Read an Excerpt from Matthew Corozine's 'If You Survived 7th Grade, You Can Be an Actor'

Acting is living and behaving truthfully and fully under imaginary circumstances. But why is "truthfully" and "fully" so hard for us? Why is it so difficult to be in the moment with our art and in our lives?

Matthew Corozine, actor, director, producer, and founder of Matthew Corozine Studio Theatre, joins the transformational Meisner technique with everyday life in his new book "If You Survived 7th Grade, You Can Be an Actor: Applying the Meisner Technique to Get Outta Your Head in Acting and in Life".

At some point, likely in your youth, you had to split to survive, to deny certain parts of "self," parts needed to get to an intense place of playing the grittiest of supervillains on your favorite TV show, to playing the most important role of your career-your truest self. With Meisner acting technique and a good coach, you can learn how to incorporate all parts of you in every moment...so you can create truthfully and fully.

Multi-hyphenate Matthew Corozine comes from the family tree of famed acting teacher and innovator Sanford Meisner. In If You Survived 7th Grade, You Can be an Actor, Corozine brings us a practical acting technique and exercises developed during his more than two decades of teaching and coaching acting at MCS Theatre. The work inside these pages helps free actors from self-limiting beliefs and emotional blocks through various exercises and activities, and real-life examples. If you want to "get outta your head" and become freer in your art and in life... then you need to pick up a copy of this book.

BroadwayWorld is very excited to bring you an exclusive excerpt from the book below:

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We have an automatic way of being based on past stories, moments, and decisions. We subconsciously recreate our past (the brain is always looking for something familiar to connect to), then complain about how we want a new future. For many of us, there's an uncomfortability living in the present moment.

For example, when in an elevator with strangers, everyone feels nervous and awkward on some level. We all feel human weirdness in everyday situations. And yet, our society says there is an appropriate way to be, which dictates that we not express what is actually going on. We are conditioned to behave in certain ways-to be professional and logical, to do things proper based on etiquette. When we are in a conflict, we are taught to give evidence to support why we are right, rather than listening and looking at all sides.

Good acting involves breaking away from all of that-the learned behaviors of what makes you look good and what you think makes you look less stupid or pathetic.

When you move away from those preconceived notions, we will fall in love with you on stage (and likely off stage as well). Whenever Meryl Streep receives an award (will she ever stop?), she stumbles on her speech, trips, or may need to fix her bra strap. Those actions break the myth that she is always glamorous and infallible. We fall in love with her because she seems so human. This is smart and self-aware-she is being herself in a situation where people are supposed to behave differently. Many politicians do this too-they find a way to weasel into people's subconscious and appear strangely relatable. A dumb guy, a plain Jane, the people's princess or president.

In my family experience, I felt that acceptance and love were not unconditional. It was only conditional on not having problems and being entertaining. This wasn't a conscious decision from my parents. I knew deep down I was loved unconditionally, but I didn't feel it. Part of it had to do with the false narrative my brain created so I would be right (you're bad, Matt, you deserve to be rejected), which I had to unlearn as an adult.

But as a child, I felt that to receive love, I had to be perfect, good, funny, and special. That specialness messed me up. My dad was a musician, composer, and artist, so I felt like the child of a famous person, too. Sometimes, I got away with things because I was Vinny's kid-or got to skip steps or be on sports teams I didn't have the experience or the skill for. And that also screwed me because I never really learned. I get students at MCS, people who never learned how to lose, or be in pain, or were an only child and didn't fight with siblings. You need to be able to draw on those past painful experiences. The time you looked dumb or did something terribly embarrassing to you and your family. Your ego does not want people to see that you are actually bad at something you claim to be good at because you built an identity around it. But if you admit the truth, the painful stuff like accepting where you are in life is the only way to grow into the best you possible. Like the mall directory-you are here, but you need to go up two floors to Spencer's Gifts (can you tell I was an '80s kid?). You need to know where to start-a la the YOU ARE HERE sign at the mall-to get where you want to go. Are you willing to tell the truth and start there? Or are you going to keep covering it up?

I call it running from the cops. I use this reference a lot in my class. You go from town to town, changing your identity, but you can never be yourself. When you are constantly looking over your shoulder, knowing they are coming, the real you starts to emerge. To my students who put on this act, I always say, "The cost is too much and more painful than the payoff."

But getting rid of that false identity can also be scary. Because that is the automatic way actors reach out, and the brain cannot undo these old lies all on its own. It's a bit like an old friend who does you more harm than good. How many times have you told yourself, "I'm going to be vulnerable," or "I'm going to be different," but did not end up doing it? You can, however, act yourself into different thinking. You can't think yourself into good acting. Your best thinking got you here. But you need to be coached to get to the next level.

There are three areas we live in.

1. The stuff I know I know-how to make cookies, how to teach acting, how to swim.
2. The stuff I know I don't know-rocket science, how to build an aircraft, how to do brain surgery.
3. Then there is a whole world of stuff I didn't know that I didn't know. And that is the area that my coaching and our team at MCS focus on and want to uncover in you.

Finding Your True Self Through the Meisner Technique

In 2000, at age twenty-eight, MCS was created out of need, ignited by my friendship with Beverly Z. Davis and by doing "the work" training in the Meisner Technique with Mr. Robert X. Modica at Carnegie Hall Studios. I also had to get past a lifetime of shame, compartmentalization, anxiety, and depression. I felt so abandoned growing up. As a young kid, I was Christian, and I knew I was gay. I did not know where I belonged. Or how to reconcile those two worlds. Good boy vs. "bad" boy. Right vs. wrong. It felt like I had to reject myself to get through adolescence. I wanted to hide and play characters other than myself since I only knew rejection.

Through early adulthood, I kept living a pattern and story of rejection. I wanted to play other people and experience rejection so I could validate the story in my head. Humans have an inherent need to relieve the cognitive dissonance in their brains-opposing viewpoints that cause distress-to bring life back to order. In my young mind, I was bad for being gay and deserved to be rejected. And as such, I had to create conditions for my life to make that true. Not exactly healthy, but that's the human brain for ya!

This kind of mental "relief" I just described is actually opposite of being a great actor. The Meisner work I started doing in my twenties opened me up and changed that need within my life to believe and relieve that cognitive dissonance. It took me away from my self-limiting beliefs, and it will do the same for you. How many of us stay in an old definition of ourselves and have to keep proving it over and over and never grow? I know I'm not the only one.

After having created MCS, I started to learn how to be a great artist. The artistry of acting is not about playing other people. It is about playing the parts of oneself that split to survive childhood. I had trouble being my true self-partially out of shame and partially under pressure from the outside world. So, I tended to hide my feelings and tell myself, "Just look cool." Splitting and hiding is not something unique to being gay; it's universal. That is where the Meisner work comes into play, and through it, I found out-I am the character I want to play. Integrating my divided self is my art. This is similar to the integration of the divided self you had to do to survive seventh grade. So, for all the folks sitting in the back, let me say it louder. "If you survived seventh grade, you can be an actor."

Maybe you feel you don't need to connect to your sensitivities to be a great plumber or electrician-but you do. We all want to be around vulnerable people. We are attracted to people who let us truly see them, faults and all. To be a great actor, you have to be vulnerable. Connecting to every part of yourself is not only about becoming a great actor; it also helps you develop into a better person. Doing this work brings health and a boldness to live more fully on this planet. Living in the real world under the guise of acting has saved my life, so I want to impact other people to do the same thing. You don't have to be on TV or in a blockbuster film or on Broadway to do this work. In a sense, I teach acting by not teaching acting. I'm helping you unlearn the bad habits you have learned.

The Meisner work forms around what I knew was in me all along (like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz) and believed to be true but did not have language for. Learning Meisner taught me to surrender to the part of myself I had run from or decided wasn't worthy of being around.

Success leaves clues. Follow the great masters and their habits and techniques, then make them your own. That is what I did with the Meisner technique. And it is just that-a set of drills. If you allow yourself to learn the rules and the truthful impulse of when to break said rules, you'll do great as an actor and as a human being. I came to thank the work for giving me a tool and language system to navigate through acting and life. When I discovered this, it was like Helen Keller at the well, learning how to spell and express the word "water."

I had no technique or tools to navigate life as a kid. I thought if I had enough faith, I would heal my secret sexuality and shame problem. It didn't work. Now, I have enough faith that living my truth (not denying parts of me) is the only way to live. And it makes me grateful for my painful past that caused me to be the man I am today.

Your journey to living your truth started when you picked up this book. This is your tool to unblock the actor, artist, and creative within-the true you. This book focuses specifically on unblocking your creativity by making you better at acting. We are going to remove your emotional blocks, resistance, and fear. The most exciting part about this work is there is a tangible technique. It's not just an acting technique, but something that can be translated into life too. My class has attracted many students who don't necessarily want to be actors-they are creative people who know an acting class will help in their work and life.

I always teach people from the future they cannot see. Most of the time, we are so clouded by our past. I am here to help bring people out of their past and into the present, so they can start creating a brilliant future for themselves as an artist. This work is an extension of a masterclass, an extension of meeting me, and an introduction to the world of moving forward in life...with acting. You will learn to integrate your past and not deny it by applying Meisner work, creating a new future you will love.

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Click here to order the book today!

Matthew Corozine, BA in theatre arts (concentration in acting and directing) SUNY New Paltz, is a multi-hyphenated creative rockstar. Not only an actor, director, producer, and teacher, Matthew is also the founding artistic director and creator of Matthew Corozine Studio (MCS), which just celebrated its 21st anniversary. Matthew has spent his years in show business unfolding his vision of a collaborative, expansive, and supportive artistic community for artists to build their craft with honor and integrity. He is one of New York City's leading Meisner-based acting coaches, teaching and creating opportunities for students to "get outta your head" in order to build a meaningful life with art. With an established student base in NYC and Washington DC (in-person) and internationally (via online coaching), MCS has expanded to Miami with in-person classes. Over the years, Matthew has coached actors and performers on Broadway, TV, film, including platinum-selling America's Got Talent finalist Jackie Evancho. Most recently, Matthew directed Nick Payne's play Constellations at MCS produced under the AEA mini contract. Matthew directed the original show Going Through Life with No Direction at 54 Below (NYC), produced by Alicia Keys. Matthew resides in Miami and NYC with his partner Alain and his dog Mimmo.

For more information on Matt and MCS, please visit www.matthewcorozinestudio.com.