- published: 11 Jun 2012
- views: 13878
Mikhail Aleksandrovich "Michael" Chekhov (Russian: Михаил Александрович Чехов, 29 August 1891 – 30 September 1955) was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner. His acting technique has been used by actors such as Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, and Yul Brynner. Konstantin Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student. He was a nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov.
Although mainly a stage actor, he made a few notable appearances on film, perhaps most memorably as the Freudian analyst in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), for which he received his only Academy Award nomination.
He was born in Saint Petersburg the son of Alexander Chekhov and his wife Natalya Golden. It was his father's second marriage his mother, a Russian Jew, having been the governess to his children from his first marriage. He was raised in a middle-class family his father being in the Imperial Customs Service as well as a moderately successful writer. Chekhov's first wife (1915–1919) was actress Olga Chekhova born Knipper, whom he met at the MAT First Studio. (She was named after her aunt, the wife of Anton Chekhov.) Their daughter, also baptized Olga, was born in 1916, she became a German actress under the name Ada Tschechowa. Olga Chekhova was a daughter of Konstantin Knipper and the niece and namesake of Olga Knipper, Anton Chekhov's wife. His second wife was Xenia Ziller, of German origins.
Michael Chekhov Technique - p.1 Graham Dixon on Archetypal Principles
Michael Chekhov Techniques with Lisa Dalton
Actors discuss Part 5: Michael Chekhov method and acting process
Michael Chekhov Technique samples
Michael Chekhov Technique - p.3 Graham Dixon on Psychological Gesture
Michael Chekhov Technique Film Samples of Ken Kerman with Lisa Dalton
Joe Herrera, NMCA Certified Teacher On Michael Chekhov's Expansion/Contraction & MFFR
Day 2 Oslo International Acting Festival 2012: Michael Chekhov Technique and acting training.
Michael Chekhov For Actors
Michael Chekhov Technique DVD trailer (LONG VERSON PART ONE)
Lisa Dalton, National Michael Chekhov Association (NMCA) master teacher, introduces from the studio in Los Angeles, excerpts from a Michael Chekhov technique class which addresses objective and style. She offers a brief introduction to who Michael Chekhov was and then we move into the classroom with glimpses of exercises and feedback from the actors' experiences. Lisa concludes with an excellent discussion on the difference between Chekhov and Recalling personal memories as well as how Meisner's personal Moment-to-Moment is different from the character's moment-to-moment. Playful, highly physicalized improvisations with different film genre styles provide a means to freeing the actors' body and imagination. www.chekhov.net and www.lisadalton.com
Feature length doco Director and Actor - Passions, Process and intimacy with Dalip Sondhi is now available to order here: http://www.artfilms.com.au/Detail.aspx?ItemID=4802 Check out the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtnk_4UEpsI&list; http://www.alucinorproductions.com Alucinor Productions, Video Production Perth, Western Australia Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Alucinor-Productions-379120801022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlucinorP Tumblr: http://alucinor-productions.tumblr.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alucinor_productions/ BLOG: http://www.alucinorproductions.com/blog.html
Clips of actors using Michael Chekhov Acting techniques. (we are still adjusting the titles!) This first clip is from the 1994 Third International Michael Workshop at Forest Row, UK. Lisa Dalton plays the Actress, under the direction and offstage presence of Jack Colvin as the Author. Jack was a protege of MC and mentor to Lisa, teaching her the Sensations of Falling, Balancing, Floating which Chekhov was developing before he died in 1955. This was the first introduction of these tools to the world and they are now taught regularly as part of the Technique. more information on them can be found in the articles section of www.chekhov.net. Here, Lisa is primariy working with the tool of Balancing....she is struggling to maintain her emotional balance while being questioned and dismissed...
Actor Ken Kerman uses Michael Chekhov Techniques for Film and TV. Description points out different tools developed with National Michael Chekhov Association (NMCA) Master Teacher, Lisa Dalton. Psychological Gestures, Atmosphere, Thinking, Feeling, Willing, Radiation, Imaginary Body are some of the techniques used on shows including NYPD Blue, Las Vegas, King of Queens, Full House, Homefront, Martial Law.
Joe Herrera, NMCA Certified Teacher introduces The Michael Chekhov Acting technique: a Psycho-physical approach to acting that uses the imagination, the body, energy and movement as the source of creativity and inspired acting. Waking Up the Instrument: These are basic Psycho-Physical exercises one can do daily to increase an actors freedom to express whatever image he/she imagines. it promotes creativity, freedom of expression, fluidity in the actors instrument and a basic understanding of how energy moves.These become, through daily-continual practice/observation/application, the foundation of cultivating more frequent states of inspired action/acting! They are the scales of an actor! Expansion/Contraction is the most basic pattern of movement. It is the grand archetype of all motion...
Debate moderated by Gianluca Iumiento
Actors, directors and teachers trained by Michael Chekhov Brasil talk about their personal and professional experience following Michael Chekhov's artistic vision. Directed by Thaís Loureiro Michael Chekhov Brasil www.michaelchekhov.com.br
This is the first part of a longer trailer for a 6.5 hour series entitled 'Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique'. It is Produced by MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association, and distributed by Routledge. For more information, please visit The Michael Chekhov Associations's website at www.michaelchekhov.org.
Anthony Quinn talking to students at the Actors Studio School about Michael Chekhov
Lenard Petit interviewed by Øystein Stene
Michael Chekhov Student Anthony Quinn Interviewed by Michael Chekhov Master Teacher Lisa Dalton
Actors Studio, Brazil, TV-interview with Marjo-Riikka Makela about the Michael Chekhov technique and Chekhov Studio International 2011
Meet Oorvazi Irani who teaches subjects like Film Appreciation and Acting. Apart from the Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Institute, she also heads the subject of film at the SVKM IB school, teaches Film Appreciation modules at The Digital Film School, Mumbai University Film - Diploma course and also at Balaji ICE, and also did a special module for Bits Pilani Cultural Fest, Goa. This video is the third part in the interview series where Oorvazi discusses the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique. Exclusively on www.voicesnviews.com.
Interview about the Michael Chekhov Technique and Chekhov Studio International, at Stanislavsky Institute Sao Paulo, Brazil (interview is in English)
A scene from 1963 filmed version of the Chichester Festival production of Uncle Vanya directed and produced by Sir Laurence Olivier. Starring Michael Redgrave as Uncle Vanya Rosemary Harris as Helena Max Adrian as Aleksandr Vladimirovich Serebryakov Fay Compton as Maria Vasilyevna Voynitsky Sybil Thorndike as Marina Timofeevna, an old nurse Lewis Casson as Ilya Ilych Telegin Joan Plowright as Sonya English translation by Constance Garnett
Here's the complete interview with Lisa Dalton about A. Chekhov's THE DARLING, which she's performing at tne New York International Fringe Festival. She also discusses the Michael Chekhov technique.