If You Survived 7th Grade, You Can Be an Actor: Applying the Meisner Technique to Get Outta Your Head in Acting and in Life

Purchase in person at the Drama Book Shop!
Purchase in person at the Drama Book Shop!
Purchase in person at the Drama Book Shop!


The audiobook version is HERE! Now available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes!
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?
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.
BOOK SIGNINGS
Soho House NYC
May 12, 2022
Drama Book Shop
March 24, 2022
Soho Beach House
February 28, 2022
TESTIMONIALS

Larry Rogowsky
Multiple Tony-Award
winning Broadway Producer
"Matthew Corozine has done what is almost impossible. He's written a book that breaks down a specific acting technique that unleashes the artist, while telling a compelling account of his own life experiences that has brought him to the point of service to others. This is a gem of a book that I zoomed through in one sitting!"

Sue Gilad
Multiple Tony-Award
winning Broadway Producer
“Over the past 20 years that I have witnessed Matt Corozine and his studio thrive and grow, his training ground has been my first recommendation for actors pursuing Broadway careers who want the most authentic training for their craft. Now Matt's passion and purpose have been captured for a wider audience. I highly recommend If You Survived 7th Grade... It is a terrific primer for actors, as well as anyone who craves a fully realized, vital life. Read it!”

Randy Graff
Tony-Award winning Actress
and Musical Theatre educator
"It’s rare to find such a tangible approach to art—doable, vulnerable and it’s like Corozine can see you from the page."

Annie Chadwick
Owner, Up-To-Date Theatricals
“This book is brimming with creative insights to unlock and empower the artists within to live life more fully in everyday moments to performing center stage. It's rare to find such an accessible, doable approach to art. It's like Corozine can see you from the page.”

Gabrielle Ruiz
Actor and Arts Educator
"How riveting to have Matthew Corozine’s wisdom in your hands now with IF YOU SURVIVED 7th GRADE, YOU CAN BE AN ACTOR. You now have New York’s finest acting teacher at your finger tips, on demand."

Sheri Sanders
Actor, Pioneer, Advocate,
Author of Rock The Audition
“If a book can teach you how to act AND live in the world as a visceral listening person with no agenda but to be present with who you are with, you found it, and Matt just wrote it.”

Joan Baker
Actor/Author,
VP, Society of Voice Arts And Sciences
"To read Matthew Corozine's book is to be in the moment with an insightful, nurturing guide who empathizes with the actor’s experience - allowing you to take risks, not because it’s safe, but because you can trust him to ensure that every choice is an opportunity to find truth."

Tsu Tsu Stanton
Tsu Tsu Unlimited, Talent Manager
“This book comes from a place of truth. Matthew has the rare gift of knowing how to bring out the best in actors and tell them the truth which inspires them to grow. I always recommend my clients to him as he takes what they bring to the table and he works with it, teaching them how to use what they have while also expanding their horizons.”

Mark Deklin
Actor and Fight Director.
Designated Survivor & The Good Fight
"Matthew Corozine’s charisma, presence and joie de vivre are undeniable — and infectious. Groundbreaking theater practitioners from Sanford Meisner to David Mamet have reiterated the notion that acting problems are just living problems, and Corozine’s book “If You Survived 7th Grade You Can Be An Actor” fully embraces this idea. When you talk to one of his students, even if only for a few minutes, it becomes immediately clear that this is a teacher who inspires and changes lives."

Matthew LaBanca
Broadway Actor
“The discipline Matt teaches is at the core of my acting. Other techniques I have learned, though helpful, are mere supplements to the deep freedom and truth I discovered (and really, re-discovered) in Matthew's classes. All the hallmarks of wonderful acting - listening, vulnerability, surprise, truthfulness - are strengthened in his classes. His technique is both methodical and freeform, and, for me, finally connected the dots to this seemingly elusive craft. It is the technique that has given me the strength to share my authentic self, more than any other.”

Jackie Evancho
Platinum Recording Artist, Actor, America’s Got Talent Finalist
"This book not only teaches helpful acting skills and techniques, but also allows those who read it to apply to their daily lives and live better for it!"

Nikki MacCallum
Actor, Comedian, Author of DRY RUN
“I had the tremendous fortune of studying Meisner technique with Matthew Corozine for many years and was thrilled to hear he was writing a book. Matt's unique take on the Meisner Technique was a game changer for me in both my personal and professional life and this book is a non-negotiable must read for anyone interested in becoming a stronger, bolder, and truer actor.”

Susan Eichhorn - Young
Broadway Voice Teacher, Opera
"This is an absolute must-have book for every actor and every singing-actor who wants to deepen and heighten their craft. Matthew Corozine gives generously from his depth of knowledge with such clarity, passion & integrity. This is not a book that will live on your bookshelf. This will live in your hands and in your mind and heart and will change you."

Susan E. Isaacs
Screenwriting Professor, Author of Angry Conversations with God.
"I’ve known Matt for over twenty years. I watched him take the leap of faith and claim his calling, to be an acting teacher. But he’s more than just a teacher. He’s a mentor, pastor, and shaman who empowers his students to bring their whole selves to the stage – and lives. This book is a delight to read: part memoir, part instruction, and all invitation: come live out loud."

Janice Orlandi
Artistic Director,
Actors Movement Studio NYC
"Matthew is a master teacher upholding the Meisner tradition handed down from our beloved teacher Robert X. Modica. Since our days training at Carnegie Hall Artist Studios, Matthew has both created and upheld the work and lineage, of honesty, the essence of ones humanity, and sense of truth with bold freedom from the fear of expressing heightened emotions and the truth of one's honest experience in the moment! An important and vital contribution to actor training."