Celebrated as one of Russia’s most brilliant actors and directors, Michael Chekhov pioneered a unique form of actor training during the first half of the 20th century, now commonly known as the Chekhov technique.
Acclaimed actors such as Anthony Hopkins and Jack Nicholson have credited his method, which uses a psycho-physical approach – a mind-body connection – to help performers deliver believable performances on stage. The technique encourages actors to use their imagination and creativity in order to create realistic interpretations of characters, without the need to “live” or “become” the role.
Chekhov’s recognition of the mind-body connection was ahead of its time, but it’s now widely accepted. His method has become increasingly popular in contemporary actor training and stands among other established acting techniques, such as Meisner’s and Stanislavsky’s.
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The nephew of renowned Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Michael Chekhov trained at the Moscow Art Theatre. He was a favoured student of Konstantin Stanislavsky, who had already pioneered his own system of actor training, rooted in naturalism.
Chekhov went on to develop his own method that branched out from Stanislavsky’s process of affective memory, in which actors draw on personal experiences to evoke an emotional response and then channel it into a performance. Stanislavsky later moved away from the approach, concluding that it can lead to nervous actors and flat performances, and began focusing on what he termed “physical action.”
Shifting away from Stanislavsky’s early technique, Chekhov was inspired by writer and philosopher Rudolf Steiner’s ideas on the body-soul-spirit connection and the link between human and the divine. In his view, artists were closely connected to the divine through creativity and imagination. They don’t simply create beautiful art – performing a play, composing music, painting a portrait – but make something symbolic through which audiences can see, feel, and experience more of the world.
Chekhov developed an approach that focuses on using both imagination and physical movements to connect to and perform a character.
Living in the Soviet Union, Chekhov’s “alien and reactionary” practices were considered radical and anti-government. He was warned to leave the country, and he fled in 1928 to teach and act across Europe before settling in the US. He taught legendary actors such as Clint Eastwood, Ingrid Bergman, and Gregory Peck, and earned an Oscar nomination for his performance in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 film Spellbound.
After his death in 1955, Chekhov’s students continued to use, share, and teach his method. Joanna Merlin, who was Chekhov’s last living student until her death in 2023, founded the Michael Chekhov Association, and another former student, Tony- and Oscar-winning actress Beatrice Straight, opened the Michael Chekhov Studio in New York City.
Both Chekhov’s and Stanislavsky’s innovative methods contributed significantly to modern acting as we know it. They helped actors be recognised as artists and believed performances should be bold, expressive, and theatrical.
In many approaches to acting, the actor is taught to find themself in the circumstances of the character they are playing. The concept of split consciousness refers to the actor’s constantly shifting awareness of themself as a performer with an audience and a character in the story.
For Chekhov, using only your own life as a means to explore the drama unfolding in a performance was limiting. He put forward a more complex concept of divided consciousness, which is threefold:
- The self as a character
- The self as a performer
- Awareness of the character as an independent being
The technique brings realism to performances by teaching actors how to experience roles without filtering them through their own personalities.
Chekhov’s technique can be distilled into five guiding principles.
1. Your work is based on a psycho-physical body-mind connection.
By training the body and connecting it to emotions – similar to how a singer trains their voice – an actor can learn to express emotion and movement in performances.
Chekhov developed the “psychological gesture,” which is activated through the connection between physical movement and internal emotion.
2. The most potent means of expression are intangible.
An actor must first create an inner life for the character – their imagination, intellect, and emotions. The next step is to express that inner life with the body, which is witnessed by the audience as an outward expression. That creates an atmosphere. The inner life coupled with outward expression is called creative individuality. It is imaginative and separate from the actor’s self.
3. The work is spiritual, connected with the unconscious and the higher intellect. It is based on synthesis rather than analysis.
This spiritual element is creative imagination, which works through unifying many disparate parts actors encounter in preparing for a role. The work is intuitive and therefore different from the rational, analytical mind, which separates and divides.
4. One aspect of the technique triggers all other aspects automatically and effortlessly.
Outward expression allows an actor to communicate their character’s inner life to the audience. More importantly, it separates the actor from the work to allow their creative mind to more fully and freely imagine. There is then no pressure for actors to blur the line between their character’s personality and their own.
5. As an actor, you have artistic freedom. You access the technique to achieve inner inspiration.
Chekhov’s technique does not require total dedication. He believed there is no set way to act and that various methods offer their own benefits to different actors. You can choose how to apply the Chekhov method alongside any other training you undertake.
According to the Chekhov technique, externalising feelings has the potential to be the most creative or even challenging aspect of an actor’s work. Here are some common exercises to help strengthen your technique:
Write an inner monologue.
Chekhov said literary writers see their characters as independent beings whose thoughts and actions they act as a conduit for. Writing a monologue from your character’s perspective can help you access their inner life and imagine what they think and feel.
This exercise is effective both as a stream-of-consciousness narrative and as if writing a private journal. It will help unlock your imagination and connect with the unconscious.
Employ the power of language.
Chekhov understood how certain words – written or spoken – could evoke the right emotions from a performer. Rather than saying “relax” for example, Chekhov might say “feel serenity” to help an actor imagine and feel something.
Read a script and identify a character to follow, and then try to find the right psychological gesture for them. When preparing for a role, you could also use a thesaurus or book of acting verbs to prompt ideas.
Ask leading questions.
As a further development of the exercise above, express outwardly various aspects of the creative individuality (perhaps your character’s objective) until you find the right expression.
If you are playing a hero, for example, you may ask yourself to physically express being brave, noble, inspiring, or strong. When you find an expression or action that makes you feel fully like the character, you’ve found your psychological gesture.
You don’t have to stick to one psychological gesture for an entire performance. It helps to change them in each scene or emotional moment to allow for and express character development.
Build a relationship with your imagination.
Develop your imagination through other art forms. Go watch, listen to, and support fellow artists, and create art of any kind, whether it’s visual art, crafts, poetry, literature, dance, music, or any other form.
Make time to build your own imagination outside rehearsals and you’ll be better prepared to draw from it during the creative process of training and performing.
Continue to study.
Talent and instinct are great assets, but the only way to improve as an actor is to prepare and practise. No matter what stage of your career you’re at, always look to build upon and develop your technique through workshops, classes, and other tools.
There are plenty of resources to explore Chekhov’s technique in more depth. Start with his own book, On the Technique of Acting. Acting schools and drama courses can help you learn the practical application of Chekhov’s technique. Try the Michael Chekhov Studio London, ArtsEd’s MA in Acting, or LAMDA’s short courses, which incorporate aspects of the Chekhov technique in their acting classes.