1st Edition

Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training

Edited By Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson Copyright 2021
    274 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    274 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner: Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training offers a comprehensive analysis of the Sanford Meisner Acting Technique in comparison to the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique.

    This compilation reveals the connections as well as the contradictions between these two very different approaches, while highlighting meaningful bridges and offering in-depth essays from a variety of sources, including master teachers with years of experience and new and rising stars in the field. The authors provide philosophical arguments on actor training, innovative approaches to methodology, and explorations into integration, as well as practical methods of application for the classroom or rehearsal room, or scaffolded into a curriculum.

    Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner: Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training is an excellent resource for professors teaching Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced Acting Technique as well as acting program directors and department chairs seeking new, impactful research on actor training.

    Introduction

    Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson

    Part I: The Masters

    1 The Meisner Approach: "Be simple and rediscover the world"— Dostoyevsky

    Susan Coromel

    2 The Relevance of The Meisner Technique in Today’s Actor Training

    Tom Prior

    3 Michael Chekhov’s Inspiration for Actors

    Dawn Arnold

    Part II: Expeditions in Deep Training

    4. Meisner in the Undergraduate Setting

    Greg Ramos

    5 Teaching the Michael Chekhov Technique in an Undergraduate Program: The Problem and the Arrival

    Mark Monday

    6 Reality vs Pretend: How to Surmount Collisions In Search of Truth

    Lisa Dalton

    7 We Are Not Historians: A Manifesto for Teachers

    Kimon Fioretos

    Part III: Methods in Convergence

    8 The Evolution of a Studio

    Liz Shipman

    9 How the Michael Chekhov Technique Influences and Supports the Elements of the Sanford Meisner Approach

    Susan Coromel

    10 Meisner in the Classroom, Chekhov in Rehearsal: Pairing Complementary Methods in Smaller Liberal Arts Programs

    Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson

    11 Studio Work with Meisner as Foundation and Chekhov as Advanced Study

    Robb Maus

    12 Activating Meisner and Chekhov in the Secondary Acting Classroom

    Eric Young

    13 Sculpting the Energetic Action: Taking us "Beyond the Verb"

    Alexis Black

    14 Sensations in Place of Emotional Preparation for the Students that say "I Can't" and Mean it!

    Kimon Fioretos

    15 Re-discovering the Joy

    Wil Kilroy

    Part IV: Techniques In Practice

    16 Warming up to Repetition and Adding Physicality with Chekhov’s Psychological Gesture

    James Savage

    17 Listening and Responding with the Body: How Chekhov Technique Can Enhance Meisner’s Repetition Exercise

    David Haugen

    18 Finding an Emotional Connection through PGs, POV's and the Ghost Exercise

    James Savage

    19 A Psychophysical Path to Moment-to-Moment: The Gift of a Lifetime: Chekhov's Repetition Exercises 12-13

    Lisa Loving Dalton

    20 Bringing Meisner and Chekhov Techniques into the Rehearsal Room, Sort of…

    David Haugen

    Part V: Continued Collisions and Strategies for The Future

    21 Conclusion: The Case for Non-Erasure in Actor Training

    Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson

    Biography

    Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She received her BA in Theatre from Kalamazoo College and her MFA in Directing from Northwestern University. In addition to directing, Anjalee's scholarship includes devised theatre and acting technique. Anjalee is certified in the Michael Chekhov Technique from the National Michael Chekhov Association, and the Sanford Meisner Technique from the True Acting Institute, and has also trained in Moment Work with the Tectonic Theatre Project.