Acting Masterclass London

Acting Masterclass London – The Underrated Michael Chekhov –

DutchCheez took of to London for a two days master class Chekhov acting. Acting is a craft and needs a lot of practice. So after spending quite a lot of time on production activities, we were suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms and we felt our acting skills needed attention and new input. During our years of drama training we have worked with different methods. In our work we both extract elements from Meisner, Method, Chubbuck and other approaches that work for us, but we both did not have the chance to experience the appealing Chekhov approach. Unfortunately, Chekhov acting classes are hard to find in the Netherlands. For us a good reason to travel to the Michael Chekov Studio in London.

What happened in the next two days was life changing. Director/drama coach Graham Dixon led us to a new world of acting.

Chekhov developed a physical and imagination-based system of actor training, using the Psychological Gesture, a concept derived from the Symbolist theories. The system uses the imagination and body as well as the intellect, which makes it not only an acting tool, but we think, a life tool. It was so enlightening to work with this technique. We then also discovered that by using Chekhov’s 3 levels of consciousness (‘number 1, 2 and 3’) it was easier to remain fresh and resourceful in our acting. Another advantage is that the personal psychology of the actor does not get ‘worn out’ (in our point of view a risk of the Method approach when your are only deriving from personal psychology).

More Chekhov…!

* Michael Chekhov was a Russian actor, director and acting teacher who lived and worked in Russia, in different European countries, and in the USA. He was the nephew of the famous writer and dramatist Anton Chekhov and considered by Stanislavsky to be his most brilliant pupil. When marked by the Soviets for arrest, Chekhov escaped to the West bringing us his invaluable methods and techniques. (Famous adepts: Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins).