The Michael Chekhov Handbook: For the Actor

193 Pages·2009·1.18 MB·english

by  Lenard Petit

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