In 1931, a group of energetic young actors, including Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Lee Strasburg, and Harold Clurman, among others, joined together to establish the Group Theatre. Developed out of the Stanislavsky method of realistic acting, The Group was the first permanent theatre company to bring this style to America, transforming the face of American acting. Sandy Meisner appeared in twelve Group productions, including the first, The House of Connelly, and all of Clifford Odets' plays, including Waiting for Lefty, which Meisner co-directed with Odets in 1935. As The Group developed their system of training, Lee Strasburg became enamored with emotional memory – a theory that Constantine Stanislavsky eventually discounted because it required that actors bring personal and sometimes painful experiences into their craft. In 1933 Meisner became disenchanted with pure "Method" acting. Eventually Meisner realized that if actors were ever going to achieve the goal of "living truthfully under imaginary circumstances," he would need to develop another way, one based purely on the actor’s instincts and imaginations. The Neighborhood Playhouse provided him with a venue to develop that approach on his own. Over the next ten years, Sanford Meisner developed what is now known as “The Meisner Technique”. In 1935 he headed the Drama Department at The Neighborhood Playhouse, while continuing to act and direct plays produced by The Group Theatre until its demise in 1940. He also directed and appeared on Broadway, but his main devotion was always to teaching. Meisner left The Playhouse in 1958 to become director of the New Talent Division of Twentieth Century Fox. He moved to Los Angeles, where he was also able to cultivate his career as a film actor. But he missed the Neighborhood Playhouse and he missed teaching. He returned to the Neighborhood Playhouse as head of the Drama Department from 1964-1990. William Esper underwent teacher training with Sanford Meisner. He was the Associate Director of the Neighborhood Playhouse’s Acting Department and taught there for over 15 years. He has been the head of his own acting studio in New York for over 30 years and has become a leading exponent of the Meisner Technique. As head of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, he has designed a professional acting training curriculum that encompasses the 2-year Meisner Technique Program. Elizabeth Mestnik, after working in regional theatre for many years, went on to receive her M.F.A. from Rutgers University, under the tutelage of Mr. Esper, where she was invited to teach acting as well as voice and speech. She feels a great responsibility to pass on this technique in the pure form in which she received it. From Meisner, to Esper, to Mestnik, to you. It’s worked for sixty years – there must be something to this.