John Ruskin was Sanford Meisner's apprentice, first studying with the master at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, continuing with him in Bequia, West Indies, then teaching with him at the Neighborhood Playhouse and privately during the 1980's. The Ruskin School is the West Coast representative of the Neighborhood Playhouse, and many of the teachers were trained directly by Meisner.

Ruskin, who opened his school in Santa Monica in 1987, offers a two-year course of study in Meisner Technique, as well as a Master class for those who have completed a two-year program either at the Ruskin School or at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins has taught the master class and worked with students on Chekhov, Shakespeare, and Pinter, as well as contemporary plays. The school offers classes in Alexander Technique, voice, movement, and Commedia dell'arte. The school also offers a six-week introduction class in the Meisner Technique throughout the year.

The Ruskin School has opened its own theatre company located across the street from the school in the Santa Monica Airport. The Ruskin Group Theatre Company offers ongoing plays, performances, and an outreach program for the community at large. Theatre company members perform in children's hospitals, retirement homes, and prisons as well as teaching Meisner's technique to 14–18 year old boys in a youth correctional facility in Chatsworth, California. They also teach free drama classes to youths in downtown Los Angeles and members work with a hospice program offering their services to the elderly.

THE SCHOOL

First Year

The first year of work is the foundation of Sanford Meisner's entire technique. Exercises in repetition, independent activities, emotional preparation, and scene work. The class meets twice a week.

Second Year

Training in Advanced Meisner Technique exercises including work in characterization, relationship, improvisation, and Spoon River Anthologies: applied scenes performed from plays of both modern and classic text. The class meets twice a week.

Master Class

Advance work in scene study, monologues, improvisations, and professional coaching. The class meets once a week. This class is primarily open to graduates of The Ruskin School of Acting and The Neighborhood Playhouse, by invitation only. Master Class is formed in six-week sessions. Each class is taught by a working actor or director. Past teachers have included. Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Franciosa, Dylan McDermott, John Finn, Dan Attias, Paul Michael Glaser, Ed Asner, Chris Mulkey as well as many others.

Introduction to Meisner Technique

Young Adults Class

Alexander Technique

Commedia dell'Arte - Viewpoints

Movement Training

Voice

(from left to right) Dylan McDermott and John Ruskin

RECOMMENDED READING:

The Mystic in the Theatre: Eleonora Duse. (Biography of Eleonora Duse) By Eva Le Gallienne

Letters to a Young Poet. By Rainer Maria Rilke. Translated by Stephen Mitchell

Sanford Meisner on Acting. By Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell.

Acting: The First Six Lessons. By Richard Bolesklavsky.

The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre and the Thirties. (History of the Group Theatre)
By Harold Clurman.

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The Captain's Verses. By Pablo Neruda.

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. By Don Miguel Ruiz.

The Holy Man. By Susan Trott.

An Incomplete Education. By Judy Jones and William Wilson.

Open Secret: Versions of Rumi. Translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks.

The Prophet. By Kahlil Gibran.

Tao Te Ching. By Lao-tzu. Translated, with foreword and notes by Stephen Mitchell.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. By Sogyal Rinpoche.

Tuesdays With Morrie. By Mitch Albom.