Begins with Listening
To be present, your attention must live outside of yourself — on your scene partner, your objective, and the world of the scene.
In our Meisner and Scene Technique classes, we train this muscle through repetition, sensory awareness, and active listening.
When you stop worrying about how you look or sound, you start hearing what’s truly being said.
The goal isn’t to perform perfectly — it’s to live truthfully.
If something unexpected happens, embrace it. Great actors aren’t thrown off by surprises; they use them.
When you stop performing and start responding, the scene becomes electric.
Presence and Emotions
Emotions can be one of the most overwhelming aspects of pursuing acting. Though the drive to be ‘great’ can be strong, the average actor finds themselves incredibly intimidated, and overwhelmed, by producing authentic emotion in a scene. Understandably so. When you don’t have dependable tools in your tool belt to prime the emotional pump, so to speak, you may find yourself guessing at how to achieve the goal at hand. Newer actors will often times lean on hard things they’ve been through to illicit heavier emotions, but there are healthier ways to access these emotions. If the goal is to be completely emotionally available, the pursuit must be to be fully present. To achieve this one must set out to be supported by everything that would free them up to be fully present. But what do you need to be fully present?
Preparation.
LA/NY trained instructor, Shelby Busey Jennings, recommends starting the preparation process prior to the task of setting out to memorize the lines. Jennings explains, ‘The emotions aren’t in the lines, but within the character. And they find their way out when pushed out by truth.” She goes on to express that when actors exclusively attempt to utilize past experiences that seem to be ‘in the vain’ of what is happening with the character, there is often a complete disconnect between the character on the page and the emotions portrayed by the actor as they tap into their own past alone.
“They are in conflict”, she says. Instead, Jennings recommends finding the truth completely with the character.
but emotions can be easily accessed through proper preparation and being incredibly present in a scene. We teach students these tools via the Meisner Technique. The goal with Meisner is to create an environment where actors experience emotions as a byproduct of the preparation and scene circumstances.