TCU Course Information

Welcome to Lisa Dalton's Michael Chekhov course.

Unit 1: Psychophysical Training
In our first unit, we focus on understanding and beginning to master our mind-body connection. There's nothing worse to me in acting than when I get a great idea of how to do something, and it just doesn't come out that way I planned! This happens when the body doesn't communicate the images from the imagination. So, we begin our training with this part of the Chekhov technique that seeks to resolve this disconnection of images and body.

The POA-Practice, Observe Apply exercises help to expand your mind to see the energy patterns in and around you and enable you to use them on command for your art.
On The Technique of Acting(OTA)that you are reading allows you to get direct phrasing from the author and biographical information.
On Theatre and The Art of Acting CD listening is a fabulous opportunity to hear the warmth, passion and wisdom of Mr. Chekhov in first person.
Your Self Evaluation creates a baseline for which to compare your development over the duration of the course, as well as helps generate specific problems we can jointly target for development.

Psychophysical Body Building for Actors!

OBJECTIVES:

To introduce the primary means of training the imagination and the body to respond to each other. The artist requires a special training of the whole self to meet the demands of transformation.

To develop a knowledge of how to exercise the tools of

Expansion/Contraction (Ex/Con)
Qualities of Movement (QOM) (MFFR)
Archetypal Gestures (AG)

To develop the habit of daily Practice of a tool to enhance Psychophysical skills.

To develop the habit of daily Observation of a tool in the environment to train the thinking forces of the artist to perceive the self and environment in terms of the tools.
To develop the awareness of the readily available opportunities to Apply tools as a form of cultivating the skill to use the tools in performance.

The READING

Reading On The Technique of Acting will deepen your experience of Mr. Chekhov and his work. Here are some questions you will want to know the answers to when you have completed the reading.

The Preface addresses the Chart For Inspired Acting that is the basis for the structure of this foundation in Michael Chekhov's technique.
Be prepared to explain the concept of the chart.
By the end of the course, have the chart memorized.

The Introduction shares biographical detail of Mr. Chekhov's life that was highly influential in the development of his work. Of high significance is the fact that Michael Chekhov was part of the original group of actors at the Moscow Art Theater who developed Stanislavsky's Method.
How do you think Chekhov's biography affected the development of his technique?

Chapter 1 addresses Concentration and Imagination. They are primary ingredients needed to achieve a peak performance. With out concentration, there can be no focus. Without imagination, there is nothing upon which to focus. One unique concept put forth here is the idea respecting the independent existence of images.
What does "independent existence" of images mean?

Chapter 2 discusses The Higher Ego. There are four critical tasks that the Higher Ego assists the actor in accomplishing.
What are the 4 main functions of the Higher Ego?

Chapter 3 reveals Atmospheres and Qualities. These are the most rapid means to emotionally powerful performances.
What are the means to creating objective atmospheres?
What is the difference between subjective and objective atmospheres?

Chapter 4 brings The Actor's Body to the forefront with detailed guidance on the Ideal Artistic Center, Qualities of Movement(QOM) and the Four Brothers of Art(BEEF).
Where is the Ideal Artistic Center and what function does it serve?
What are the QOM's and what elements are they associated with?
What is the function of the Feeling of Beauty?
What is the function of the Feeling of Ease?
What is the function of the Feeling of Entirety?
What is the function of the Feeling of Form?

Chapter 5 The Psychological Gesture (PG) takes everything discussed so far and synthesizes it into one movement, instantly transforming the actor's psychology and physiology into the character's.
What is the trinity of the Psychology?
What is the difference between and AG and a PG?
What are the guidelines for creating a PG?

Chapter 6 Characterization and Incorporation are the means by which an actor makes each role unique.
What are Leading Questions?
Name the primary means of creating characterization?
What are the three questions to ask about a Center?

Chapter 7 From Script to Rehearsal Hall encompasses Objective, Activity, Radiation, Significance, Ensemble and Style.
By what means can we discover the Objective?
What is the difference between activity at home and on stage?
How can we increase our radiation?
What is significance?

Chapter 8 from To The Actor. Composition of the Performance outlines the Three Primary Laws of Composition, Units, Climaxes, Accents, Waves and Repetitions, Composition of Characters
What are the Three Primary Laws of Composition?
Draw the Composition Chart and label the Units, Main Climaxes, Auxiliary Climaxes and Subsdivisions.

Chapter 8 from On The Technique of Acting, Composition explores Preparation and Sustaining, Compositionary Gesture, and expands upon Rhythmic Waves and Repetitions, Pauses, Crescendo and Diminuendo, Tempo.
What are Compositionary Gestures, Rhythmic Waves and Repetitions, Crescendo and Diminuendo?
What effect does a Pause before something have on the audience?
What effect does a Pause after something have on the audience?

Chapter 9 Four Stages of the Creative Process unites the entire process we have covered so far as it takes us through the development of a production, serving as an example of how to work with the tools while reviewing them.
What are the 4 Stages?

Afterword brings special insight into how Michael Chekhov coached Mala Powers and adjustments he made in his teaching after this text was written. Finding the Character, Taking Direction, Poisonous Criticism, Veiling, Baptizing, Making Friends, Ideal Theater of the Future.
What is one of the first questions Chekhov would ask about your character?
How many tools should an actor concentrate on when they rehearse?
How many tools should an actor concentrate on when in a state of inspiration?
What is veiling?
How can we avoid poisonous criticism?
What is Baptizing?
With whom should we make friends and why?
What is the ideal theater of the future?

The Purpose of the Psychophsyical work is to restore to the body its original flexibility and expressiveness with which we are born. Through life, we eliminate certain energy patterns from our repertoire and focus on others more heavily. This process subsequently interfers with our ability to inhabit a character fully because the character's energy management system is different than our own.

The tools in this section are based on patterns of natural impulses and elements found in all of creation.

TPT-
Triplicity
Polarity
Transformation
PASS
Prepare--Inhale
Action---exhale
Sustain---three counts
Stop ( sloppy stop-full release)

A gesture is movement plus intention.
An AG is the largest possible gesture of a primal intention. It is pure WILL with no reason(Thinking) and it is neutral(NO Emotional feeling of good or bad). It should charge the whole body with the urge/desire to....push, pull, etc.

When you add a Reason(thinking) and a quality(Feeling), an AG is no longer neutral and then becomes a Psychological Gesture(PG).

AG Guidelines-what will be present in a well done AG/Ball Toss/PG:
PASS- with clear beginning, middle, end
Full body
Polarity
100% effort-commitment of the will (key to star quality)
One Breath-inhale and exhale

Veiling is when you make the tool less visible in the body while keeping the energy at high intensity.

Oreo Cookie Flyback a guide to healthy self evaluation that
"appreciates what you've done and excites you for what is to come".
the top cookie=Favorite Moment
double stuff the middle with what can i add next time to make more delicious
the bottom cookie= what worked overall

This Feeling Life Phase of the Course introduces you to alternative means to achieving emotional depth and expression with three primary sets of tools:

Three Sister Sensations
Qualities and Sensations
Atmospheres

For cultivating perspectives and skills as a human being that will lead to high productivity and rewarding expereinces Chekhov encourages us to study this next set of tools.

Four Brothers of Art: Feelings of Beauty, Ease, Entirety(Wholeness), Form
BEEF

The Three Sister Sensations

Feb. 6, 2008
The Emotional Life of the Actor

The Three Sister Sensations of Falling, Balancing and Floating can create almost any emotional state. Mastering these, especially through the IAC (Ideal Artistic Center), can be a rapid and reliable way to connect to feelings and to radiate the sense of a deep connection. See article on web site for more details.

Qualities and Sensations

To move with a quality will soon awaken a sensation that can lure a feeling into being. To move always includes moving your breath. Every archetypal feeling has a breathing pattern to it which when even technically executed with full commitment will induce movement and speech patterns identical to the "personal" feeling. This creates a reliable, performable skill to support your talent.

*** What is the breathing pattern for:
laughter
grief
anger
awe
fear

Overall Atmospheres, Feb. 8, 2008

Place + Event = Overall Atm.

The terms Overall, Objective or General are used interchangeably to identify the quality of energy in the air that affects everyone and everything in the place.

It is Chekhov's alternate approach to sensorial imaging of the individual elements of the location. In the traditional "US method" approach, the actor is encouraged to have highly detailed images of all elements of the space, so that they can behave truthfully in the given environment. This can encumber the actor if the actor expends too much concentration trying to visualize the individual components, while trying to stay in character, in the moment and connected to objective, remember the lines and do the blocking. It is difficult for the actor to act that the chairs are steel versus leather, and the table is oak versus glass. It is challenging to know how to act the moment differently because the chair is steel rather than leather. How the individual elements unite to create a feel for the space is what Mr. Chekhov emphasizes. When invited to explore it, the actor can rapidly see that the energy in a room with glass and steel might be described as colder than the oak and leather. This coldness instantly inspires a different kind of physical movement than the warmth of oak and leather.

Atmosphere is the aggregate effect that the elements of the place have, in combination with the events happening in the space. For Chekhov, this approach unites all elements that factor into what the feel of a place is, into one tool, one image for the actor to respond to and integrate.

Atmosphere is the fastest means to emotionally engage an audience. Every exposure the audience has to any element of production, before the show begins, contributes to build anticipation of the atmospheres they want to experience. Every moment from the opening of the show through to the exit of the theatre contributes to the atmosphere of the event.

As humans, we expend a tremendous effort on being in comfortable atmospheres and avoiding undesirable ones. Decorating, dressing, listening to certain music, hanging out with certain people, in certain places- these are all choices we make to be enveloped in Atmospheres.

Every one shares the Overall ATM and ONLY ONE OVERALL ATM exists at a time.
When two conflicting ATM's collide, a third will form until one of the first two dominates the other two or it transforms into another all together.

BAPTIZING ATMOSPHERES

Find one to three words that provoke your imagination to describe the overall atm. Choose juicy words that activate and excite your creativity. Practice observing and baptizing atmospheres in your life so that they will come easily when you are looking for them in your scripts.

PERSONAL ATMOSPHERES, Feb. 11, 2008

When Mr. Chekhov was disseminating his work, the concept of a field of energy embodying each person was yet considered taboo. It has been an accepted concept in eastern medicine for thousands of years. We now have instruments that can photograph this "Aura" that we carry with us everywhere. In To the Actor, published in 1953, Mr. Chekhov could not use this word Aura and uses Personal Atmosphere instead. In On The Technique of Acting, Chekhov does actually use the term Aura. However, for our purposes, we will continue to refer to this sphere
as a personal atmo-sphere.

It goes every where the character goes.
It is not Mood that changes with short term objectives being met or not met.
PA tends to be long term, and may or may not transform over the arc of the story.
It is an "air" or "essence" and often can be described using "NESS", "tion", "ity"
Pretention/pretentiousness
Humility/humbleness
Condescension
Erudition
Futility
Authority
Gentility
Stupidity
Superiority
Meekness
Causticness

Two conflicting personal atms. can co-exist and create dynamic story telling.

Likewise, a PA in conflict with an OA can create a great drama and comedy. This is the classic "fish out of water" story. The Fish is the PA and the Water is the OA.

The Four Brothers of Art

Mr. Chekhov believed that all great art, all peak performances contained Four Feelings:

Beauty
Ease
Entirety(wholeness)
Form

BEAUTY: It is distinctly a choice you can make-- to perceive it around you every where. Every thought you hold in your head that yearns to draw you into judgement means you can judge things to be ugly or beautiful. It would be amazing to step out of judgement altogether and invite wonder in its place. When we behold beauty, we instantly experience ease and peace.
Think of how the ensemble's perception of beauty in the chairs, in three minutes, transformed the very atmosphere we were breathing. This is the power that a feeling of beauty can bring to this world.
The feeling of beauty can be cultivated through a strong will to dismiss thoughts of ugliness. One can search to find the lesson in a painful event and then find that way to focus on the beauty. Since energy follows thought, the more you focus on beauty, the more beauty reveals itself to you, the more peace you dwell in, and the more peace you radiate to the world.

Every great performance, even a boxing match, has beauty.

EASE

To move, breathe and speak with a feeling of ease is an active task, unlike to relax, which is a passive verb and in fact occurs as a result of an action or sequence of actions. When you were guided to relax in class, what did you actually do? You moved, you adjusted, you exhaled, to allowed your body to give into or fall into a relaxed state.

Lack of ease leads to disease. Use your life as a playground for developing a feeling of ease. Whenever things are making you feel uneasy, just ask yourself to move and breathe with ease, especially during tests, traffic and social environments. Getting stressed over things does little to resolve them and can lead to poor choices.
For Tests, a little mantra: I know what I know, I read questions easily and respond easily to questions.
For Traffic: I am always safe in time and space, so I sit easily and trust that I am right where I am supposed to be.

FORM

We have already addressed form as one of the Four Brothers of Art(BEEF) and here we are looking more specifically at HOW TO CREATE dynamic artistic forms.

The Japanese Rock Garden

A Chekhov Teaching Colleague from Russia taught me this and while it is not directly stated as a specific Chekhov tool, it comes in mighty handily when composing stage pictures. So we share what works, regardless of who claims to have baptized it first!

Their are 5 "stones" in the Japanese Rock Garden. These stones each have a specific function and contribute to create visual movement that has a clear feeling of wholeness and contrast.

The FOCAL POINT holds the audience's attention most strongly.
The SUPPORT STONE literally draws the audience's eyes to the FP. It is usually right next to, connected to, at the base of the FP. It can actually be two or more symmetrical stones acting as one unit.
The CONNECTING STONE unites the audience with the picture- it is normally closest to the audience and leads the audience into the scene.
The CONFLICT STONE creates tension in the image because it fights with the FP for attention, and it does not ultimately succeed.(If it did, it would be the FP).
The BACKGROUND frames the FP and can be a unit, similar to the Support Stones, in symmetry. It makes the FP standout.

Principles:

Each stone(or unit) is on a different plane(a 727 vs DC 10)...just kidding!
Each stone is a different distance from the audience, from the floor, ceiling, walls of the space.
For Actors, use the plane of the shoulders to distinguish these differences.
Make sure your shoulders are not the same plane as others. Tilt or rotate them, raise or lower them to create differences.

For example:

If the FP has shoulder square to the audience, then no other actor should have shoulders square to the audience and each other actors should be lower or higher than the FP. Make sure your shoulders are not the same plane as any others, unless you are part of a unit. Tilt or rotate them, raise or lower them to create differences. Parts of a unit should be identical or mirror images for balance.
If the FP is in the center of the stage, the Supports must be infront of or behind(different distance from Aud.) and to the right or left(different distance from the walls) and lower or taller(different distance from the floor and ceiling).

FOR ALL FUTURE ENSEMBLE MOVEMENT EXERCISES, WE WANT TO EMPLOY THESE SO THEY BECOME SECOND NATURE.

LOOK FOR EXAMPLES OF THIS IN CINEMATIC FRAMING, ART, PHOTOS, ETC.

EXTRA CREDIT:
TAKE SOME PIX AND SUBMIT THEM FOR POSTING.

REHEARSING MONOLOGUES, Feb. 13, 2008

Objective:

to yield control of the words to the tool
to release attachment to how it sounds
to develop veiling and unveiling skills
to cultivate activity of the tools in the whole body
to apply TPT to tools selection when crafting scores

Tips:

Intelligent actors can make the tools fit the words and while that can make it come out perfectly like you want, it fails to surprise you in the way a peak performance does.
KISS principle: The law of triplicity can be helpful to Keep It Simple, Sweetheart. Strongly encourage you to select a maximum of three tools in each score. It will be easier to remember what you want to do. You won't need to spend you concentration on remembering the order and what you want to do.

IMPORTANT: It only requires 2 tools and a transition between them to generate a monologue with the dynamics of TPT.

OVER ACTING comes when the actor has not engaged the entire body, usually abandoning the lower body by over charging the upper body. The lower body is then relegated to the task of keeping the actor from falling forward. We could say the lower body is not engaged in anything the character is doing, rather it is solely struggling for balancing the Actor. We might imagine that 95% of the character's energy is inhabiting the upper 50% of the actor's body. Maybe 5% of the character remains in the lower body.

February 18, 2008

CHARACTERIZATION

While Objectives and Actions don't change, motivations and emotions may not change, who the character is and how he or she pursues objectives, executes actions, expresses or represses emotions, is where "Characterization" comes into the picture.

Every single movement of the actor can be a movement of the character's. Characterization is where masterful actors distinguish themselves. Clear and strong characterization leads to expressions of thoughts, feelings and desires that are unique to each role an actor portrays.

ARCHETYPAL CHARACTERS

When we play different types, the "NESS" of the type can live in the personal atmosphere. For example: Every doctor character must have "doctorNESS", each law enforcer must have "enforcer-ness", each victim must have victim-ness, in order for us to relate to the character in its designated role in the story telling process. While keeping the archetypal essence in the personal atm. the actor can individuate the character through other tools of characterization, to avoid cliche.

In Chekhov's work there are three primary tools for characterization:

Character, Imaginary or Moveable Centers

Location: inside, around or in other
Quality: sensations, textures, animals, images
Mobility: fixed, spinning, shooting, pulsing, traveling

Imaginary Body or Portions of IB

Inspirations for this can come from objects, animals, architecture, portraits, music and other art and life forms.
Invite the image to appear and study it.
Use "Leading Questions" to help "see" or "sense" the body: What are the feet like?
You can start with any body part that reveals itself first. When nothing pops right out, I recommend starting from the ground up or top down.
Focusing on IB will often instantly produce a Moveable Center and vice versa. Therefore one doesn't need to do both.
The image is responsive to direction, so if you wish to change something that the image presents, ask it to show you what it would be like: taller, younger, etc. This is important because you must adapt to the needs of the director, text, blocking, etc. The image is always subject to your WILL and must respond.
There is no direction that your character will not do because it must respond to your will. This means if you are given a direction that seems "Wrong" or "undoable", it is most likely that the direction has scared you in some way. Find the beauty, make friends with the direction and invite the character to show you how it would take the direction rather than whether.
Remember to disconnect and restore your universal self, send the image to the world of imagination where it will always be available should you need it.

Trinity of the Psychology

Thinking
Feeling
Willing

Every person operates from one of these three forces in the psychology at all times. We all have the three, and one predominates, while the other two serve the preferences or submit to the preferences of the dominant force.
Please see both the Quick Reference Grid and the TFW Body Chart in the doc sharing section for clear details on how to physicalize these concepts by knowing where centers might be and how Imaginary Bodies might move.
Which force is dominant may change depending on the relationships and situations. For example, someone's thinking forces may dominate at work, while the feeling forces dominate in personal relationships.

The Ideal Universal Being will allow these three forces to shift to the optimal condition to meet the situation.
As artists we can strive for this kind of balance. However, our characters should be out of balance to maintain dramatic or comedic tension. A predominance of one over the other will affect movement patterns, speech patterns, centers and the imaginary body. It will lead to specific mannerisms along with a host of other behaviors.

Identify your own TFW patterns so that you can compare them with your character and then what is the same you acknowledge and trust it will reveal itself naturally and what is different, you rehearse.

Leading Questions:

How is my thinking different from my character's thinking?

How is my feeling different from my character's feeling force?

How is my will force different from my character's will?

About COLD READING

Cold Reading is rarely ever "cold" in the professional world of acting. In community theatre it is common and the auditors know and take into consideration this coldness. In the professional world, lack of preparation is the single largest complaint Casting Directors have of actors. When you are fortunate enough to have a meeting arranged, PREPARE at least three different ways!
Choose the way that tickles your fancy. Choosing the way you think they want it is a fear based decision.
If audition makes you nervous, call it a meeting like the folks in Hollywood do.
Express rather than Impress.
100% achievable objective is "to create or strengthen a relationship." This is how careers are built.
Your headshot could wind up in 1 of 3 files--

the Yes for NOW(one per role)
the NO Thankyou (unlimited in the size of the dumpster)
The YES FOR LATER (unlimited in size and the file that creates your relationships)

7. Leave 35 minutes before your appointment -15 for prep and 20 for traffic.
8. Sunshine entrance to waiting room, make friends iwth space, avoid social sabotage, do micro Staccato legato to calm self. Politely excuse self from conversation and ask to chat after you are both done, if you like. wish everyone well in your heart.
9. Enter room with sunshine. Put stuff down inside the door(the offstage area). Leaving nothing outside that you are worried about losing-it fractures your wholeness.
10. flip the switch to bring in the scene- atmosphere and objective are to me the most important. No characterizaiton as they presume you are the character. it is a rapid P, a focused A and S (sustain for three seconds)and a Stop that flips the sunshine back on and out.
11. Regardless of how poorly you may fear you did, hold your beauty and Ease, and exit with radiance at an efficient tempo-no racing , no lingering, don't overstay, over chat, etc. the length of time in the room has little bearing on your chances of being cast. If any, shorter may be better than longer.
12. Hang for two minutes, in case they want to see something else but don't figure that out until they chat while you are out of the room.
13. Exit gracefully from location, celebrate your work that you did from the moment you found out about the meeting. Flyback. "Did I create a relationship?"

13. Picture "HOPE" as living in a balloon. Target a date to release 'HOPE" as it can become an obsession over the past that sucks your energy for the present. If you know when first rehearsals are supposed to start, you could select that. When in doubt, allow yourself the same amount of "Hope" time as you prepared--one day before=one day after. After that point, cut the cord and let hope sail away with a bit of awe and appreciation

Psychological Gesture:

The purpose of a PG is to instantly transform yourself into the character.
By doing the PG 1-3X in a row:
The more powerful the images of what the gesture is, the more you think like the character.
The more emotional the movement, the more you feel the character's feelings.
The more strength with which you execute the gesture, the more your will is filled with the character's will.

A Half done gesture does half the job! Ask yourself if you have BBEEP'd your gesture if it isn't working.

There can be as many PG's for a character as there are objectives. This means there can be a Super Super PG that expresses the life wish or the ultimate state the character desires. Then there can be a Super PG or Overall PG that encompasses the action and nature of the character in the story. There can be PG's for Acts, Units, And Beats. There can be REACTION PG's that are responses to the gestures coming toward you from your partners, from the Atmosphere, from the internal conflict.

There can be PG's for the Play, for the Theme, for the Cast to the Audience, for the Atmospheres.

The actor performs the PG and can then proceed in different ways.
One way is for the Actor to use the PG as a springboard. having done it several times, the actor springs into the performance with the energy created by the physical doing of the PG and rides the waves of that through the scene, segment, act, etc.
Another way is for the actor to use it as a stepping stone, by inwardly repeating all or parts of the gesture, to continuously fuel the performance.

There are Three ways to get answers to your leading questions, such as what is the character's PG?

The 3 "I's

Inspiration--it comes instantly
Imagination-center yourself through the Ideal Artistic Center, go into the world of your unlimited imagination, invite the character to reveal the PG. If it won't, ask it to show you some behaviour. Incorporate the behaviour trying to see if you can inwardly feel the PG.
Intellect: Develop a compositionary gesture by asking three leading questions and make gestures from the answers:

What do I want? What is my aim, my purpose? "What for" do I want this?

What is my VICTORY gesture? How will I respond when I get what I want? What am I going toward?

What is my LOSS/Failure gesture? What do I feel inside that I can no longer tolerate? What am I avoiding?

Now do the gestures one after another, changing the order, reversing it. etc.
Next fill gesture 1 with the victory feeling at the end.
Then start with the Loss Gesture and transform into the #1 gesture, giving it BBEEP. Reverse the process.

Every single moment of the character's life can be expressed
somewhere between the start and end point- the loss and the action and the victory.

Rehearsing with the PG fully expressed, then veiling it, can lead to finding JEWELRY- small special touches on your character that are mannerisms, use of props, costumes, hands and feet that evolve organically from the psychology of the character.

Rehearsing any tool, One at a time as recommended, can lead to discovery of jewels. This boosts your unique creativity and makes your characters deeply memorable.

When you think about actors who win awards, it is not usually ones who go through extreme emotions. Rather it is one who renders multidimensional performances with nuance and specific ways of expressing those extreme emotions and the subtle ones. It is the actor who creates a character that the audiences can root for or against passionately.

To create superior dynamics in the climaxes, there are a number of tools and combinations of tools that can be used:

Dynamic Tempo and Rhythm changes
Reversing Radiating and Receiving
Switching Thinking, Feeling, Willing
Emphasizing the Loss aspect of the PG
Pauses-

a pause BEFORE prepares the audience for what is to come; they inhale.

a pause AFTER deepens the impact of what preceeded it; they exhale.

On going life as an actor:

We began this course with our PsychoPhysical Exercises-

Expansion/Contraction- the most basic pattern of movement- I think you can now see every tool has motion and these tools use expansion-contraction.
QOM-the Qualities of Movement represent the varying degrees of resistance that motion meets, using the images of the four elements: Molding/Sculpting-Earth; Flowing/Floating-Water; Flying-Air; Radiating-Fire. We see that all tools of Characterization and Emotion, of Gesture are in motion which could be described by these QOM's.
The Archetypal Gestures encompass every possible tactic to achieve an objective and live in the Psychological Gestures and Atmospheres as well.
Staccato/legato exercise contains all tempi/5 rhythms, and all of the above, heightening our artistic expression, building star quality.

These are the key to staying in tune as a performing artist. You can do this on your own or with others just as any other great performer would-like musicians, magicians, dancers, football players, boxers. The POA process can be just the ticket to living as a continuous artist, per Chekhov's recommendations. You will always be ready to deliver a peak performance. When you find yourself having great ideas that don't come out the way they might have, it means you have a mind-body disconnect. Doing these psychophysical exercises will insure that doesn't happen.

We then trained our feeling life, building tools to help us when we are emotionally dry.
The Three Sister Sensations represent the states of Equilibrium that are experienced physically, emotionally, mentally, morally, spiritually, socially. Moving and breathing with these purely technically can simulate the physiology of real feelings and simultaneously awaken feelings in you.

Moving and Breathing with Qualities and Sensations fills the actor from the inner world of the imagination with qualities that awaken emotions.

Overall Atmospheres fill the space with feelings and vibrations that are the most rapid way of connecting to the audience. Atmospheres linger in the being of the audience long after the event is over and become like comfort food to them. The Atmospheres affect everyone, unite the cast, the set, the sound, the wardrobe- all elements of the mise en scene. While the Sensations work from within the actor, atmospheres bring feelings towards the actor from the place and the events surrounding the character.

Personal Atmospheres fill the actor's personal space, bringing a certain essence or aura to the actor that is unique to the character. It moves with the character.

Our Four Brothers of Art awaken the BEEF. The Feelings of Beauty, Ease, Entirety(wholeness) and Form activate Star Quality and clear away inhibitions that could block your peak performances. When things are not going well, ask "Where's the beef?"

Characterization is that which makes each character a Prototype instead of a Charicature or StereoType or Repetition of YOU.

Center, Imaginary bodies and the Trinity of the Psychology- thinking, feeling, willing are the key ways to delineate the character. Personal Atmosphere can clarify the archetype of the character.

Radiating and Receiving as a set of tools, can be used for character as well as to build star quality.

All of these can be boldly applied or strongly veiled, depending on the form or Style of the acting.

For Auditions, Characterization is not as important as embodying the Archetype of the Character. Even when you are asked to "just be yourself" Chekhov recommends choosing a subtle imaginary part or center( a slightly longer neck) to lift you out of ordinary and into art in such a way that no one else realizes that you have done something yet they feel the extraordinary in the ordinary.

If you are ever in a situation where you are not getting anything to work with from your partner, Casting Director, your partner is absent, etc. try placing your partner's imaginary body in space and working with that.

Being over the top happens when the Feeling of Truth and Entirety are missing. It happens when part of your body is not included in the acting moment. Personal habits like leaning forward or to one side, clenching a fist, for example, block the flow of energy to that part of the body. When that happens, the acting feels forced and unbelievable. To counter act that, bring the energy into every part of the body--literally bring it down and distribute to the whole body and personal atmosphere.

Additional ways of building charisma and star quality include daily speaking the

ACTOR's MARCH

"I AM a Creative Artist"

This statement zaps any clouds of doubt about our talent. When spoken from the IAC, it truly empowers those who say it with commitment and vision.

"I have the ABILITY TO RADIATE"

his statement declares the truth of your ability to give and receive this talented creative artistry. Affirming this is important, because we are not actors unless we have an audience to whom we can give, and from whom we can receive.

"Lifting my arms above me, I soar above the earth."

In this statement we commit to our highest goals with passion.

"Lowering my arms, I continue to soar."

Here we affirm our ability to veil our power and talent with out diminishing it.

" In the air moving around my head and shoulders, I experience the power of thoughts."

We now affirm that the elements are supporting us and remind ourselves we have strong forces of thought as a resource and where they are located in us physically.

" In the air moving around my chest, I experience the power of feelings"

We now affirm that the elements are supporting us and remind ourselves we have strong forces of feelings as a resource and where they are located in us physically.

" In the air moving around my legs and feet, I experience the power of will."

We now affirm that the elements are supporting us and remind ourselves we have strong forces of will as a resource and where they are located in us physically.

This triplet aligns the Trinity of our Psychology- the TFW, helping to bring it into balance.

"I AM that I AM"

This final statement affirms the Creative Individuality that you are. This is the fuel of your Star Quality, your love and passion. The sharing of your creativity awakens it in audiences and brings forth a healing within you and within them.

We discussed Focal Points as a wonderful means of creating power in how we relate to other characters, as well as a means of organizing our lives. Anytime we don't know where to focus, we can check in with our OBJECTIVE and ask "Which focal point will move me closer to achieving my Objective?"

In understanding how to compose exciting performances, knowing what are the most significant moments becomes essential. Then, using dynamics, rock garden staging, tempo/rhythm and TPT, we build dynamic climaxes.

All basic plots are stories of GOOD VS EVIL. What or who is good or evil is subjective and evil ( conflict ) has three sources: within, between and without. The primary climax is most powerful when all three forces of conflict converge upon GOOD and Good is near total defeat.

Our Comparative Techniques segments
shows what Chekhov has in common with other approaches and how it differs.
The most significant differences are:

Chekhov believes the character already exists in your imagination independent of whether you are conscious of it. Every character is part of you but not the EVERY DAY you that the world knows. It is part of your HIGHER SELF.

One could say that Chekhov's definition of YOU includes your highest spirit and soul as well as your everyday practical self. Most other established techniques could be said to define YOU as your everyday practical self and you conscious memories. For example: Meisner asks us to be in the moment, responding from our instincts, based on unchecked reactions to the stimulous from our partners. Chekhov seeks the same "In the Moment" responsiveness but from through the Character's mask rather than the Actor's gut. Chekhov cautions the actor who uses their personal self as the basis of the character can lead to repetitive performances. Additionally, my experience is it leads to helplessness if your partner is lacking, and lack of coherence with the script if your personal reactions are quite different than what the story indicates.

Chekhov encourages turning inward to observe the wealth of knowledge in your unlimited imagination before relying upon observing the outer world. Turn to the outer world for verification and tweaking if necessary. This diverges from the Affective Memory Techniques of recalling personal experience. If you are asked to do a recall, and you don't want to, you can call the memory up in your imagination and observe it objectively identifying the atmospheres, the QOM's, maybe detect the PG's coming at you or from you. You can then leave the memory intact and go to the tool safely. Additionally, if you must use a painful memory, you can counteract the health damage by spending the same or more time recalling a really wonderful memory to balance and heal.

Chekhov believes you are a holistic system whose body is intimately and inextricably intertwined with your thoughts, dreams, imagination and memories. As such the entire being of the artist can be trained to transform itself into another being using repeatable and often simple means of expression combined with images. These characters have their own holistic systems. Stanislavsky's books state that we aim to create the soul of a character. This aligns with Chekhov's teachings.

Chekhov seeks to actively improve the person, help develop health and happy human beings. The work is based in the idea that you are inately talented and the greater health and balance you have, the more easily you can reveal that talent. Techniques that invite the actor to rely upon substitution or memory can lead actors to block personal balance and health out of the fear that they need dysfunction in order to have acting resources. This can lead people to self destructive behaviour. In keeping with this goal, one can create personal PG's to improve oneself- to recognize the hold something has on us by doing a fearful/raging/ pained gesture and transforming into a victorious, harmonious, balanced gesture. I call this a Spiritual Gesture and it can be used to center yourself for tests, to meet special challenges, release rages etc.

Chekhov invites us to know our selves and then compare our selves to our characters. This way, one can acknowledge that which is the same and know it is handled. We can then focus on the differences between us.

Technique is only needed when inspiration fails you. It only takes one tool to trigger inspiration. Once you are in the zone, no technique is needed. There are no tools in the center of the circle chart for inspiration.

The Chart for Inspired Acting is a splendid tool for instantly reminding us of all that is available to us to cultivate peak performance acting and living.

Calendar of Events
Based on the Chart For Inspired Acting from On The Technique of Acting.

Cultivate trust in your creativity and strengthen your expression of it.

This workshop will culminate in an ensemble work-in-progress performance of Scenes.
at 7:00 PM on Aug. 23, 2008.

Special focus will be on
Chekhov's Chart for Inspired Acting
Application to Scenes
Application to Improvisation
Clear teaching structure
Analysis to Synthesis

Scan the Foundation FAQ's and the TCU Information from the links to the left for more content information.

FOUNDATION COURSE FAQ's

TFW Graph for Quick Reference

March 7th, 2008

The Image of the Goblet is a very simple and inspiring structure that easily reminds us of the steps we take to prepare ourselves to receive inspiration. While we can not command ourselves to be inspired, we can create a most ready recepticle to receive inspiration by building the natural talents we have through mastering the tools Chekhov has given us. Then, through the special use of special tools for each special part, we create the chalice ready to catch inspiration when it pours forth.

spoon river composition

Our Spoon River Monologue Presentation Composition

Every one will wear a solid colored top with black pants and black socks.
Off Stage, the ensemble will radiate an atmosphere of mournful purgatory.
The ensemble begins to sing the first verse of Amazing Grace, and enters the space in harmony with the music and atmosphere, settling into a composition on the stage at the precise moment the song ends.
A pause, filled with radiating the atmosphere, is ended when someone breaks free from the sculpture and does his/her monologue.
The entire ensemble stays in a freeze during the monologue. Try to avoid direct eye contact with audience while in freeze.
When the monologue is performed, the actor may move in any way she/he wishes, may perform at varying degrees of veiling, may do an abstract form or gesture and then begin speaking. You may make direct eye contact with the audience and or with the ensemble.
The monologue must have polarity or contrast within it.
The actor sustains the final moment for 3 counts and then calls out a tool. It can be the last tool the actor used or it can be random. Try not to repeat tools already used in the transformations.
The ensemble moves using the tool unveiled as they shift in about 3 counts into a new sculpture and pause at exactly the same moment.
After a beat, another actor breaks the form and does a monologue.
Continue until all actors have presented two contrasting versions of their monologues.
When the ensemble senses the final actor has completed his/her second monologue, begin to sing Amazing Grace with an atmosphere of elation, as if this sharing of thoughts amongst the souls in this cemetery has allowed them to be released from purgatory to ascend to heaven.
While elatedly singing the first verse of Amazing Grace, move into a line across the stage, and taking hands, bow and raise intertwined hands for the final moment.

Synthesis
1. When we get the part, we must begin to synthesize all of the information we gather into our performance.
To begin, Stanislavsky,Vahtkangov and Chekhov all recommend making a list of first impressions that you will later reflect upon to see if there is anything you want to add, that you lost sight of, or that was not ready for inclusion earlier.

Identify the basic plot structure of GOOD VS EVIL.
Find the nine events that serve as the switching points on the track of the plot, without which the plot can not unfold as it does.

Memorize and rehearse the major climaxes, beginning and end first so the hardest and most signifcant parts get the most attention.

Chekhov's first questions to Mala Powers when he coached her were: is it primarily a radiating or receiving character? is it primarily a thinking, feeling, or will dominated character? How does your radiating and receiving, your TFW differ from your character?
Early on, begin making friends with your business, costume parts(especially shoes) and props.
Work on different tools for each run or rehearsal one at a time, they will layer themselves naturally.

When searching for objectives, PG or any other answers, the THREE I's are the path:
Inspiration- it just comes
Imagination(activate through leading questions, invite character)( make up answers and try them as if the idea were inspired!)
Intellect- analyze the material and find tools to synthsize it.

To get the objective into your body, create a gesture(a movement + intention=gesture), For PG: three compositionary gestures: #1. what I want, #2.what will happen if i get it-victory, (imageof objective fulfilled); #3. what will happen if i don't-loss(images of disatrous consquences-what i want to avoid or get away from). Start from loss gesture and transform into action gesture #1. Put victorious quality into end of gesture #1. You now have BBEEP- ONE Breath, body, extreme, Effort that is PASSed.

There can be as many PG's for a character as there are objective, units, and beats. There can be one overall PG and momentary PG's. there is no limit, there is no requirement to use any technique. Technique is only to be used when you are not fully inspired. During inspired periods, no conscious technique is needed. focus upon a single tool can trigger inspiration- Inhale Inspiration, Exhale Expression.

Use tempo and rhythm shifts to build to climaxes. Generate all three sources of conflict at once-inner, outer, betweener:), craft atms with tpt. shift dominant characteristics such as radiating to receiving, willing to feeling.etc.

If other actors think you are weird or are jealous, bring them into your process, find the beauty in their vulnerability, trust you can get both your work fully explored and maintain the social graces.

When you have lots of choices, try as many as you can as if you believe each is the best, then flyback to see which one tickles your heart most! choose that one while being ready to give it up for the directors idea, or ready to show your other ideas.

Inspire creativity through leading questions.

If you don't like your partners, find something to appreciate about them. cultivate nonjudgement and compassion, BEEF. If you don't like the space, the set, costume, props- if you are nervous or uncomfortable, MAKE FRIENDS to free your talent.

e-mail
info@chekhov.net