Michael Chekhov’s Acting Technique A Practitioner’s Guide

Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique: A Practitioner's Guide is a textbook for actors, directors and teachers seeking in-depth analysis and explanation of the Michael Chekhov acting technique. It provides a complete overview of the whole method, offering clear explanations of the principles, practical exercises and application of the exercises to dramatic texts. The book is both a toolkit for practitioners who have not trained in the method, as well as a comprehensive reference book for those who have.

Part One explains the concept of pyscho-physical acting with reference to primary texts, interviews with Chekhov practitioners and a range of sample exercises to practise on.
Part Two explores the more detailed work of creating a character with a selection of examples of how to apply the psycho-physical exercises in Part One directly to character or scene work. Also included are a selection of exercises taught by other practitioners (with their permission) that were not developed by Chekhov himself in his book, but which follow his principles and yield great results, such as: the ghost exercise (Joanna Merlin); expanding and contracting the five senses (Lenard Petit); the palace of beauty (Mel Shrawder); the belief closet (Mel Shrawder); and imaginative character biography on your feet (Mel Shrawder).

The book features the application of Michael Chekhov principles throughout to characters and scenes in Gabriel García Lorca's Blood Wedding and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Preface
Introduction
Part One: The Psychophysical Actor
Introduction: Psychophysicality
1. The Ideal Centre
2. The Four Brothers (Ease, Form, Beauty and Feeling of the Whole)
3. The Four Qualities Of Movement (Moulding, Floating, Flying, Radiating)
4. Receiving
5. Concentration
6. Expansion and Contraction
7. Directions in Space (Up, Down, Back, Forward)
8. The Three Sisters (Floating, Falling, Balancing)
9. Further Qualities Of Movement (Staccato/Legato, Curved Straight)
10. Image and Imagination
11. Improvisation and the Psychology of the Improvising Actor/Inspiration
Part Two: Characterisation
Introduction: Transformation
1. Objective Atmosphere
2. Individual Atmosphere
3. Imaginary Body
4. Imaginary Centres
5. Centres with Stick/Ball/Veil
6. Archetypes
7. Psychological Gesture
8. Extras: The Ghost Exercise (Joanna Merlin), The Belief Closet (Mel Shrawder),
Imaginative Character Biography on Your Feet (Mel Shrawder).
9. Theatre of the Future/Conclusion

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