The Michael Chekhov Handbook ‘Petit’s words go right to the heart of Chekhov’s technique ... Anyone looking for a key to understanding more about Michael Chekhov’s technique will devour it.’ – Jessica Cerullo, Michael Chekhov Associa- tion, NYC The Michael Chekhov technique is today seen as one of the most influential and inspiring methods of actor training in existence. In The Michael Chekhov Handbook, Lenard Petit draws on twenty years of teaching experience to unlock and illuminate this often complex technique for those studying, working with or encountering it for the first time. Petit uses four sections to help readers approach the technique: • the aims of the technique – outlining the real aims of the actor • the principles – acting with energy, imagination and creative power • the tools – the actor’s use of the body and sensation • the application – bringing the technique into practice. The Michael Chekhov Handbook’s explanations and exercises will provide readers with the essential tools they need to put the rewarding principles of this technique into use. Lenard Petitis the Artistic Director of The Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in New York City. He teaches Chekhov technique in the MFA and BFA Acting programmes at Rutgers University. He was a contributor and co-creator of the DVD Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique, published by Routledge. The Michael Chekhov Handbook For the Actor Lenard Petit First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 Lenard Petit All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Petit, Lenard. The Michael Chekhov handbook: for the actor/By Lenard Petit. p. cm 1. Acting. 2. Chekhov, Michael, 1891–1955. 3. Title. PN2061.P475 2009 792.02(cid:2)8—dc222009007095 ISBN 0-203-87230-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–49671–3 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–49672–1 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–208–87230–4 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–49671–1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–49672–8 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–87230–7 (ebk) This book is dedicated to the two sustaining loves of my life, Meg and Luke Pantera/Petit CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix Introduction 1 1 The aims of the technique 8 2 The principles 14 1 The technique (acting) is psycho-physical 15 2 Intangible means of expression 16 3 The creative spirit and the higher intellect 16 4 The technique is one thing: it awakens a creative state 17 5 Artistic freedom 17 3 The dynamic principles 18 1 Energy 18 2 Imagination 18 3 Concentration 20 4 Incorporation 20 5 Radiation 21 6 Expansion/contraction 21 7 Space is dynamic 22 8 Direction is a force 22 9 Polarity 23 10 Quality 23 11 Thinking, feeling, willing 24 12 The four brothers 25 13 A feeling of ease 26 14 A feeling of form 26 15 A feeling of beauty 27 16 A feeling of the whole 27 4 The tools 28 1 Translating the inner event to an outer expression 29 2 Spy back 31 viii CONTENTS 3 Energy: the life-body 32 4 Staccato/legato 38 5 The senses: expanding and contracting 40 6 Qualities of movement 42 7 The artistic frame: conscious movement 46 8 Action: the psychological gesture 48 9 The sweet spot: sustaining an inner movement 53 10 Sensation: floating, balancing, falling 55 11 Characterization: stick, ball, veil 60 12 Thinking 61 13 Willing 63 14 Feeling 65 15 Characterization: archetype, the psychological gesture 66 16 Characterization: the imaginary centre 71 17 Characterization: imaginary body 75 18 Characterization: personal atmosphere 78 19 Atmosphere: engaging the space 81 20 Continuous acting 84 5 Application 86 1 Warming up 87 2 Expansion/contraction 88 3 Imaginary centre 93 4 Thinking, feeling, willing 98 5 Desire Under the Elms 103 6 Action, psychological gesture 107 7 Qualities of movement 115 8 Sensation 126 9 Feeling leads to action 135 10 Desire Under the Elms 140 11 Thinking 146 12 Archetype: the psychological gesture 149 13 Imaginary body 163 14 Atmosphere 166 15 Desire Under the Elms 172 6 Mastery of the technique 178 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Talia Rodgers and Ben Piggot at Routledge for taking this book idea seriously and guiding me through the process of its acceptance and release. I would like to thank all my teachers who pointed me in the directions I have gone in. This book could not have happened without them. None of them are still with us, so I’ll keep their names in my heart. Thanks to PAJ Books for permission to include some words of Michael Chekhov from their publication, Lessons for the Professional Actor. I am very grateful to Rutgers University for giving me the playground to develop this material over a number of years; with great support from Carol Thompson, Barbara Marchant, Kevin Kittle, Deborah Hedwall and Heather Rasche. I should also like to thank Maggie Flanigan and the actors at her studio in New York City for allowing me to include their responses in this book. A special thanks is reserved for Bethany Caputo and Judith Bradshaw for transcribing numerous workshops and including invaluable observations about the results of teaching this work. Also to James Luse, Janet Morrison and Mel Shrawder for reading the manuscript and assisting me in its presentation. To Edward Marritz for his photographic eye. I need to thank my colleagues at MICHA: Joanna Merlin, Jessica Cerullo, Marjolein Baars, Ted Pugh, Fern Sloan, David Zinder, Sarah Kane and Ragnar Freidank for their confidence and enthusiasm for my ideas and work. I also want to thank my students, actors who continually inspire me to create new things for them to play with, but especially Scott Miller, Sal Cacciato, Jessie Greene, Tyree Giroux, Ben Bauman, John Rawlinson, Brian Parrish, Jonathan Day, Bryan