Sunday, July 06, 2025

Notes on Michael Chekov

 Refusal to exploit an actors personal feelings in his art; instead there should be a clear differentiation between the actor as a person and the actor as artist - and these two identities belong to fundamentally different realms or dimensions.



Instead of taking the actor's personal emotional experiences, Chekov based his own method on the capabilities of an 'ideal' imagination.

Imitating the imaginary character - which is always 'ideal' in its nature - seemed to Chekov to make a performance more objective.

This shift in emphasis marked the end of Chekov's period as Stanislavsky's pupil and the beginning of his search for the 'ideal' nature of theatre art in general and acting in particular.

Reaching towards artistic objectivity opened, for Chekov, the gates to a high state of inspiration and free improvisation, which in his method of acting are not just brief and chance moments in performing they are its basic principles.

Naturalism in art was no less an enemy to him than communism in life: both were alien to the spirituality - idealistic in its very nature - which was so dear to Chekov.

In actual fact, he spent the rest of his life continually 'emigrating' - and not just from everyday life and political circumstances: as an artist who had discovered and adopted the 'ideal' nature of performance, he 'emigrated' from non-idealistic theatre into the 'ideal' realm of art. (The Path of the Actor, Chekov - Pg 4-5)

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Marco Almeida
Updated: August 24, 2013
Re; Incorporation & Characterization
The actor imagines with his body. He cannot avoid gesturing or moving without responding to his own internal images. The more developed and stronger THE IMAGE, the more it stimulates the actor to physically incorporate it with his body and voice.
On this NATURAL ability of the actor we base our principle of Incorporation.
Let us say the actor has visualized a character in his imagination that he is going to perform in the stage. It gradually becomes clearer in his minds eye.
It would be wrong to force his body to fully incorporate the image because that would cause an immediate shock to his system. The effort would be physically short circuited.
The first bodily expression would not be like the internal image. The actor would be compelled to be untruthful in his means of expression to create the character-image.
Performers will frequently mobilize all their habits of speaking and moving in order to pretend that their old worn-out clichés are just what the character needs.
Instead of these banal means the actor should look upon the character in his imagination, seeing it moving, hearing it speaking, thus displaying its inner life before his mind's eye.
But the actor must notice the other person's characteristic features with humor and not with criticism. He must form the habit of making such observations; then, when the circumstances allow, he must try to imitate, to incorporate all the characteristic features he has accumulated during his observations.
This valuable material will be stored in the actor's subconscious and, being forgotten, will appear of itself when needed, in a transformed, individualized way.
It will enrich and stir the actor's inventiveness and surely will cure him of clichés. It will teach him to see things that others don't see.
(Chekov, On the Technique of Acting, Pgs95-100)
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    Marco Almeida
    Re; Imaginary Time & Space
    Look at our Feelings. All of them have a clearly expressed tendency to "break" the boundaries of actual time and space.
    Joy, love, and all kinds of excitement seem to live in "larger" space and "shorter" time than, for instance, sorrow, grief, and longing, which use "less" space and "longer" time.
    Instead of trying to raise us to the imaginative level of true dramatic creation, they have brought the theatre down to our level. Everything that is actual must undergo a strange metamorphosis, a kind of sea-change, before it can become truth.
    Re; Creating Character Through Psychological Gesture
    Each character has one main desire, and one characteristic manner of fulfilling this desire. The desire of the characters his Will, ("what"), and his manner of fulfilling it is its Quality ("how").
    Since the Psychological Gesture is composed of the Will, permeated with the Qualities, it can easily embrace and express the complete psychology of the character.
    This work can be done simultaneously with the attempt, with the series of attempts, to create a Psychological Gesture for the character as a whole.
    (Chekov, On The Technique of Acting, Pgs81-91)


    • Marco Almeida
      Re; Beyond the Limits of the Body
      The weak and anemic Psychological Gesture cannot awaken the actor's Will and Feelings.
      The inner impulse, the initial activity, should not be stopped.
      It can and must go on, regardless of the body's inability to follow.
      Each gesture can be continued inwardly as long as we wish.
      Whether we stretch out our hand and continue the imaginary stretching out or squeeze our fist tightly, in which case the activity itself seems to be fixed, there is no difference. The clenched fist obviously comes to a fixed state, but what prevents us from continuing the "clenching energy?" In our imagination we are free to clench our fist for any length of time.
      Thus we are freed from the bonds of the physical body, and this activity is the actual strength of the Psychological Gesture.
      This internal activity is apt to awaken the actor's Will-impulse and the fire of his Feelings.
      (Chekov On The Technique of Acting, Pgs80-81)
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        Marco Almeida
        August 10, 2013
        Re; The Psychological Gesture
        [Psychological States & Gestures]
        All languages use 1- idiomatic expressions related to physical activity 2- and gesture to describe complicated psychological states. 3- The imagined movements, which have become enchanted in our speech and thought, 4- are gestures of everyday life. 5- But as applied to our psychological life, we produce them in our minds instead of in our bodies.
        (a) Each individual psychological state is always a combination of thoughts (or Images), Feelings, and Will-impulses are the prevailing ones at that particular time.
        (b) But all three functions are present and active in each PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT.
        (c) Therefore, the psychological gesture gives him the full opportunity to se it a the Action (or Gesture) with appropriate Qualities and Images.
        (d) Thus, we may say that the same movement in one case is physical (Gesture) and in the other psychological (Qualities & Images).
        (e) "Psychological Gesture," = means the Gesture together with the Feelings connected with it.
        (d) We shall apply this term to visible (actual) gestures as well as to invisible (potential) gestures.
        What was the Psychological Gesture he used for his exploratory work? It was acting - inner participation in the life conjured behind the printed words of the author's script. HIS KNOWLEDGE WAS NOT SUPERFICIAL.
        How could it be if through the (e) Gesture he had experienced the (f) Will and through the (g) Quality he had found the (h) FEELINGS that the author himself had while creating his drama?
        HE UNDERSTANDS THE PLOT, THE CONTENT, NO LESS THAN ANYONE ELSE, BUT IT IS NOT CENTERED IN HIS BRAIN ONLY - IT IS SPREAD OVER HIS WHOLE ACTOR'S BEING.
        It lives in his hands, arms, torso, feet, legs, and in his voice.
        He feels capable of expressing it as an actor, but not as a critic or an analytical scientist.
        Through the Gesture with Qualities, he knows more true and profound things about the play and the character than the scientist ever could.
        (Chekov, On The Technique of Acting, Pgs58-63)
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          Marco Almeida
          Aug. 4, 2013
          This is probably one of the most important aspects of mind an actor must have in order to act, the psychological nature of 'feelings'. - Marco Almeida
          Re; The Feeling of Form
          The actor will acquire a kind of "aesthetic consciousness" that will tell him how to use his body's various parts.
          His head is connected with thoughts, ideas, and spiritual activity.
          In its round form it reflects the universe (macrocosm), becoming a kind of little world (microcosm).
          The head crowns the human body - it rests upon it.
          The head is expressive only as a whole, through its difference positions on the neck and shoulders; as a round form from it cannot and should not make any "gesture"; that artificial smiling, forced frowning, imposed sorrow, and other "expressions" on the actor's face are nothing other than illegitimate attempts to make "gestures" with the head.
          The actor will become more and more adverse to the tendency to grimace, and will begin to prize the face as the "mirror" that freely radiates the actor's affections, moods, and so forth.
          The eyes will become especially expressive when the actor refuses to pull the fine muscles of his face forcibly, and real inner beauty will shine from such a free face.
          The chest, arms, and hands are connected with the beating of the heart and rhythmical breathing.
          This is the sphere of the feelings.
          The hands and arms are moveable forms, permeated with feelings.
          As the freest of our organs, they are predestined for creative work, and are capable of expressing outwardly the inner life of man.
          The fear of losing "naturalistic truthfulness" on stage bars us from the real truthfulness of art.
          Naturalistic values will not suffer in the least from the fine, artistic "overtones" that envelop them in the form of rhythm.
          The Will dwells in the legs and feet.
          Their form expresses their function, which is to move the human body through space, according to man's ideas and feelings.
          See how characteristic and individual the legs and feet are when moving our bodies through space.
          There is a string Will, which easily becomes lame, and there is a prolonged Will that grows on obstacles. There is a flexible, a stiff, a conscious Will, a sleepy Will, a contrary Will, which always wishes things different than they are, a social Will that works in one with great power when it feels that others share it, and an isolated Will, which loses its joy when others acquiesce with it.
          There is a straight Will, a crooked Will, an outer, an inner, non-spiritual, materialistic, an egotistical Will.
          The actor's meditative efforts will, in time, make his body "wiser"
          (Chekov - On The Technique of Acting, Pgs52-55)
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            Marco Almeida
            Re; The Actor's Body (Its main figurative elements)
            1- There are no purely physical exercises 2- these would be useless, since our primary aim is to penetrate all the parts of the body 3- with fine psychological vibrations. 4- This process makes the physical body more and more sensitive in its ability to receive our inner impulses 5-and to convey them expressively
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              Marco Almeida
              Re: Mission of Atmosphere
              Deprived of Atmosphere, a performance becomes greatly mechanized.
              It can be intellectually understood, its technical skill can be appreciated, and yet it will remain cold and heartless.
              This obvious fact is often obscured by the individual feelings of actors flashing here and there during the performance.
              In a materialistic era such as ours, people are ashamed of their feelings. They suppress and hide them.
              The great mission of the contemporary actor is to save the objective Atmosphere in the theatre and with it to rescue the human facet of her profession.
              Re; Individual Feelings
              It is possible for the imaginative actor to "see" the Feelings of his characters and the Atmospheres of the play.
              This enables him to become free of his conventional and personal responses
              ===============
              Re; Action with Qualities
              Arousing Feelings without forcing them immediately. Our doing, our action, is always in our will, but not our Feelings.
              Here lies the key:
              the feeling was called forth, provoked, attracted indirectly by our "business," doing, action.
              Without coloring our action with Qualities, the Feelings might have remained passive.
              You can take almost any noun or abstract idea, any image in your mind, and turn it into feelings if you approach the problem through the right channels.
              ===============
              Re; Action is "what; Quality is "how"
              Quality is connected with the Feelings, so the Action comes from the realm of the Will. The Action, the movement, the gesture - what do they express? What do they speak about? They tell us what one's Will is aiming at.
              The Will is always directed toward a certain goal, a certain aim.
              The Action (and Will) expresses "what" happens, whereas the Quality (and Feelings) shows "how" it happens.
              The Will echoes the Gesture, REACTS on it.
              Only Gestures that are properly done can arouse the actor's Will.
              (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pgs35-39)


    Marco Almeida
    Re; Individual & Objective Feelings [Updated: July 25, 2013]
    That is what our experience shows us in innumerable instances in life as well as on the stage. For instance, you may enter a room in which a gay, festive Atmosphere will envelop you, but your personal mood may be gloomy and depressed.
    (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - pg32)
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      Marco Almeida
      The following re; Objective Atmosphere & Individual Feelings = is most poignant aspect to understand how an actor truly functions. It is critical to the dynamic between ideals of acting with those of an actor. I am an actor that visualizes a lot of what the scene is born from, an organic experience of my own mind. (Marco Almeida, 2013)
      1- Actors have differing conceptions about theatrical space. 2- The stage is always filled with Atmospheres, the source of ineffable moods and waves of feeling that emanate from one's surroundings. 3- Actors who outgrow the phlegmatic conception of the stage as an empty space know that Atmosphere is one of their strongest means of expression, as well as an unbreakable link between them and their audiences. These artists always look instinctively for the Atmospheres around them in their everyday surroundings, and they find them everywhere.
      Atmospheres for the artist are comparable to the different keys in music. They are a concrete means of expression. The performer must listen to them just as he listens to music.
      Re; Atmosphere & Content
      Atmospheres enable the actor to create the element of the play and the part that cannot be expressed otherwise. Although the spectator may understand the sublime text and enjoy the beauty of Shakespeare's verse, he or she will still miss something of the content. And what is the content? It is love itself.
      All FEELINGS require a specific Atmosphere to be conveyed to the audience.
      Without the proper Atmospheres radiating from the actor, Atmosphere reveals the content of the performance.
      Re; The Bond Between Actor & Audience
      Consider how many shallow means they employ in an effort to "trick" the audience's attention. The performance is in reality a mutual creation of actors and audience, a medium with which the audience can inspire the actors by sending them waves of confidence, understanding and love. THEY WILL RESPOND THUS IF THEY ARE NOT COMPELLED TO LOOK INTO EMPTY PSYCHOLOGICAL SPACE.
      Re; Atmosphere Inspires the Actor
      The actor will also receive the necessary inspiration for his acting from the Atmosphere directly.
      Just as in everyday life one speaks, moves, and acts differently when surrounded by different Atmospheres, so on stage the actor will realize that the Atmosphere urges him to new nuances in his speech, movements, actions, and feelings.
      Undoubtedly he will enjoy the unbreakable series of improvised and unconscious details in his acting.
      The space, the air around the actor, will always be filled with life, and this life - which is the Atmosphere - will also keep him alive as long as he maintains contact with it.
      1- the actor in reality while preparing a part = is another means of rehearsing through which the actor will always discover new content, new meaning, new values in his part, new significant facets of the character, and new means of expression. CONCEPTUALLY = IT WILL BRING HS CHARACTER INTO FULL HARMONY WITH THE REST OF THE PLAY AND WITH OTHER CHARACTERS. 2- Atmospheres within a play will be investigated, decided upon, and rehearsed as exactly as the dialogue or mise-en-scene. 3- The division of the play into scenes and acts need have no connection with the division of Atmospheres.
      4- As a result, the actor, instead of waiting for the inspiration of an Atmosphere to "accidentally come to him." 5 - Sensitivity toward Atmospheres will undoubtedly notice that his first and general acquaintance with the part fills him with a certain definite, all-embracing Atmosphere. 6- When we fail to use Atmospheres consciously, an initial and important grip on our part is lost. Atmospheres at the beginning of an artistic endeavor are like a seed that contains the potential of the whole mature plant.
      Re; Atmosphere Stirs Personal Feelings
      The Atmosphere, like the well-developed imagination, stirs and awakens Feelings within us that are the essence of our art. One cannot live in the Atmosphere of the scene or the whole play without immediately reacting to it with one's Feelings. The feelings, in this case, arise organically of themselves, without being forced or squeezed out of our soul.
      Although both individual and objective Feelings may be different (and even belong to different realms - one comes from within, the other from without), often both are present at the same time and in the same "space."
      (Chekov, On The Technique of Acting - Pgs26-32)
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        Marco Almeida
        Re; Concentration
        How can the actor keep his grasp firmly on the turbulent world of fiery images? From where will he find the strength to fix these movable, flexible images?
        The actor who can concentrate well makes a stronger impression upon the audience because all his acting becomes clearly shaped, sure, explicit. Vagueness disappears in his behavior on the stage, and his presence on the boards grows more and more important.
        Re; 'Discard first images'
        It must be remembered that courage is needed to discard first images and to resist being too easily satisfied, What has already been found will never be lost, but will be transformed and purified in one's subconscious.
        Thus the standard of the actor's imagination will grow and with it a love for completion, in which actors of our time are so lacking. It will also become a great stimulus for the imagination to reveal to us new and unknown things.
        (Chekov On the Technique of Acting re; July 2013)
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          Marco Almeida
          re; The objectivity of humor
          (a) laughing comes from the developed self (b) forget his self-interest in normal surroundings. His care for others often overstepped even the limits of reason.
          (c) humor was as great as his capacity for self-denial; therefore, he saw more than the people around him, and often his quiet, unexpected laughter brought embarrassment.
          Such a man laughs easily even at himself, at times when other people become irritated and angry.
          Of course it was not broad humor; it was the quality of self-denial that gave him the ability to describe children with love and great humor.
          First, the individual interpretation of the plays and parts; second, the ability to distinguish between the powers of good and evil; third, the relationship of the actor to the time in which he lives; and last, the objectivity of humor through the liberation of the actor from his narrow, selfish ego.
          All this widen the mental outlook of the actor, sharpens his perceptions, and makes his artistic work more significant.
          (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting, Pgs24-25)
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            Marco Almeida
            Re; The objectivity of Humor
            The more conscientiously we develop our Higher Ego, the more this grants us the faculty of humor. When we can detach our immediate egotistical reactions from everyday emotional events and interactions, they often reveal themselves in a really humorous light. The more our higher self is trained, the more likely we are to leave personal things behind us.
            Many things that previously excited us emotionally, and therefore hid from us their humorous features, now show themselves completely.
            "humor through self-denial"
            (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pg24)
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              Marco Almeida
              The modern director and actor must know the audience, its power and weakness, its leading and misleading influences. It cannot be dependent upon the second-hand opinions of "specialists," but must be based upon the personal experience of meeting the audience in imagination and in reality.
              (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pg23)
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                Marco Almeida
                Re; Contemporary Life
                . . .the actor must ask himself how he can relate his art to this panorama of struggle.
                It is through the medium of the spectator that we find a full creative approach that links us to the world and its times.
                . . .people often want to experience something other than that which they need to experience.
                The comparison is clear. Vakhtangov created for the audience, the playwright for himself.. No doubt his drama was deeply moving, but it did not come through because he wrote it without any connection with an audience.
                All of this was because he was a strong individual, who comprehended the problem of good and evil, and knew how to open his consciousness to the audience and to humanity in general.
                (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pgs21-22)
                Marco Almeida
                Re; Discernment of Good and Evil
                Everything in our art is built on the dynamic of the constant conflict between good and evil. This may seem to be an obvious truth, but consider how often we see artists - as well as people in everyday life - who are inclined to worship power as such, and to become intoxicated by it without distinguishing what kind of power it is.
                It is well known that this acceptance of unqualified and limitless control over others is detrimental to our social order.
                It is not so obvious to the actor in his own sphere, however, that the inability to distinguish between good and evil makes his character flat on stage.
                He misses all the various nuances in his performance and forces himself to bluntly express the notion of power in general.
                All sorts of clichés, bodily tensions, and so on, creep into the actor's work.
                . . .if they find response and comprehension, can give the actor the key to the very heart, the dynamic and inner composition, of the play and of acting itself.
                (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pgs19-20)
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                  Marco Almeida
                  Re; The Higher Ego
                  Suppose a group of painters sat before the same landscape with their paints, and each promised himself faithfully to record the view before him. What would be the result? Several entirely different pictures would emerge. Why is this so? Because the artists did not paint the landscape, but their own individual conception of it, one made possible by each painter's Creative Individuality. They painted exactly the same subject, but they did not render the landscape that they saw outwardly; they painted the landscape within themselves. The voice of each artist's Creative Individuality inspired his particular interpretation.
                  The actor will more adequately express his reverence, if he allows the spark of his individual fire to be kindled by flame, instead of sycophantically and coolly "obeying" by giving an impersonal recitation of text from the stage.
                  The aim of our Creative Individuality is not to be confused with propaganda, which is a preconceived and schematically devised and fixed expression.
                  (Chekov On the Technique of Acting - Pg 16-18)
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                    Marco Almeida
                    (a1) How often is his day-to-day life unexpectedly simple, (a2) in contrast to his professional life in which (a3) he is an exceptional individuality.
                    (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pg15-16)

                    Marco Almeida
                    Chapter 2: The Higher Ego
                    Our artistic natures have two aspects: 1- one that is merely sufficient for our ordinary existence 2- and another of higher order that marshals the creative powers in us.
                    Both of these two functions are clearly perceptible in a developed artist.
                    By accepting the (a) objective world of the imagination, the independent interplay of our images, (b) and the depth of the subconscious activity in our creative lives, (c) we open up the very limited boundaries of our "personalities." (d) We confront the Higher Ego.
                    (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pg15)
                    Marco Almeida
                    (a1) How often is his day-to-day life unexpectedly simple, (a2) in contrast to his professional life in which (a3) he is an exceptional individuality.
                    (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pg15-16)


                    Marco Almeida
                    On the purpose of romanticizing a fictionalized character:
                    For artists with mature imagination, images are living beings, as real to their minds' eyes as things around is are visible to our physical eyes. Through the appearance of these living beings, artists "see" an inner life. They experience with them their happiness and sorrows; they laugh and cry with them and they share the fire of their feelings.
                    (Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pg4)


                    Marco Almeida
                    Thinking and reasoning alone will not help him - the sense of truth is the principle that counts.
                    (Chekov On the Technique of Acting Pg6)


                    Marco Almeida
                    It is of great importance for the actor to develop a kind of "instinct," which will show him where to deviate from the "logic" of his images.


                    Marco Almeida
                    This longing for knowledge makes the real artist brave.
                    He never adheres to the first image for another more intense and expressive, and he does this repeatedly until new and unknown visions strike him with their revealing spell.
                    Would it not be better for an artist to say that he has built his convictions upon his art? But this is only true of the artist who is really gifted.
                    Poor indeed is the imagination that leaves the artist's mind cold, and poor indeed is the influx of wisdom to such an artist, when one hears him say, "I have built my art upon my convictions.
                    Haven't we noticed that the less talented the person is, the earlier he forms his "convictions" and the longer he tenaciously clings to them?
                    Chekov, On the Technique of Acting, Pg6

                    Marco Almeida
                    Would it not be better for an artist to say that he has built his convictions upon his art? But this is only true of the artist who is really gifted.
                    The more the artist develops his ability to imagine, the more he comes to the conclusion that there is something in this process that somehow resembles the process of logical thinking.
                    (Michael Chekov - On the Technique of Acting, Pg6)

1 comment:

BigC said...

Marco Almeida
The following are my unique look into what Chekov's motives are to conceptually adopt and apply:
What you have to learn is how to sustain the imaginary Atmosphere that now envelops you.
After a certain period of time, when you feel sure of being able to imagine and sustain the Atmosphere around you, proceed to the next step.
Try to relate the reaction inside you to that of the imaginary Atmosphere outside. Do not force yourself to feel anything, simply realize the reaction, which will appear.
The whole value of this exercise will be lost if you impatiently impose the reaction upon yourself, instead of letting it grow freely.
Now move and speak within the Atmosphere. Start with simple movements and a few words, trying to establish full harmony between them and the Atmosphere. Frequently, we are able to maintain a strong Atmosphere if we are silent and motionless, but as soon as we speak or make a movement we ARE INCLINED TO DESTORY IT.
The Atmosphere must remain around you and your movements and words must be born out of it. The harmony will be achieved more easily and organically if you avoid any pretension, any attempts to "perform" such harmony as if someone were looking at you.
-Reach the point where your speech and movements will intensify rather than diminish the Atmosphere.
You can strengthen this result by making the effort to radiate the inner life that has been awakened in you through the objective Atmosphere.
1. Imagine the air around you filled with a certain Atmosphere.
2. Become aware of the reaction within you.
3. Move and speak in harmony with the Atmosphere.
4. Radiate it back into the space around you.
(Chekov, On the Technique of Acting - Pgs32-34)
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