Svetlana Jovanovic
svetlanaishere@googlemail.com
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Svetlana Jovanovic
svetlanaishere@googlemail.com
DOWNLOAD RESUMES (click below)
svetlana jovanovic 
Hi
Thanks for staying in touch. You certainly seem to get around.
The photographs from the session we did have always been some of my favorites. Please change the spelling of my name under the photo. Last name is Kesten
Best regards
Steve
Hi Swetlana, Hope you are doing well! My name is Amit and I am from India. I have recently read your blog on difference between vipassana and Meisner (Acting). I sometime back did a 10 day vipassana course here and have been practicing it regularly. I have been really benefited by this as my pain bearing capacity or looking at the pain objectively has increased. I am also developing a non reacting behaviour in case of unwanted circumstances. The problem is that I have joined an acting course 3-4 months back and my sir ( who is very tenured and experienced in acting) was saying that it is Anti Acting. He said as per what I told him about vipassana that you don’t reveal in vipassana and not reacting to situations, however an actor has to reveal. As I am developing a non-reacting behaviour then it’s difficult for me to act. He said that he has noticed it on my face that I don’t react many times on stage when I or character is supposed to react or act. Please tell me that is it possible to do both Vipassana and Acting together? I really don’t want to quit vipassana because I have been benefitted by it. I also want to learn acting because slowly and gradually I have started enjoying this process as well. Exercised in theatre are really good and I enjoy that. Theatre or acting is also helping me to come out of my shell. I am in real dilemma now. I will be really grateful to you if you have answer to my questions because it seems you have really tried hard to understand the difference between Vipassana and Acting. Thanks and regards, Amit
Hello Amit,
I’m a bit honored that you reached out to me to get my point of view. I am no expert, but just as Meisner Acting technique touched me so did Vipassana. When I taught a Meisner workshop I used vipassana (walking meditation) as a way to relieve the intense acting exercises, a kind of an anti-dote. When you’re working honestly with your emotions on a regular basis, or on a dramatic play for instance, you need to come back to normalcy or it could, well, leak into your regular life. Think of doing acting as “stretching” your emotions as an actor. Of course acting is more than just emotions, but an actor must have the ability to call on any emotion at any given time. What you do in acting class is “not real life”. Some actors play themselves but the real skill comes when they are not playing themselves. It sounds like your real self is very influenced by vipassana meditation. A Meisner quote that helps me understand it best is “Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. And that is the craft, skill you are learning in class. To live truthfully is being honest with your emotions, or actually doing a physical action instead of “pretending” to do it, among other skills. In a play the actor is really walking, not pretending, right? On the other hand Vipassana is a skill you learn to deal with “everyday real life”, or the suffering all humans experience. Both Acting and Vipassana are stretching you, but in opposite directions. And both can be used if you use them where they are to be used. It’s hard to give advice because I don’t know exactly what you’re doing in acting class. But, its safe to say that in acting class you work on reacting and drop the vipassana skill. Are you able to separate the two? IF you can’t perhaps you should focus on one for a while? Even if you had never done vipassana you’d still have the issue of getting to your emotions. So perhaps it is your nature to not react? In which case acting class sounds very good for you. Hope this brought some insight, Svetlana