Michael Chekhov’s Pedagogy from Europe to America, Volume I : Discovering a Holistic Dramatic Method

This study describes and applies the pedagogical method of the actor, director, and dramatic theorist, Michael Chekhov (1891-1955), as a unique phenomenon in the broader context of modern theatre history.

This study describes and applies the pedagogical method of the actor, director, and dramatic theorist, Michael Chekhov (1891-1955), as a unique phenomenon in the broader context of modern theatre history. This volume shows how Chekhov took the principles he learned as a student and then as a colleague of Konstantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre and developed them into a new humanistic and holistic dramatic method. Chekhov emphasized images, imagination, psycho-physical acting, a sense of spiritual grounding, ease, centers, atmospheres, and specific techniques that have become famous, such as Psychological Gesture. Chekhov’s method found notable followers in his lifetime and continued to thrive after his death, not only onstage and in films and television, but also in classes taught by his disciples. Volume One provides a historical background, sets Chekhov’s pedagogy in the context of his artistic career describes the basic elements of Chekhov’s method in relation to those of Stanislavsky and other practitioners, and analyzes the presentation of his techniques in his published works. The volume then offers a narrative of the author’s experience learning the Chekhov techniques with the Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA). The chapters are supported by an extensive bibliography, a glossary, and chronologies of Chekhov’s life as well as the teaching of his method, brief biographies of famous actors associated with the Chekhov method, and the Los Angeles County Probate Court documents relating to the death of Michael Chekhov and Xenia Chekhov. This collection will be of great interest to students and scholars in performance studies.