Baron Brown Studio

A revolution in American Theater began in the early 1920's after the Moscow Art Theater toured the United States. Never before had audiences seen performances of such raw power, realism, and emotional truth. By 1930 the Group Theater formed to import this revolution and the "Stanislavski System" that inspired it. The Group Theater became the most respected and influential theater company in American history, assembling such luminaries as Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Clifford Odets, Morris Carnovsky and Sanford Meisner. It also produced three of the most important and influential acting teachers of the Twentieth Century in Adler, Strasberg, and 'Sandy' Meisner.

Sandy Meisner taught at the legendary Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City for more than 50 years. His students include Paul Newman, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Joanne Woodward, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, and Steve McQueen. He defined acting as doing things truthfully under imaginary circumstances and created a technique that is still known for its depth, reliability and balanced approach. Joanne Baron studied under Sandy Meisner in his private class. William Esper, head teacher at the Playhouse for 14 years, eventually formed the William Esper Studio in New York City. One of his students, Joanne Baron, continued to study under Esper for seven years, and then began her own school in New York to immediate acclaim.

Today, the Baron Brown Studio in Santa Monica, California, continues this legacy, teaching the same body of work that Meisner and Esper taught - a specific, training program designed to create an emotionally alive actor of depth, imagination, and truth.