MICHAEL CHEKHOV

Fact File

·         Nephew of playwright Anton Chekhov

·         Born 28 yrs after Stanislavsky à trained under his practise, naturalism. à Grow up in Russian Revolution – Stalin thought his work was too experimental so he had to leave to Europe + America and started to direct a lot of Hollywood stars like Marilyn Monroe  

·         Wrote “To the Actor” – 1953 – invitation for actors to experiment of their own

·         His work was on the emphasis on imagination and movement

·         His dominant themes were atmosphere, actor’s creativity, physicalisation of inner experience.  

·         BIG DIFFERENCE between Mick and Stan – not using emotional memory – you can imagine to connect to character. – Physco physical technique – look at difference of characters. – Actors should understand whole play, like a director not just their part.

·         Thought actors objective should be about creating there part not from own experience

·         Actor should be able to work with the atmosphere of the play – use higher ego – creative self

·         Work + Spontaneity (Work + Play) – balance

·         Mystical and less systematic than Stan

·         Actors become “actor poets”

·         In my opinion Our Countries Good is a poem about the redemption of power of drama and arts.

Character physicality

This was an exercise where we explored the physical ways that people move and walk around and on the different planes, such as vertical and horizontal. We saw how these created and developed characters and if we could relate them to our characters in Our Countries Good.

The first plane we explored was vertical; when I took on this physicality I made sure that my body was very open but strong at the same time. I made sure that my posture was strong and straight and that my head was faced upwards. All these little adjustments created a really strong and poised character, it felt very masculine in my body and regimented because of this I thought that it was a really good base to start exploring my characters physicality as it’s a man in the army and it felt right within my body for him. Also it felt very sharp and focused within my body and that this could transfer to my characterisation vocally and mentally to impact on him as a whole.

The second plane we looked at was horizontal, this made my body become a lot looser and more free as it could turn and move around as it wished. I found that I became wider in my body and that my arms started to control my movement more than my spine. I found that this created a more curious character as I could turn and look around freely. Although this wasn’t correct for my character, I found that it created a state of exploration within characters and small moments this could be put into my character.

Lastly we explored going towards something then stopping and moving away. I found that this one was interesting to explore as I feel you had to create a mental state as well as physical for this one as there was something that was stopping you from going forward. This allowed me to connect to the movement more and to create a background to the character. I found that this created more troubled and conflicted characters and that this could be used for Liz.

Difference between my character and me

This exercise helped us to understand what separated us from our characters. Personally I think that this is really useful as it allows you to know where you stop and the character starts and to be able to see the character as a living individual and not a part of yourself, so that you don’t get attached but also i think it lets the character come to life more because you are seeing them as a real person. It also shows you what you need to work on to be able to embody that character. My differences:

·         Collins is male and very masculine

·         Very high status and have power within the society

·         A lot older with wisdom and age effecting him

·         Vertical character – v. Extreme to show character – I need to work on my physicality in the character to make him vertical as I am a mixture of horizontal and vertical

·         Intellectual – legal knowledge and book based intelligence where as I am more creatively clever

·         Very serious and conventional character – i am more playful and weird ect.  

·         Christian and I’m not religious

·         We are morally opposite – he’s Victorian = patriarchal, old fashioned, conservative where as I am more of a socialist/ equalist and he represents what I don’t like = one type of person controlling a varied society – white, middle class, middle aged man

·         He is a calm/collected character and quite secure in self where as I am more insecure and excitable

Why is my character in the play?  

This exercise allowed us to understand our characters purpose in the play and what they bring to the play as every character s a purpose and a reason to be there. I found this helpful as it allowed us to understand the importance of our character more and to then be able to bring this to their presents on the stage.

·         To show the legal side of the society

·         Represent an opinion on criminal at the time of the play

·         Act as a voice of reason and Phillips second hand and support

·         To provide an intellectual and informed opinion

Imagine

Lastly we did an exercise where we had to imagine our characters doing an action and visualise them in detail doing this. Then we began to ask our character questions like how do you sit? Or how do you read? And then see how they responded and imagine the answers to these questions to discover more about you character in a creative and freeing way. I found that this was a really enlightening exercise and that it opened me to a new way of creating characters and that actually it showed me many things about my character that I hadn’t expected to. For example I discovered my characters love of reading in his spare time and actually novels instead of non-fiction are better for him to get away from the world for a bit. It also allowed me to get a really clear image of him in my head and that I started to be able to see him as a person physically and mentally and not just as a character. I thought that this exercise really benefitted my characterisation and me as an actor and that I will defiantly use this and other Michael Chekhov techniques in the future as I felt that they worked really well for me personally.