The story of Jim Jarrett and Sanford Meisner
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At the age of twenty-five, Jim Jarrett was stumbling through his life wondering what he was supposed to do with his. Even though he had a very nice life “on paper”, he was miserable inside. Miserable. “Find your passion” … “Live your dreams”… “Blah, blah blah” … lovely advice when you know what your dream is but when you have absolutely no clue, it's a bit depressing.
Fiiiiiiinally Jarrett got down on his knees and prayed. Hard … “Look, I have tried driving this bus called, “my life” for twenty-five years and because I have been blessed with many blessings, I can drive it pretty far, pretty straight.
But eventually, I crash it. Every time.
And I have finally figured out why … I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing with what I’ve been blessed with and as long as that continues, my life will always be “mediocre” … that’s what I think ... and I’m sick of it. Really, really sick of it. I have become a mediocre person with a mediocre life and I can’t believe this is how me, or anyone is supposed to turn out. So, I surrender. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do but I surrender. I’m yours … amen … please.”
Now most of us, at some point in our lives, have prayed a similar prayer. What made this “bottom” so different from all of the “previous bottoms” in Jarrett’s life was this time he stayed on his knees long enough to have his prayer answered because two weeks later he went to movie in San Francisco that would change his life forever.
The film was The Deer Hunter and it absolutely blew Jarrett away. In fact, as the next day passed, the magnitude – the impact – kept growing. So he went again two nights later.
Same result. Blooowwwwn away. Except this time it wasn’t the film causing such a disturbance inside of Jarrett, it’s what the film made him realize – if a movie is really good it can have a profound impact on someone’s life and if it’s great, it can actually change one because Jim Jarrett’s life was changed forever and he knew it.
When he got back to his apartment that evening, he called his girlfriend.
“How was the movie?”
“I’m gonna be an actor.”
“……….. whaaaaaaat?”
“I’m gonna make movies and I’m gonna act and you want to know the really scary part – I’m sure of it.”
They split up two weeks later.
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The biggest break of Jim Jarrett’s career happened three weeks into it. In March of 1987, he moved from Sausalito, California to New York City to begin his dream of someday becoming an actor. Three weeks later he was told about a teacher named Sanford Meisner. Jarrett knew nothing about him so he went to the library to do some research.
The first article he came upon was from the front page of the New York Times one week earlier … “Sanford Meisner, who for over a half century has taught acting at the celebrated Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York City, was honored at the White House over the weekend for his contributions to the world of acting, theater and the arts … this partial list of his students serves as testimony to his influence and teaching brilliance: Gregory Peck, Geraldine Page, Grace Kelly, Joanne Woodward, Robert Duvall, Steve McQueen, Diane Keaton, John Cassavettes, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Peter Falk, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jeff Goldbloom, Mary Steenburgen, Susan Sarandon, Sydney Pollack, David Mamet, Mark Rydell - the list literally goes on … Robert Duvall had this to say about his former teacher - "I owe everything I am, everything that I’ve achieved as an actor to Sanford Meisner. There isn’t a day that passes where I don’t think of Sandy and what he’s meant to my career ... he changed my life forever."
To say the least Jarrett ran home, called information, then dialed the number.
“Neighborhood Playhouse.”
“Hi, I’d like to speak with Sanford Meisner.”
“Regarding?”
“I’d like to study with him.”
“Send a picture, resume and a letter explaining why you want to study with Mr. Meisner.”
“I just started three weeks ago. I don’t have a resume. I don’t even have a picture.”
“Well then, write the letter.”
Click.
Jarrett did and two weeks later he came home to the following phone message: “Mr. Meisner will meet you tomorrow at 3:00 pm at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater. Don’t be late.”
Click.
Jarrett arrived two hours early.
At 3:00 pm sharp, he was escorted into Sanford Meisner’s office for what would be the shortest interview ever. As soon as he sat down, Sandy asked, "Why do you want to be an actor?"As Jarrett attempted to speak, a flood of emotion overtook him, forcing him to stop. When he did, Sandy turned to his assistant and softly said:
"Put him in the class."
"Sandy, that's impossible. We have a three-year waiting list and--”
"Put him in the class!" he screamed!
In that moment began Jim Jarrett’s relationship with Sanford Meisner, and his career as an actor as well.
One month later, Jarrett was on the island of Bequia, Sandy’s summer retreat. It was on this small island in the Caribbean where Sandy brought twenty actors per month, over a three-month period, to study with him. From this group of sixty actors, twenty were selected to continue on in Sandy’s two-year professional class.
Jarrett was one of those twenty students.
On November 15, 1987, the first class after Bequia began, and with it, the most remarkable two years of Jarrett’s life. He knew immediately something extraordinary was happening because for the first time in his educational career he was actually taking notes - writing down, without exaggeration, every word out of the legendary teachers mouth.
Several months later Sandy approached Jarrett after class and said - “You’re lucky to get me at the end of my life, do you know why? Because after a half century of teaching I finally figured most of this stuff out and I speak so poorly you can write it all down. Why are you writing it all down? Do you know?” Jarrett wanted to say, ”Yeah, because everything you’re saying is blowing me away.” Instead, he simply replied, “No, sir.”
A long pause then Sandy turned and walked away.
Sanford Meisner was not the first, great teacher in Jarrett’s life. There had been a few others -- a high school coach, his history teacher freshman year -- but for Jarrett, Sanford Meisner was much more than a great teacher. He had found the teacher for his dream and for the next two years Sanford Meisner put the foundation to Jim Jarrett’s dream in to place.
Of course, Sanford Meisner was not for every one. Jarrett’s class started with twenty and finished with thirteen. Four quit, three were asked to leave -- all for the same reason. If you didn’t want the information as much as Sandy respected it, then you were going to have a very, tough time.
The following exchange is from notes taken by Jarrett after very poor work by a student. Sandy sat silent for several minutes, then finally asked, “How old are you?”
“… Twenty-Five.”
“Can’t you be thirty-five instead?”
“… No.”
“Why not? With everything else, you always want to take the shortcut.”
At least two minutes past before Sandy spoke again. Finally, he said, “You’re one of those Hollywood artichokes, I’ve known that all along about you. Do you what that means? It means you think I can plant you on Tuesday for the cocktail party on Friday and you’ll be delicious. You want this - you’re not the only one in here, there are several others - you want this at too cheap a price. You tell me you want the house. You talk about how beautiful your house is going to be but you’re not willing to put the foundation into place. You remind me of those people who practice the piano by going for long walks. Now God knows, today’s actors are the laziest segment of the artistic profession but you; you are the laziest. So for your partner’s sake, you two will no longer be partners. But then your laziness causes me yet another problem, who do I stick you with? Who do I punish you with? And my answer is no one else. There’s no one else in here who cares less than you so please, leave … now.”
And he did … and for those who remained, no matter what became of their dream of acting, their lives would never be the same because of their experience with Sanford Meisner.
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On the last day of class Sandy called each student over, one by one, to say his good-byes. By the time Jarrett was waved over, he was a mess. Sandy asked: “Why are you so upset? We’re not finished with each other. Next you’ll study with me so when you’re ready to teach, you’ll know what the hell you’re doing.”
Stunned, Jarrett said, “Sandy, I don’t want to be a teacher. I just want to be an actor.”
“You’ll have to teach. You’ll have no choice. Do you know why?”
“No, sir.”
“You’ll see.”
Jarrett never hesitated and in so doing, he joined a very select, group; he became one of only a handful of people in the world personally selected then trained and groomed by Sanford Meisner to teach The Meisner Technique.
Now in Hollywood and teaching, he also began working his way up what Sandy referred to as, "The Hollywood Food Chain" – first student films, then national commercials and eventually guest spots on network series including "Colombo," and "China Beach.” By the end of his third year, Jarrett was co-starring in Movie-of-the-Weeks as well as independent and feature films. But the larger principles, purposes and potential impact of the art and craft of acting which Sandy had instilled ran too deep to ignore. And so, in 1993, Jarrett formed his own production company to concentrate on work he believed could more strongly "stand for something,"
Ironically, it’s while living in Hawaii that the second biggest break of his career would occur. He went to the post office one day and found a play entitled, Vincent, the one-man show about Vincent Van Gogh, authored by Leonard Nimoy. A former student sent it to him with the following written on the cover, “This play was written for you.”
Jarrett went back to his studio and read it. An hour later, he contacted Mr. Nimoy’s agent and secured the rights to produce the show himself and then spent the next two-and-a-half years simply working on what he knew for him was, “the role of a lifetime”.
Vincent opened on the island of Hawaii in September of 1996. Although the middle of Pacific Ocean is not much of a theater town, the shows were an enormous success. From this exposure, Jarrett was invited by Bruce Willis and Demi Moore to perform Vincent at their theater in Sun Valley, Idaho. These shows had people literally sitting in the isles. And now over a decade later, Vincent has been one of the most successful touring productions in the world - playing to over a quarter million people at premiere venues through the globe.
In 2000, Jarrett’s production of Vincent was presented by The Philadelphia Museum of Art to coincide with The Van Gogh ‘Faces Tour.’ Two months later Vincent was selected to represent the U.S. at the International Theater Festival, held that year in Manilla. But the greatest honor for Jarrett was he had been asked to give the Keynote Speech on his time spent with Sanford Meisner.
Six months later, he stood at a podium in Manila and began and for the next hour Jarrett did his best to bring Sandy to life by impersonating the master teacher and recreating for the attendees, the most memorable moments during Jarrett’s time with him.
When he finished, the audience poured forward to thank Jarrett personally for introducing them to a man whom an hour before most had never even heard of. Standing there, overwhelmed, Jarrett realized the true gift of having written down everything Sandy had said in those classes.
Jarrett spent the next year poring over fifteen notebooks he’d filled over a four-year period, omitting the “nuts and bolts, actors-only jargon,” choosing material that would inspire anyone with a dream. As his research continued, he discovered some of the most remarkable moments in the class were the actual teaching-exchanges between Sandy and “the rest of us.” Jarrett finally settled on six extremely different, very powerful exchanges, then restaged and filmed these exchanges using his Meisner-trained actors.
Next, he layered these six segments into the production so that during the show, they dissolve up via rear-screen and Sanford Meisner’s classroom literally comes to life - when Jarrett as “Sandy” interrupts the students on screen they stop, sit and, using Sandy’s exact words from that day, listen as Jarrett begins to teach.
The effect on audience’s has confirmed what Jarrett experienced that afternoon in Manilla – being in Sandy’s classroom, the same classroom where seats were filled over the years by acclaimed actors including Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Grace Kelly, Jon Voight, Susan Sarandon, Robert Duvall and many more, would be appreciated by any lover of theater.
The world premiere of MEISNER was in 2006 at the historic Magic Theatre in San Francisco. It was an enormous commercial and artistic success - rave reviews and sold-out shows. MEISNER now heads to Los Angeles for a summer run at the Hayworth Theatre (www.thehayworth.com).
In 02-03 Jarrett introduced three new theatrical residencies for children - Manners Matter (designed for family audiences K-5), a unique, few-holds-barred, rabble-rousing “commencement speech” titled Graduation Day ... now what am I really supposed to do and finally, The worst thing about me is, grades 6-8.
Jarrett’s conviction that theater can educate as well as entertain has been the cornerstone of his career. “The subject being taught doesn’t have to be art or drama,” he remarks, “to impact peoples’ lives. It’s the teacher who makes the difference. It’s the embodiment of the passion, the standards, the integrity, the generosity of truly caring that literally change lives ... For me, that comes from live theater. That’s my classroom. In my mind, it’s essentially impossible to believe too deeply, or be too passionate about whatever it is that brings one the most profound joy. I’m a lucky man. I’m very thankful to be on this road.”
When not on tour, Jarrett resides in Sun Valley, Idaho with his daughter as well as San Francisco where he is the Founder - Director of The Meisner Technique Studio.