“Your profession is not your job.
Vincent van Gogh
Your profession is what you’re put on this earth to do with such passion and intensity it becomes spiritual in calling.“
Jim Jarrett
Sanford Meisner’s last teaching protégé — and one of the few people in the world Sandy personally trained to carry his work forward.
He spent six years working at Sandy Meisner’s side. Two decades later, he runs the most respected acting studio in the Bay Area — and one of the last places on earth where the technique is still taught the way Sandy intended.
ACT I · THE APPRENTICESHIP
Six Years with the Master
Jim Jarrett spent four years with the legendary acting teacher — two in Mr. Meisner’s professional private class, then two more working exclusively with Sandy, both as an actor and as a teacher-in-training.
After that time, Jim was lucky enough to have two more years working as a teacher with Sandy as his mentor — and emerged as Sanford Meisner’s last teaching protégé.
A quarter century later, Sandy’s alumni and teaching colleagues consider Jim to be one of the most respected teachers of the Meisner Technique in the world.
Every time the rent’s due there’s a thousand actors who run around and call themselves acting teachers, and I can’t tell you how many claimed to have studied with me. Just because you did study with me doesn’t mean you’re qualified to teach. If someone tells you they teach the Meisner Technique, ask them if they have my blessing – then watch their reaction. Trust your gut. You’ll know.
– Sanford Meisner –
ACT II · THE WORK BEGINS
Schools across three states. A guest chair across three continents.
Over the years, Jim established schools in Los Angeles, the Island of Hawaii, and Sun Valley, Idaho. He travelled the world as a guest teacher — universities, performing-arts schools, and theater companies across North America, Europe, and Asia.
By the early 2000s, he was one of a small handful of teachers anywhere on earth who could claim Sandy’s direct authorization to teach.
ACT III · COMING HOME
In 2005, Jim came home to San Francisco.
He came home for the world premiere of his one-man show, MEISNER, at the historic Magic Theater. The piece was built from the 2,000 hours of class time he’d spent at Sandy’s side — recreated from memory, transcripts, and the kind of intimacy only a six-year apprenticeship can produce.
The show was an overwhelming commercial and critical success.
Shortly after, Jim opened The Meisner Technique Studio in San Francisco. In doing so, he made good on a promise he’d made to Sandy many years before — to establish an acting studio dedicated solely to the Meisner Technique.
Fifteen years later, the studio is the
premier acting training in the Bay Area.
ACT IV · The Next Generation
A Studio that teaches teachers.
In 2019, Jim’s daughter Kyla began working side by side with him. She currently assists in specialty classes — and is part of the next chapter of the studio’s legacy.
That same year, Jim launched the Meisner Teaching Mentorship — a multi-year program that trains former students to become teachers themselves. The goal is simple: keep the work alive, keep it pure, and make sure the next generation of teachers has the same direct lineage Jim was given.
He also mentors teachers from around the world who want to teach the Meisner Technique the way Sandy wanted it taught: pure, legitimate, and authentic.
PRESS · FEATURE EXCERPT
Theatre Bay Area Magazine
ON JIM’S RETURN TO THE BAY AREA
“Ever since Sandy passed, there has been a proliferation of people teaching the Meisner Technique. Most are students of former students who may have studied with Sandy for a brief period of time.”
“In fact, the Neighborhood Playhouse — the very place that pushed Sandy out in 1987 — started a program where anyone can enroll in a six-week course and then receive a ‘teaching certificate’ declaring you’re now qualified to teach the Meisner Technique. Crazy. But true.“
“But there truly are only a handful of people who were personally trained by Sanford Meisner to teach ‘his way.’ Being a part of this select group is an honor I do not take lightly. For Sandy, having his teachings carried on accurately, as purely and authentically as possible, was extremely important to him.”
A message from Jim.
I opened The Meisner Technique Studio in San Francisco to pass along Sandy’s teaching brilliance — along with the standards, integrity, and respect for the craft of acting he instilled in every one of his students. I do this by presenting Sandy’s teachings exactly how he wanted them presented.
My goal is for our students to emerge as the finest, best-trained actors in the Meisner Technique — not just in the Bay Area, but in the world.
— Jim
Watch Jim talk about the work, the teacher, and the promise.
Study with Jim
Jarrett.
Bay Area acting classes forming now in San Francisco.