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Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique: A Practitioner's Guide


Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique: A Practitioner's Guide

Paperback by Rushe, Sinéad (Central School of Speech and Drama, UK)

Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique: A Practitioner's Guide

£25.99

ISBN:
9781408156889
Publication Date:
24 Jan 2019
Language:
English
Publisher:
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:
Methuen Drama
Pages:
360 pages
Format:
Paperback
For delivery:
Estimated despatch 21 - 22 May 2024
Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique: A Practitioner's Guide

Description

Intended for actors, directors, teachers and researchers, this book offers an exceptionally clear and thorough introduction to the renowned acting technique developed by Michael Chekhov. Sinéad Rushe's book provides a complete overview of the whole method, and includes illuminating explanations of its principles, as well as a wide range of practical exercises that illustrate, step by step, how they can be applied to dramatic texts. Part One provides an outline of the ideas that underpin the work, which help to prepare practitioners to become responsive and receptive, and to awaken their imagination. Part Two charts a journey through the foundational psychophysical exercises that can both orient an actor's training routine and be applied directly to the development of a role. Part Three focuses on more specific and elaborate methods of scene work, characterisation and the art of transformation. Drawing on the full range of Chekhov's writing in English and French, this book also examines unpublished material from the Dartington Hall archives and features interviews with actors who have worked with the technique, including Simon Callow and Joanna Merlin. It illustrates Chekhov's approach by referring to Rushe's own productions of Nikolai Gogol's short story Diary of a Madman and Shakespeare's Othello, as well as characters and scenes in Sarah Kane's Blasted and the contemporary American television series Breaking Bad. Michael Chekhov's Acting Technique is an accessible, comprehensive and contemporary point of reference for those already trained in the method, as well as an initiation and toolkit for practitioners who are just beginning to discover it.

Contents

Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: Guiding Principles A Note on the Context of Chekhov's work Part One: Preparation The ideal centre The four brothers: feeling of ease Receiving The four brothers: feeling of form The four brothers: feeling of beauty The four brothers: feeling of entirety Radiating Expansion and contraction Part Two: Practice Qualities of movement: moulding, floating, flying, radiating Further qualities of movement: staccato/legato, curved/straight Directions in space Archetypal gesture The three sisters: rising, falling, balancing Image and imagination Improvisation Transition: Transformation Part Three: Performance Imaginary body Imaginary centre Stick/ball/veil Archetypes Psychological gesture Subjective atmosphere Objective atmosphere Extras: ghost exercise, character biography Conclusion: Theatre of the Future Chronology of Michael Chekhov's Career

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