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The Walk Zinder Making random changes of direction, they begin from an unnaturally slow walk and continue to a very fast walk, just short of running. They gradually slow down until all that is left is the desire to walk. The objective of this exercise is to acquire a physical experience of Readiness—the fourth rule of improvisation. Since the space is chaotic, the actors have to be totally ready, in a split-second, to change direction or turn around on the spot, in order to avoid collisions or contact with the other actors—all this without losing their pace.
Done well, this is an exhilarating exercise which generates a sense of heightened consciousness and provides actors with a physical—in-body—experience of being ready to seize a creative moment when it presents itself. Later, this exercise also becomes a platform for training the Four Qualities of Movement, as the actors work through the different paces defined as Molding, Flowing, Flying and Radiating. Moving With A Center: In Chapter 4 of On the Technique 91 , Chekhov outlines a number of exercises relating to physical improvisations.
To this day, Barba is one of the most influential theatre practitioners of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The character can have predominantly heavy Feelings that drag it down, or light sun-filled Feelings that easily radiate to all other characters. In ImageWork , an entire section of the training is aimed at helping actors understand the automatic, associative mechanism of the imagination as it relates to the moving body in the same way Chekhov refers to it. They believed strongly that life on the stage needed to be bold, expressive, and theatrical. He said that when actors are not conscious of this love, or are ashamed of it, they are in danger of becoming jaded and patronizing toward the audience.
To do this they are taught to employ many different elements of variety: This exercise is fundamentally multi-leveled: In many actor training manuals, imagination is taken for granted and little attention is given to actually training actors in the mechanism of the imagination as such. Developing and assuming new conceptions concerning the creative process in art is the way for the artist to grow and understand his or her talent.
The inner life of the images, and not the personal and tiny experiential resources of the actor, should be elaborated on the stage and shown to the audience. Chekhov, then, goes on to give a few exercises in the development of the creative imagination. In ImageWork , an entire section of the training is aimed at helping actors understand the automatic, associative mechanism of the imagination as it relates to the moving body in the same way Chekhov refers to it.
Here is one such exercise:.
An alternative can be: The results of this exercise are quite amazing: In the advanced version of this exercise, the sculptors make multiple creations with the same partner but are instructed to make quicker and quicker, smaller and smaller changes, so that the sculptures barely have time to answer any question, but still have a totally different body image in all its details, with each minute change, even if they do not get a chance to describe it. Training actors in the multiple uses of images leads them directly into the form of character work, the main emphasis of the Chekhov Technique.
This training is intense and highly detailed, so here I can offer just a brief look at a few examples. The ongoing side-coaching is crucial: They have to explore the physical, gestural possibilities of each one. Even if this exercise seems to be impossible, the actors should keep doing it, while remaining absolutely faithful to the given quality. Starting from the Moving with a Center abstract movement exercise, the actors now have to become aware of the forms they create in space.
When they find a gesture or a form that intrigues them, they stop creating new forms and repeat what they have discovered. However, as Chekhov states, in the repetition of a single movement, the actor acquires more and more strength, direction and, most importantly, a radiating Will. Running closely in parallel to the basic outlines of the PG, the Plastique —the repeated gesture—often turns into a powerful expression of will.
Barba, Eugenio, and Savarese, Nicola. A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: New York and London: On the Technique of Acting. Du Prey, Dierdre Hust.
Lessons to the Professional Actor. Performing Arts Journal Publications. ImageWork Training and the Chekhov Technique. Hurst Du Prey, New York: Performing ArtJournal Publications She later became a close personal friend of both Michael and Xenia Chekhov. Mala died in A professional actor and a teacher of acting and directing with a major international reputation, Zinder is the author of the book Body Voice Imagination: A Training for the Actor Psychology Press, He is a Master Teacher of the Chekhov Technique.
Nicu Cherciu, Romanian National Theatre, Cluj, Romania, May The eye of the artist concentrates on his pencil, the point moves, and the line dreams. Paul Klee ImageWork Training is a comprehensive form of image-based psycho-physical training which I have been developing for the past forty years. There is no universal or singular technique that all actors utilize. It truly depends on the individual and what style works best for them.
The approach to this training is having the actor act on their emotional impulses — essentially, leading with their heart as opposed to their brain. The Stanislavsky method requires that an actor use his emotional memory when approaching the work. This requires an actor to recall past experiences and memories and bring them into any given scene or character they are bringing to life.
Theoretically, an actor should ask themselves: By doing this, one should be able to reach a greater understanding and a richer connection to the emotional states of their characters.
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This technique is focused in two parts: Script Analysis and Performance Technique classes focus on analyzing a script by understanding the story and given circumstances, and then going through the process of choosing an action and making specific choices that will create a character. Actors are taught to focus on what is literally happening in the scene and focus on the pursuit of an action.