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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 your conscious
memories. For example: Meisner asks us to be in the moment,
responding from our instincts, based on unchecked reactions to the
stimulus from our partners. Chekhov seeks the same "In the Moment"
responsiveness but through the Character's mask rather than the
Actor's gut. Chekhov cautions actors that use of their personal self as
the basis of the character can lead to repetitive performances.
Additionally,using reaction as your primary basis for acting, in my experience is can lead 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. It can cultivate judgments of your partner and a lack of self sufficiency.
- Chekhov encourages turning inward to observe the
wealth of knowledge in your unlimited imagination before relying upon
observing the outer world. This inner observation preceding the external supports you to fill your work with your creative impulse before using imitation of real life. Turn to the outer world for verification and
tweaking if necessary.
The Chekhov Technique invites the artist to expand the definition of Truth, to be conscious that truth is in relationship to universal and archetypal truth and is relative to style and character. This aligns with Meisner's reference in his book to Michael Chekhov stating that he learned that "Truth as in naturalism is far from the whole truth and I wanted that too."
- Chekhov believes we can use purified sensations to awaken artistic feelings for the character. This diverges from the Affective Memory
Techniques of recalling personal experience. These artistic sensations are more available to the audience who can personalize them. Use of the actor's personal feelings may awaken curiosity, interest or sympathy in the audience as they witness the performance. Chekhov inspires us to awaken the audience's feeling life, taking them beyond a mental witnessing state into empathy and the audience's own 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. While Mr. Chekhov clearly states that at no time did Stanislavsky intend for Affective Recall to be used for performance,
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 uses tempo and rhythm as a strong component of the actor's expression and to create dynamics in the compositional arc of the story. This aligns with Stanislavsky's use of Tempo/Rhythm.
- 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 innately 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 behavior. 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 and play with the differences between us because the similarities are already present.
- 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. |
