MICHA News 2014-2015

News
Dear Friends,
Our International Michael Chekhov Summer Workshop at Connecticut College in New London, with participants from 10 countries, was productive and delightful. As part of the workshop, we
applied the Chekhov technique to the Christopher Durang text,
“The Marriage of Bette and Boo” which proved to be full of surprises. We want to thank David Jaffe, Chair of Theater at CC
and friend of MICHA, for his hosting of the Workshop and for
inviting us to come back for the 2015 International Summer
Workshop.
And thanks to Jessica Cerullo and Ragnar Freidank for the
splendid organization of the Theater of the Future weekend in
the beautiful Arboretum, with sessions on the green and under
the trees. Interesting ideas and future collaborations emerged.
We are thrilled to welcome the Michael Chekhov School in Hudson, New York, founded by The Actors’ Ensemble, and opening
in the spring of 2015. Applications have been coming in for this
Michael Chekhov immersion where participants will be living and
working in upstate New York. Information is on their website:
MICHA President Joanna Merlin teaches Psychologiwww.michaelchekhovschool.org.
cal Gesture, a tool within the Michael Chekhov technique, at MICHA’s Int’l Workshop, held at Connecticut College in New London, Conn., July 2014.
We will be honoring and celebrating the Actors Ensemble and
their co-directors, Fern Sloan and Ted Pugh on the anniversary
of their 30 years of teaching, performing and producing using the Michael Chekhov technique at Connecticut
College in 2015.
Several MICHA faculty taught 35 undergraduates from campuses of California State University at the annual
CSU Summer Arts Festival in July. The students collaborated with poets, musicians, sound designers and
writers for a culmination performance. Working with young people who were learning the technique for the
first time was exciting and moving for all of us who participated.
We have plans in 2015 to publish multilingual editions of Lessons for Teachers, edited by Jessica Cerullo.
Several teachers joined the faculty of MICHA this year and added new ideas and approaches to the work that
enlarged our perspectives and brought great enthusiasm and joy to the atmosphere of the workshop. We congratulate them for their dedication to the work.
In closing, here is one of my favorite Michael Chekhov quotes:
“My imagination has to be powerful enough to dictate to my heart, to my body, to my narrow ideas.
To develop our imagination means to lift it up so high that it is inspiring me as a free thing.”
Happy 2015, folks!
MICHA 2014
A Dynamic Beginning
MICHA kicked off its year, as in past
years, with its annual four-day teacher
training workshop, this time over the
first weekend of January in Brooklyn,
New York.
News
MICHA’s News Briefs
Chekhov’s Newest Book
MICHA announced that Connecticut
College will be home to its Summer
2015 International Workshop and Festival once again. The college has a
beautiful campus in New London, Connecticut near the Atlantic shore. In
2014, MICHA found its facilities excellent for theater workshops, as they
were built for performance classes.
Ted Pugh and Fern Sloan led the faculty, creating a curriculum that focused
on the dynamic of space. A full story
can be found on page 4 of this newsletter.
The annual teacher training workshop
has become a popular part of MICHA’s
year and remained well-received. For
the first time in 2014 the workshop was
limited to 18 participants, for the most
personalized attention.
Above, Michael Chekhov’s original edition of
Lessons for Teachers, edited by his student
and archivist Deirdre Hurst du Prey.
In 2015, MICHA plans to begin work
on a new edition of Michael Chekhov’s
Lessons for Teachers. The new version
will include lectures by Chekhov, not previously published, as transcribed by his
student and archivist Deirdre Hurst du
Prey. It also will include all the material
from the original publication, namely 18
lectures on teaching acting Chekhov that
gave in 1936. A brief biography of Hurst
du Prey, detailing her many contributions
to Chekhov’s legacy, will be included as
well. MICHA managing director Jessica
Cerullo will edit the new edition.
Ted Pugh leads a discussion at the
Teacher Training Workshop, Brooklyn,
N.Y., Jan. 2014.
As teacher training is such an integral component of MICHA’s mission,
MICHA also offered a teacher training
track at the 2014 Summer Workshop in
Connecticut.
For those hoping to experience
teacher training in the future there are
two options in 2015. The regular
teacher training session returns to the
campus of Cal State Long Beach in
California in January and MICHA’s Advanced Teacher Training Intensive, by
application only, will be offered in May,
in New York state, details on location,
cost and how to apply can be found at
michaelchekhov.org.
Back to the Beach
New London is convenient for travelers as well. It is halfway between New
York and Boston, with easy train and
bus service to and from both of those
cities, as well as Providence, Rhode
Island.
An aerial view of Connecticut College’s
beautiful campus, lush green and near the
shore.
Plans to have the work translated into
multiple languages and to create an
online presence for the lessons also are
in the works.
In Connecticut, MICHA will offer its
usual summer workshop, its new retreat called The Pause and its Open
Space weekend which will take place at
the end of the 2015 workshop. A closer
look at the options can be found on
page 23.
A Staff Expansion
Treading the “Board”
MICHA
nam ed
Rebecca (Rich) Joy
Production Manager:
Memberships
and
Summer
International Workshop &
Festival. That means
she will be coordinating membership in
MICHA and handling
the logistics for the summer workshop.
This past year Rebecca was among
those who received her MICHA certificate of completion.
MICHA has reorganized the executive committee within its board of directors. Joanna Merlin, a former student of
Michael Chekhov, remains president.
Fern Sloan, long-time MICHA faculty
and board member, has taken on the
role of vice president. The newest
board member Mary Jo Romeo, who
came to MICHA last year from the corporate world with extraordinary organizational skills, is now the secretary and
MICHA managing director Jessica Cerullo retained the role of treasurer
among her duties.
News
MICHA 2014 Teacher Training Workshop
The first and very cold weekend of the
year received a nice warm-up in Brooklyn, New York, the site of MICHA’s annual four-day teacher training workshop.
This year Ted Pugh, Fern Sloan and
Joanna Merlin were the primary faculty
members passing the Michael Chekhov
technique onto the next generation of
acting teachers.
Their theme was The Dynamics of
Space in Relation to the Full Body.
As Chekhov wrote, “We seek the
whole body and being to be permeated
by streams which are going on in me so
that each part of my body is complete.
Then it is what we may call fully and
completely alive.”
Fern explained, “We feel that one cannot stress full body and the exploration
of space enough.” To that end, they examined several major features of the
technique in relation to space and the
full body, seeking always to stay connected to the body. Their exercises
were deep and varied, from moving
through space in relation to each other
and the environment around them, to
emptying completely their own centers
and exploring space from that perspective.
The teacher-trainees also were given
opportunities to watch and learn how
students react to these many tools, as
they were able to sit out at times and
observe their colleagues. Several participants also had the chance to offer
warm-ups, which allowed them to guide
their fellow participants in the course of
the workshop.
Left and below, participants explore the dynamics of space in relation to the full body, at
MICHA’s annual four-day Teacher Training
Workshop, held in January 2014, in Brooklyn,
N.Y.
Participants: Peggy
Coffey, Zenzele Cooper,
Kristin Dana, Stephanie
Dorian, Gillian Eaton,
Luis Flores, Christine
Hamel, Ellie Heyman,
Robert HomerDrummond, Lynne
Innerst, Geordie
MacMinn, Daniel
Millhouse, Rena Polley,
Mara Radulovic,
Alexander Romanitan,
Connie Rotunda, Emmett
Smith, Jan Tkach,
Bernadette WintschHeinen
Observers: Janice
Orlandi, Martin Anderson,
Bethany Caputo
Faculty: Joanna Merlin,
Ted Pugh, Fern Sloan
Participants and Faculty, Teacher Training Workshop
Brooklyn, NY—January 2014
News
MICHA 2014...
Advanced
Teacher
Training
MICHA’s mission of passing Michael
Chekhov’s work on to the next generation of teachers remained a high priority
in 2014.
In addition to its January Teacher
Training Workshop, MICHA offered an
advanced teacher training intensive in
June, by application only. Faculty Members Fern Sloan and Ted Pugh led the
four-day gathering for seven acting
teachers in Hudson, New York.
Fern guided the teacher/students
through exercises that helped them to
“walk as the observer,” in giving, reaching, and penetrating, skills essential for
teachers who must recognize and then
respond to individual students’ needs.
Ted took them through the everpresent Michael Chekhov exercises of
ball tossing. He aided their exploration
of what he called seeing “where you
want to go and then going.” He also
delved into radiating, imbuing and penetrating.
Each of the seven teaching artists,
developed lesson plans and exercises
to find his or her own unique path toward deepening the ability to teach Michael Chekhov Technique. They used
their fellow teaching artist as students
and then they received feedback from
Ted, Fern, and each other, in a process
facilitated by Ragnar Freidank.
That feedback methodology was
based on an adaptation of choreographer Liz Lerman’s aptly-named Critical
Response Process, aimed at making
critical feedback easier to give and to
receive, by placing the power of the
process in the hands of the artist receiving the feedback.
The six step process is laid out below.
The Critical Response Process
A constructive way to provide MEANINGFUL feedback
Step 1. Student Participants express “statements of meaning” based on their experience
as students in the class, in other words, they share something they experienced.
Step 2. The Teaching Artist who taught the class asks questions of the Student Partici-
pants, in order to focus the discussion on an aspect of the class which the Teaching Artist feels needs more development.
Step 3. Student Participants ask neutral questions of the Teaching Artist to illuminate that
journey.
Step 4. Student Participants ask for permission to express opinions to the Teaching Artist.
This question takes the form: “I have an opinion about (blank). Would you like to hear
it?”
Step 5. The Teaching Artists state what is ‘next’ for them, in light of the feedback ex-
changed.
Step 6. The Teaching Artists end their class/feedback session as they see fit, by employ-
ing a gesture, sound, statement, etc.
Participants in the 2014 Advanced Teacher Training Workshop:
Megan Schy Gleeson, David Haugen, Ellie Heyman, Camille Litalien,
Mara Radulovic, Connie Rotunda, Christine Woodberry; Scribe: Martin Anderson
News
Int’l Workshop by Day
Summer in New London
The Gathering
Every year MICHA’s main attraction
is its Summer International Workshop
and Festival and 2014 was no exception.
More than 70 people attended the
gathering from all over North and South
America, Europe and as far away as
Australia. It was the first time Connecticut College in New London hosted the
event. Participants and faculty alike
were so pleased with the facilities that
MICHA has decided to hold its 2015
Summer workshop there as well.
This year, MICHA offered a triple
track for the first time: its usual Michael
Chekhov training sessions, a teachers’
track for those not available to attend a
January workshop and an artists’ retreat called The Pause (more on that on
page 8).
MICHA also was able to bring back
its Theater of the Future Open Space
Weekend immediately following the
workshop, after a one-year hiatus
(more on that on page 10).
The faculty included Joanna Merlin,
Ted Pugh, Fern Sloan, John McManus,
David Zinder, Jessica Cerullo, Bethany
Caputo and Anne Gottlieb. Open Space
facilitators were Jessica Cerullo and
Ragnar Freidank. The production manager was Rebecca (Rich) Joy.
Warm-ups were led by Scott Burrell,
Deborah Keller, Patricia Skarbinski,
Rena Polly, Naomi Bailis, Gretchen
Egolf, Craig Mathers, Hugo Moss, and
Patrick Carriere.
The Sessions
The actors’ track consisted of workshops aimed at those new to MICHA and
those more experienced in the technique.
They included sessions on psychological
gesture, creating ensemble, creating atmosphere, centers, image work and the
voice of the actor.
On the teachers’ track, they studied
much of the same topics but also focused
on how to convey them to their own students and how to become more aware of
their students’ individual needs.
Market Place & Roundtables
In addition to the regular curriculum, the
workshop offered its Market Place session. The choices ranged from Fern
Sloan conducting an exploration of images to John McManus using the voice
and improv to create a story. The
Thursday Market Place allowed participants from all three tracks to choose
their own course and potentially work
with faculty and other participants
whom they might not yet have gotten to
know.
On the final day, participants who had
been on the actors’ and teachers’
tracks were offered roundtable discussions to help them pull the experience
together. They ranged from summarizing how to move forward, to a session
offered by David Zinder on directing
and teaching.
Bottom left, Patricia Skarbinski leads a
morning warm-up session. Above and below, participants gather as an ensemble at
the MICHA Int’l Summer Workshop, New
London, Conn., June/July 2014.
News
Int’l Workshop by Night
Summer in New London
The Performances
Most evenings during the workshop
were filled with optional events. One
highlight was a show featuring MICHA
faculty members Ted Pugh and Fern
Sloan.
They performed The Ripleys, two
one-act plays Mrs. Ripley’s Trip and
Uncle Ethan Ripley, based on short
stories by Pulitzer prize winner Hamlin
Garland, written in the late 19th century
and depicting the challenges of life in
the American prairie states.
The performances and storytelling
moved and brought laughter to the full
house of MICHA participants.
After the show, Ted and Fern answered questions from the audience.
Ted, an Oklahoma native, referring to
both himself and Fern, a Kansas native,
said, “We were playing our ancestors.”
To that end, they were asked if creating characters through Michael Chekhov Technique altered in anyway when
the characters were so close to home.
Fern said, “I was worried someone
would ask that question,” reminding the
audience that there is something personal and magical about the process of
creating a character and that the process need not be shared with the audience. But they did say they had to listen to these characters, to be aware of
their aches and pains and how their
hands were never idle.
Another performance came in the
form of a staged reading. Anne Gottlieb
and Joanna Merlin recreated their roles
from in a new play about the onset of
dementia called Absence, by Peter M.
Floyd. They previously performed it in
Boston, in a production directed by
Megan Schy Gleeson, a regular MICHA
attendee. Craig Mathers, who will be a
Ted Pugh and Fern Sloan perform The Ripleys, MICHA’s Intl. Workshop & Festival, July 2014.
faculty member in 2015, and MICHA intern Julia Larsen rounded out the cast.
They too did a question and answer
session with the audience. Joanna was
asked when re-visiting a piece, how much
of the Michael Chekhov technique did
she need to use in re-creating the role.
Many in the crowd were pleased to
hear that although it can depend on the
challenges of a particular role, that much
of this work does become instinctive over
time.
teaching acrobatics while suspended
from silk fabrics. Bethany Caputo and
participant Gretchen Egolf investigated
the curtain call. Finally, participant Marya
Lowry offered a class called Extended
Voice with explorations rooted in the Roy
Hart voice work.
The Workshops
Participants and faculty alike offered
workshops for one evening. Faculty
member David Zinder led a class called
Words & Images, focusing on listening to
and picking up on your scene partner
through improv work. Participant Deborah
Keller offered training in aerial silks,
Above. Deborah Keller leads a class in aerial
silks. Left, Marya Lowry teaches Extended
Voice.
Pause, and Chekhov ‘Speaks’
by Peter Tedeschi
"I need your help." Those are the
first words Michael Chekhov writes in a
memo to his readers right before To
The Actor begins in earnest. How true
those words would be.
I’d had a rough year, my father died,
unexpectedly, or at least much, much
faster than we’d expected. On top of my
grief, taking over and shutting down his
business was a much, much slower
process than we’d expected.
"The most beautiful
pauses are those
which are the
continuation of
something, and then
the turning point of
preparation for
something new…”
-Michael Chekhov
To cap it off, my mother had a terrible
accident requiring rounds of reconstructive surgeries. I even had to walk away
from my acting career during this time,
which had just begun to take shape in
some exciting new ways.
When Jessica Cerullo and I were discussing the 2013 MICHA News, she
told me about the newest idea for the
then upcoming International Summer
Workshop: The Pause, I blurted out,
"That’s a great idea." I thought it just
might be what I would need.
Still, as it approached, I wondered,
without structure imposed on me, could
I make the week productive? Did I need
to draw up a plan? I knew I would love
reconnecting with my MICHA friends
and colleagues. But workshops mean
tuition and time is always valuable, so I
came up with an agenda. I would spend
the week reading To The Actor again,
the way I did the first time years earlier,
cover to cover, not in portions like I had
been recently, skipping around, looking
at what made sense in that moment.
Instead, I’d sit quietly, read it start to
finish, with fresh eyes. Or, so I thought.
News
Summer in New London
The Pause headquarters were the
green room of Connecticut College’s
Palmer Auditiorium where MICHA had
installed its traveling library of multimedia materials on Chekhov’s technique.
Those of us on The Pause track showed
up there first thing most mornings to explore and see what we could offer each
other.
At first, seven Pausers made up the
group, but as the track was set-up to allow participants to attend for just a day or
Right on the first page of the first chap- two if necessary, there were only three of
ter, it says, "...the actor... must strive for
the attainment of complete harmony between the two, body and psychology." I
was not in complete or even partial harmony. The task fell to the wayside within
a day. But the memo to the readers— "I
need your help" — stayed with me.
Chekhov wrote that this help would
come in cooperation with the author.
True, because the author is more than
the writer of the book. He’s also the us who spent the entire week there Pausbackbone of the MICHA community and ing. Dropping my agenda turned out to be
all that continues to spring forth from it.
the best thing I could have done. Lionel
The Pause finally and quickly be- Walsh, one of the other three week-long
came what it probably was supposed to Pausers, offered the opportunity to exbe, a time that put me in a place to be plore a new exercise he was developing
receptive to lessons I needed to learn.
for his students. It took me to a new place
"The music is not
in the notes
but in the silence
between them."
-Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart
“It’s not knowing so
much when to speak,
(but) when to pause.”
-Jack Benny
“Whenever you find
yourself on the side of
the majority, it is time
to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
I’d never experienced. Liz Shipman
shared exercises that, quickly and deeply
helped me evolve my relationship with my
body. I brought to the other two an exploration of how actors justify their actions
on stage. Jessica Cerullo tried new mask
work, with new masks. The lack of
agenda helped to create such a profound
feeling of ease, so essential to Chekov’s
work, that it seemed easy to connect with
Continued on page 9
L to R, Ragnar Freidank, Jessica Cerullo,
Liz Shipman, and Peter Tedeschi sing
Hard Times Come Again No More during
Ted and Fern’s show The Ripleys, in a
musical performance that evolved during
The Pause.
Pause & Chekhov Speaks
everything we did.
More opportunities evolved as well.
Ted and Fern’s performance of The Ripleys needed something between the
acts. Jessica, Liz, Ragnar Freidank and
I set to learning Stephen Foster’s parlor
song Hard Times Come Again No More.
After my year, I could never have sung
truer words; also, that gave me something to share with the MICHA community; I got to work on a small piece of
art; and I got to be, almost anyway, on
the same stage with Ted and Fern! It
was the perfect confluence of events.
But was Michael Chekhov there too?
Or, better put, was I continuing to
deepen my connection to his work? After all, I had stopped re-reading perhaps
his most famous words.
Then, this Pause, this feeling of ease,
this space made me available to find
something more, something right from
Continues...
News
Summer in New London
the mouth of Chekhov himself.
Almost 59 years after his death, mostly
unfiltered by anyone in between, Michael
Chekhov taught a new lesson to me. My
first encounter with his work years earlier
had been while I lived in Moscow. I
learned of him, while learning about his
ability to have an imaginary conversation
with his characters. It fascinated me and
kicked off this lifelong journey of mine. Of
course, over the years, I’ve read and
explored what Chekhov said about it all.
But, now, I would find it: a full class,
maybe even one of the first lessons
Chekhov taught on this very concept!
A researcher had sent MICHA a stack
of photocopies from the University of
Windsor’s Chekhov archive. Among
them was a set of hand-typed pages
identified as the transcript of a lecture
that Chekhov gave at Dartington Hall
(Chekhov’s studio in England) on October 8, 1936.
Deirdre Hurst du Prey, Chekhov’s longtime student and archivist, apparently
had recorded his exact words that day,
as she always did, by shorthand. The
note said she later intended to include
the material in a book to be called The
Actor Is The Theatre. Although the book
never came to pass, the title exists today
as the name of her notes and manuscripts stored in the New York Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center.
Below, then, is an excerpt of that lesson, the first thing I ever learned about
Chekhov, which he called Creative
Imagination. The punctuation may come
from Hurst du Prey, but the words are all
Chekhov’s, from him to me and to us.
“The first step: We must understand and concentrate on the simple idea that imagination is the ability to see something
invisible. If I see this piece of paper, it isn’t imagination because I really see it, but at the moment when I close my eyes and
continue to see this paper, which is no longer visible to me, that is imagination.
“It is very important to be a little bit astonished about this simple thing. If you can find in your soul a little bit of astonishment, you have already taken a step forward. To be a little astonished about imaginary things. Everything about which we are
astonished, about which we are filled with wonder, gives us always something new. The artist has always to feel everything as
new - as is for the first time. That is the power of the artist. That is the real impulsive power of the artist, to be astonished every
time about everything. ...Please try to realize this wonder that you can see unseen things.
“Now comes the second step: Not only can I see unseen things, but I am able to create in my imagination things which
are not existing in reality. For instance, I can create a flower which I have never seen. My own creation. This must be very astonishing for those who want to develop their imaginations, but I do not think you can persuade someone who is not an artist in
his nature about this wonder. Such a person will answer you, "And what about it?" He will never understand, while the person
who is gifted will realize that it is a wonder that I am able to create this flower and see it before me. ...We must pay attention to
the fact that it is astonishing, to the fact that it fills us with wonder.
“First, we can see unseen things; and, second, we can create unreal things. The third step: If you will create something
and then live with this creation. For instance, if you create a strange and interesting landscape, and if you concentrate on this
beautiful and strange landscape, you will notice that this landscape changes you. This is again a great wonder. Your creation
influences you, its creator, and the soul of the creator changes under the influence of his own creation. this is really the ability of
an artist - to be changed because of his own creation.
“The fourth and last step. We have to influence this image. We have to change it... to create a character which I am going to act. I see my image in my imagination and then, if I have a well-developed imagination, I am able to do with this image all
that I want. Now it is standing before me, and through my imagination I let my character grow older and older, then younger and
younger. Or he is first full of radiating power, and then he becomes an egotistical person. I can change not only his outward appearance, but I can change his soul. I can create the whole human being if I want to, and I can give him this kind of soul, and
that kind of being, and this kind of will, etc. I can create a human soul, and spirit and body in my imagination.
“These abilities are really astonishing, we must never forget that one of our most important technical abilities is to be
astonished and to be active in the world of our imagination.”
“We must develop our creative imagination if we want to be creative artists.”
Back to the FUTURE
The Open Space
Returns to MICHA
News
Summer in New London
Selected 2014 Theater of the Future sessions and who called them:
After a one-year break, MICHA went
back to the future in 2014.
As in some previous years, the weeklong summer workshop wrapped-up by
looking forward. MICHA held its two-day
Open Space session entitled The Theater of the Future, attended by more than
30 people from countries as varied as
Switzerland and Taiwan.
The process allowed individuals to
share their interests or concerns and
find others who wished to explore the
same topics. They were then given the
resources to do so.
Phelim McDermott, MICHA faculty
member and artistic director of the U.K.based theater Improbable has conducted this process for more than 25
years under the banner Devoted and
Disrungtled. He first exposed MICHA to
it in 2006. After receiving training in how
to facilitate the Open Space herself,
managing director Jessica Cerullo has
since become the regular facilitator.
“In our first hour together, artists stood
up and announced sessions they were
passionate about,” Jessica said. Then,
they started calling for specific meetings. MICHA provided beautiful outdoor
locations for them to work, time slots, a
way to schedule it all and an easy
method to record whatever transpired.
On the second day, MICHA added a
new development to the process. Action
sessions were called to move some of
the exploration and discussions from
the first day into practical steps toward
implementing change. A list of some
sessions from both days is shown here
on the upper right, and their notes can
be found at devotedanddisgruntled.com,
just click “Reports” and then “MICHA”
on the drop down menu.
“In Open Space it isn’t necessary to
be an expert in something in order to
call a session, on the contrary, only a
sincere question or statement is needed
to bring people together,” Jessica explained. “As I walked around, I witnessed groups rehearsing plays, developing poetry pieces, even figuring out
how to turn abandoned malls into performance spaces,” she added.
The Theater of the Future will be
back in 2015.
Exploration sessions:
Stand Up Poetry—Michael Mulligan
Portrait of An Artist—Mara Radulovic
Making Theater Accessible—Charles Alexander
How Can We Make a Show at MICHA—Laura Standley and Lionel Walsh
How Should the Actor of the Future Train —Bernadette Wintsch-Heinen
Exploring/Sharing Theater for Youth—Leah Walton
Experiments with Exercises in Fantastic Realism —Lionel Walsh
Meisner/Chekhov Integration—Liz Shipman
Chekhov Work and the Short U.S. Rehearsal Time —Peter Tedeschi
Documentaries on the Theater of the Future —Robert Homer-Drummond
What Stories to Tell—Laura Standley
What Did Stanislavsky Say?—Patrick Carriere
Sharing and Playing Games—Cara Rawlings
Making the Most of Your Time—Cara Rawlings
Action Plans:
Making a Play at MICHA—Laura Standley
Activation of the Actor Poet—Michael Mulligan
Theater Mall—Pratik Motwani
Meisner/Chekhov Integration Follow-up—Liz Shipman
Above, an initial meeting at the Theater of the Future weekend, where participants called for
sessions on topics they would like to explore further, July 2014, on the campus of Connecticut College.
News
The Sights of Summer
Summer in New London
Clockwise from above: (L to
R) Mani Wintsch, Joel King,
Mary Jo Romeo, and John
McManus create atmosphere.
Gretchen Egolf, Charles Alexander and Nancy Vitulli explore space. Jessica Cerullo’s
daughter Valia may be the
true theater of the future with
Ragnar Freidank. Sean
Cackoski and Gianluca Reggiani look to the rafters. Patrick Carriere sees clowns in
the future, near the Theater of
the Future schedule board.
Laura Standley and Pratik
Motwani find laughter under
the trees.
News
2014 Intl. Summer Workshop & Festival Participants and Faculty:
Charles Alexander, Erik Andrews, Naomi Bailis, Suzanne Bennett, Scott Burrell, Sean Cackoski, Patrick
Carriere, Bethany Caputo, Jessica Cerullo, David Chrzanowski, Kevin Costa, Kristin Dana, Elenora
DeLoughery Nordin, Gretchen Egolf, Cecilie Enersen, Matthias Fankhauser, Ragnar Freidank, Paul
Gabbard, Kara Diana Gonzalez, Anne Gottlieb, Craig Handel, Ellie Heyman, Robert Homer-Drummond,
Brett Johnson, Siren Jorgensen, Peter Josephson, Rebecca Joy, Gina Kaufmann, Deborah Keller, Joel
King, Teresa Langston, Julia Larsen, Thais Loureiro, Marya Lowry, John MacManus, Craig Mathers,
Andrea Meister, Joanna Merlin, Hugo Moss, Pratik Motwani, Rena Polley, Ted Pugh, Jay Putnam, Mara
Radulovic, Cara Rawlings, Gianluca Reggiani, Sergio Rico, Gabriel Rodriguez, Mary Jo Romeo, Liz
Shipman, Louise Siversen, Patricia Skarbinski, Fern Sloan, Laura Standley, Peter Tedeschi, Jan Tkach,
Anne Towns, Renee van Nifterik, Tom Vasiliades, Nancy Vitulli, Summer Wallace, Lionel Walsh, Leah
Walton, Mani Wintsch, Bernadette Wintsch-Heinen, Arthur Wise, Beth Zalcman, David Zinder
The
MICHA
2014 Workshop
And
Festival
Connecticut College
New London, Conn.
2014 Theater of the Future Participants and
Facilitators:
Charles Alexander, Martin Anderson, Elizabeth Audley,
Patrick Carriere, Jessica Cerullo, Yu Ting (Kim) Chen,
Ragnar Freidank, Paul Gabbard, Robert HomerDrummond, Rebecca Joy, Gina Kaufmann, Anthony
Leung, Craig Mathers, Andrea Meister, Joanna Merlin,
Pratik Motwani, Michael Mulligan, Shireen Nori, Rena
Polley, Cara Rawlings, Gianluca Reggiani, Liz Shipman,
Laura Standley, Diane Tatum, Peter Tedeschi, Yan
Tkach, Renee van Nifterik, Lionel Walsh, Leah Walton,
Mani Wintsch, Bernadette Wintsch-Heinen, Arthur Wise
News
In Memoriam—Marian Seldes
The great actress and MICHA advisory board member Miriam Seldes once
wrote that as a young woman, when
she first read Michael Chekhov, she had
disagreements with and doubts about
his teachings. But she then counseled
her own readers to “read on” with Michael Chekhov’s words. She explained,
“… you will find yourself having a conversation with a master teacher. Take
your time,” she wrote. “He took a lifetime.”
Miss Seldes gave that advice in an
article about Michael Chekhov she
penned for the July/August 2003 edition
of American Theatre magazine, entitled
A Sort of Religion.
She died October 6, 2014, at age 86,
Marian Seldes
after working on the New York stage for
more than six decades. She was especially known for her many productions of
Edward Albee plays, but she was seen in
all the great works including those by
Tennessee Williams and Samuel
Beckett.
She had a considerable television career and appeared in a number of films
as well.
In 2010, when given a lifetime achievement Tony Award, she said, “All I’ve
done is live my life in the theater and
loved it. If you can get an award for being
happy, that’s what I’ve got.”
In the article, she recounted how her
teacher Sanford Meisner told her Michael
Chekhov made him “realize that truth as
naturalism was far from the truth.”
1928-2014
As for coming up with the title of the
piece, she explained she was quoting a
Chekhov student who said, “I always
loved acting and tried hard to learn it,
but with Michael Chekhov it became
more than a profession to me. It became
a sort of religion.” Miss Seldes wrote,
“Her name was Marilyn Monroe.”
Miss Seldes also pointed out To The
Actor belongs in the library of “the student, the teacher, the person who wants
to form a theatre...”
At MICHA, we are grateful for her
warmth and kind support.
2014 Friends of MICHA:
Charles Alexander, Martin Anderson, Erik Andrews, Azada Armida, Naomi Bailis, Meg Bussert, Megan
Callahan, Patrick Carriere, David Chrzanowski, Leonid Citer, Zenzele Cooper, Kevin Costa, Kristin Dana,
Gillian Eaton, Gretchen Egolf, Luis Flores, Paul Gabbard, Laura Goldsteen, Christine Hamel, Graig Handel, David Haugen, Patricia Hawkins, Ellie Heyman, Robert Homer-Drummond, Heather Huggins, Brett
Johnson, Angela Jones, Peter Jospehson, Rebecca Joy, Deborah Keller, Joel King, Deborah K. Kondelik, Inga Laizane, Dawn Langman, Teresa Langston, Benjamin Lord, Thais Loureiro, Georgie MacMinn,
Rith Markind, Craig Mathers, Hugo Moss, Janice Orlandi, Rena Polley, Jay Putnam, Cara Rawlings,
Gianluca Reggiani, Gabriel Rodriguez, Alexander Romanitan, Mary Jo Romeo, Nancy Rothman, Connie
Rotunda, Liz Shipman, Louise Siversen, Patricia Skarbinki, Peter Tedeschi, Yan Tkach, Anne Towns,
Renee van Nifterik, Nancy Vitulli, Summer Wallace, Lionel Walsh, Mani Wintsch, Bernadette WintschHeinen, Arthur Wise. Organization member: Actors Ensemble.
Five More MICHA
Participants earned
Certificates of
Completion
MICHA’s Joanna Merlin (third from left)
awarded another five theater artists MICHA
Certificates of Completion at the 2014 Summer Workshop and Festival. Pictured from left
to right, the recipients were Rebecca Joy,
Patrick Carriere, Gretchen Egolf, Mara Radulovic and Naomi Bailis. In order to receive a
certificate, one must attend three International
Workshops and two Teacher Training Workshops. Congratulations to everyone. MICHA’s
ranks continue to swell.
News
From Workshops to Working:
Longtime MICHA participant Rena Polley’s journey taking actors from the technique to a production
It is both a wonderful and common
sight: an actor, just introduced to the
Chekhov technique, radiates euphoria
over the discovery of something that
speaks to him or her. Then, the inevitable question follows: How do I bring
these extraordinary discoveries back to
my theater, or my school, or my community to colleagues and scene partners who do not share this vocabulary?
Longtime MICHA workshop participant Rena Polley of Toronto, Ontario,
took firm steps to answer that question.
She took work she had experienced
with MICHA over the years to a fully
staged production, The Seagull, the
masterpiece by Michael Chekhov’s
uncle Anton Chekhov.
Here she shares with MICHA News,
how it all began, specifically the experiences of the first four-day meeting, and
what her non-MICHA trained actors
discovered.
Rena Polley: I brought together nine
other actors, of different training and
backgrounds, who were willing to work
as an ensemble and use the principles
of the Michael Chekhov technique. Over the course of one year, we
met for five four-day workshops, followed by a three-week rehearsal process and a production of the play.
...Medvedenko put his
heart in Masha who put
her heart in Konstantine
who put his heart in
Nina who put her heart
in Trigorin...
I played Arkadina and facilitated two
of the workshops. Fellow MICHA participant Ellie Heyman facilitated the two
other workshops, allowing me to focus
on my acting and to bring Viewpoints
work into the process. Another colleague from MICHA Peggy Coffey
joined Ellie in the final workshop and
then took over the reigns as our director.
MICHA participant Rena Polley as Arkadina, in a March 2014 Toronto production of The
Seagull, bandaging Treplev, played by Riley Gilchrist, one of nine non-MICHA actors to
whom Rena introduced Michael Chekhov technique. The production was directed by MICHA
participant Peggy Coffey.
It Begins
At our first four-day meeting, I began
by introducing the concept of crossing
the threshold; having the actors leave
their daily lives behind and enter their
higher creative selves, or as Masha
says at the beginning of the play, “Their
souls will merge to create a single artistic image...” For us that ‘artistic image’
was the world of The Seagull.
Then we played games, throwing balls
so we could learn names, touching
lightly on sending and receiving but
mostly creating a playful atmosphere to
relax the actors. (We continued to use
the balls in various forms during all the
workshops as well as a warm-up before
each show.)
We then moved to our ideal center
and from there we explored the three
main centers: head (thinking), heart
(feeling) and belly (will) and added
qualities and images to these centers.
We put centers in different parts of our
body while posing the question “where
is my character’s center?” and encouraged the actors to leave it as an open
question.
I then asked the actors to place their
hearts in the characters they loved in the
play. For example, Medvedenko put his
heart in Masha who put her heart in Konstantine who put his heart in Nina who
put her heart in Trigorin, etc. It quickly
became complicated and humourous as
each character chased after his or her
heart. It was a wonderful way for the actors to experience the various relationships and the theme of unrequited love.
Taking Ownership
I wanted the actors to take ownership
of the play and think beyond their own
character. Sometimes as actors we can
highlight our lines and only view the play
through our own scenes and text. By discussing the themes of the play, points of
view and different ways of presenting the
play, it encouraged the actors to look at
the bigger picture and take responsibility
for telling the story as an ensemble.
(Many of these exercises I learned from
David Zinder in the directing workshop at
the Long Beach Teacher Training in
January 2013.)
Even though I knew our production of
The Seagull was not going to be a
Continued on page 15
News
MICHA 2014
Taking MICHA Training to the Stage
Workshops to Working… Rena Polley’s Chekhov Journey Continues...
deconstructed, imagistic production, I
wanted the actors to start thinking in
images. Prior to the workshop, I had
asked them to read the play in one sitting and write down any images that
came to mind. Here are some of those
images…
•
Sun goes down, truth comes out
•
Old battered suitcase with dying
fish
•
Marionette cross discarded in the
grass with the strings cut
•
Breath misting on an old gilded
mirror
•
Nina with a cord attached to her
dragging the seagull behind her
•
Stars shining on one side and
impenetrable forest on the other
– people stuck in the middle –
beautiful void
•
Starving, anorexic, cracked, barren earth, no irrigation, endangered birds set adrift on an ice
flow
The image of a carnival came up a
couple of times during this workshop but
it got forgotten as we continued exploring the play. Months later our sound
designer found a piece of music called
“The Carnival is Over,” (a hit song for
The Seekers in the sixties), that was
based on a traditional Russian folk song
from the late 1800s. He deconstructed
the song for the opening of the play,
used fragmented pieces throughout and
ended the play with a single voice singing the entire song a cappella. Even
though we didn’t actively follow through
with these images some of them surfaced in unexpected ways.
Choosing Themes
At the end of the first day we discussed the various themes of the play.
We wrote them on pieces of paper, I put
in a hat and each actor drew one and
was asked to create a three-minute performance on that theme for the next
day. The performances could be anything, a dance, a song, an improv, whatever they wanted. It was a wonderful
way to see the themes come to life and
for actors to overcome their fear of presenting in front of each other. It immediately created an atmosphere of trust,
support and playfulness. Some of those
themes and performance are listed in the
box below.
A Metaphor
I had also asked the actors to bring in
images, posters and set designs from
past productions of The Seagull so we
could look at the point of view of other
productions. After we discussed those
previous productions, the actors drew
their own set designs for our production,
as if the sets could be anything they
imagined and as if cost were not a factor.
One of the actors came up with a design where all the characters sat in two
rows of chairs with their backs to each
other. A large oval mirror hung above
each character’s chair and the only way
they could see or speak to each other
was through these mirrors. I thought it
was a wonderful metaphor for the play.
Atmospheres
To introduce the actors to the concept
of atmospheres, we went through The
Seagull looking at the general atmospheres at the beginning and end of each
act. We followed this with some Chekhov
exercises on atmosphere including: what
is atmosphere, how to create it, how atmospheres inform the actor and the
scene, how to recreate the atmosphere
as an ensemble and what happens when
two atmospheres collide.
In future workshops, we approached
scene work through atmospheres and
colliding atmospheres. We also used
atmospheres to improvise moments that
occurred in the lives of the characters
before the play begins. For example, the
actors playing Nina and Konstantine
used the atmosphere of ‘playful excitement’ as they made plans to present
Konstantine’s play.
Meditative Exploration
On the third day, the actors were
guided through a meditative exploration
of their character’s private space, clothing and imaginary bodies. Afterwards we
shared our discoveries with each other.
Some of these images were later sent to
the costume designers. The designers
were successful fashion designers but
had never designed for theater. They
were used to working with models where
they essentially put their imagination on
a mannequin, so it was an interesting
creative challenge for them to honour
someone else’s imagination and the
world of the play. These images from the
actors were a great entry point as they
started to design.
We touched lightly on text the last day
of the workshop. We did a shadow exercise where two actors in the scene face
Continued on page 16
Themes Actors Used to Create Three-Minute Performances:
Creation vs. Destruction Nina, playing her namesake, built an elaborate piece of art, and with one pull of a rope destroyed it and herself.
Success vs. Failure Lynne, playing Polina, created a carnival atmosphere with a coin toss between optimism and pessimism. If you got
the coin in the jar you received a plum.
Theme of Feeling Trapped Greg, playing Sorin, did an improv on his
life as artist, lover, father and the sense of being trapped. He realized
being trapped is not bad, if you love the things that trap you.
Theme of Status Using expansion/contraction, I did a movement
piece on Arkadina’s status, ending in expansion, accepting applause.
Theme of Family Patrick, playing Trigorin, spoke the lines of each
character, devouring their words and lives as he chewed biscuits.
News
Workshops to Working… Rena Polley’s Story Concludes
each other and someone stands beside
them whispering their lines in their ear.
This permits the actors to listen to each
other, have an impulse, hear the words
for the first time and follow through with
that impulse (or change it) on the text.
This allowed all sorts of possibilities to
open up while being free of remembering
the text or having a barrier (a copy of the
play) between them. We repeated this
exercise again with the shadow reader
but added expansion and contraction
while they listened and while they spoke.
Again new discoveries were made.
We ended the four-day workshop by
putting on clown noses and improvising
the entire play as clowns. As both the
facilitator and the actor playing Arkadina,
I jumped in and out of the improv encouraging them to share their discoveries with
me as the audience as well as reminding
them to say ‘yes’! (In retrospect a very
Arkadina thing to do!) In the end, it was
dreadful clowning but mayhem ensued,
we had lots of laughs and even made
some discoveries about the characters
and the play. We were able to end the
workshop with a feeling of the whole and
a sense of play.
Spotlight—Mary Jo Romeo
What brought you to MICHA?
Mary Jo Romeo: My business partner
Ellie Heyman is active and convinced me
to attend the 2013 International workshop. I fell in love with the work, the community and how it challenged me to think
differently. Joanna Merlin, who is amazing, then invited me to join. MICHA is so
vibrant, it’s a privilege to be a part of it.
MICHA’s board
of directors has its
newest member in
Mary Jo Romeo.
She joined the
board in late 2013
and more recently
became secretary
of the executive
board. She comes to MICHA from the
business world, not the theater, as president of UP Business Commincations,
with more than 25 years sales and management experience. She spoke with
MICHA News about her new role.
This year marked the 10th anniversary
of MICHA’s amazing journey to Croatia
in 2004, forever cementing the North
American-European partnership in Michael Chekhov work.
MICHA spent almost two weeks on a
mountain top in the village of Groznjan,
invited there by Suzana Nicolic and the
Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts.
(Suzana returns to MICHA in 2015, to
teach at the Connecticut workshop.)
Final note: During this process, not
all of the actors took to the technique nor
did they have the time (or, for some, the
desire) to learn a new vocabulary. It was
What do you bring to MICHA?
MJR: My 25+ years of business acumen in marketing, sales, leadership,
management, finances and structure
brings a different voice to the board and
hopefully some fresh thinking.
a great exploratory tool but when it
came to rehearsal, they relied on their
own techniques. However, all were able
to use some components of the technique. When Peggy talked about the
atmosphere of a scene or the play
starting in expansion and ending in
contraction, the actors understood this.
The one actor who had the most difficulty with the process (he almost quit)
said to me after a performance one
night, “I don’t know how I got here, but I
like where I am and I am having the
most fun I have had in a long time.” I
believe that is the beauty of this technique; it is seamless and there is always joy living underneath it.
How does MC Technique benefit
your corporate work?
MJR: At UP Business Communications we do a lot of physical work with
clients. Corporate professionals spend
a crazy amount of time on words, and
often don’t think about how they show
up physically. But from Michael Chekhov technique they can learn a ton: the
value of being fully present and in the
moment, an increased awareness of
non-verbal communication, increased
self-awareness, the benefit of physically warming up before big meetings,
getting to the story behind the story. I
could go on and on.
That time in Groznjan would later be
understood as an important step toward
the 2006 creation of Michael Chekhov
Europe (MCE). MCE’s Ulrich MeyerHorsch reports the “village still breathes
the atmosphere of Michael Chekhov.”
MCE continues to hold workshops there
every August. MICHA’s Jessica Cerullo
returned to teach in 2010 and U.S. colleague Hugh O’Gorman and Canadian
colleague Cynthia Ashperger plan to do
so in 2015.
Left, a beautiful view of Groznjan, Croatia, on
the Istrian Peninsula, where MICHA held its
2004 International Summer Workshop and
Festival. Above, MICHA’s Jessica Cerullo,
returned to Groznjan with Michael Chekhov
Europe in 2010. MCE now holds workshops
there every August.
News
New Chekhov School
What we bring is a lot of “backspace,” Ted Pugh said, on
the creation of a new Michael Chekhov training program. He
was referring to the years of work and study he and his fellow
faculty members have amassed. "We can offer the tapestry of
training, teachers, and experiences behind us and the childlike open space that comes with being an artist," he added.
MICHA Faculty to Offer
‘Profound’ Chekov Training
through The Actors’ Ensemble
Ted, his teaching and performing partner Fern Sloan, and
Ragnar Freidank, all members of The Actors’ Ensemble and
the MICHA faculty, have developed a school to take actors
on a more profound journey into Chekhov work.
“With all of the teaching we’ve done at MICHA over the
years, there’s always this frustration that we don’t really get to
deepen the work. It’s maybe a week, maybe it’s eight days a
YEAR! And we have good students,” Ted explained. “We
have people who are serious about it and who want more.”
Fern said that this longing crystallized for her over the summer, while teaching at California State University’s Summer
Arts intensive, which had invited MICHA to teach Chekhov
technique for two weeks (more on that on page 18). “There
was something in this student body that they were so open.
They had no sense of entitlement. Whatever we brought, they
took it in so deeply and we were thrilled with their response
and with the way they could work. Ragnar said, ‘We must
start a school’ and I looked at him and I said, ‘Yes!’”
Immersive and Affordable
So, it began. They set out to create this program through
the auspices of their Hudson, N.Y.-based theater company,
coinciding with the Ensemble’s 30th anniversary in 2015.
They will offer eight weeks of training spread through the
year, two weeks in March, four weeks in July and two weeks
in October. “We’re going from 10 o’clock in the morning to 9
o’clock at night, six days a week,” Ted said. “We will be working with deepening the primary elements of the Chekhov
work, the basics, and to see really how profound each one of
them is.” Then, there will be periods of quiet between those
very intense times. “There is something very profound about
these rest periods between, just as it is in music,” Ted said.
“Or the stillness that we find in our work on the stage, the
pauses. Chekhov talks a lot about the pause, that it is filled
with life, not stagnant.“
(L to R) Fern Sloan, Ted Pugh and Ragnar Freidank discuss how
they created their new school, November 2014, Hudson, N.Y.
Ted said their goal also was to keep it affordable “to young
actors who want it so badly and simply cannot afford to go to a
school where they are going to graduate with 150-thousand
dollars debt.”
To that end, the tuition will be set at $3,800 per year, which
Ragnar pointed out amounts to $475 per week. Ragnar explained for those who need to defray or even eliminate the
cost of housing, a scholarship program is available. Students
who come for an extra week to work for the school “will get a
place to stay which will be shared accommodations,” Ragnar
said.
Encouraging Actors
Like The Actors’ Ensemble, the school will be based in Hudson, N.Y., two hours by train from New York City, in Columbia
County which Fern pointed out has the third highest percentage in the United States of people who identify as artists.
Joining Ted, Fern and Ragnar on the faculty will be MICHA
president Joanna Merlin, MICHA managing director Jessica
Cerullo and Camille Litalien, a movement professor at DePaul
University who trained at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York and has integrated Chekhov
technique into her movement work.
Full details can be found at michaelchekhovschool.org.
“What we hope to do is to encourage actors to not think that
they just have to be on Broadway or that they have to be on
HBO,” Ted added, “that they can find their like-minded colleagues and create something that is for them as satisfying as
a career where you’re making a million dollars an episode.”
Teacher Training Workshop
Two Working Groups
for more personalized attention
Advanced Teacher
Training Intensive
By Application Only
Jan. 4-8, 2015—Long Beach, CA
Faculty: Joanna Merlin, Dawn Arnold,
Marjo-Riika Makela, Nick Gabriel
May 28-31, 2015—Hudson, N.Y.
Fee $725/Friends of MICHA $695
Fee $700
Faculty: Ted Pugh, Fern Sloan
My Journey into
Creative Chaos
by Sebastian Arboleda
News
an hour-and-a-half break. The first thing
that Fern, Ragnar, and Craig covered
was the Four Brothers: Ease, Form,
Beauty, and a Feeling of Whole, followed
by the four Qualities of Movement: Radiating, Flowing, Molding, and Flying. From
what I remember the first two days were
the most frustrating for the group, even
for those who had previous experience
with the technique. Some people even
talked of dropping out.
“We are psychophysical beings!” I
started to come to this remarkable new
understanding as the first week of our
classes began.
This realization was just one of many
gifts I received this past summer when I,
along with 35 other actors, explored the
world of the Michael Chekhov Technique, in a session offered at the CSU
Summer Arts Festival, California State
University’s system-wide annual arts program. The summer intensive, now having
completed its 30th year, is a collaboration between Performance and Visual
Arts programs, welcoming students from
all 23 of the California State University
campuses. In short, it is a celebration of
the arts, where people from different
walks of life come together at CSU’s More Pleasurable
Monterey Bay campus to explore artistic By the third day, everything was much
endeavors and expand professional net- more pleasurable for me and I can say it
works.
seemed the same for the rest of the company. Images in our minds began really
Creative Chaos
to stand out. The first week continued
This year Cal State’s Hugh O’Gorman
with Ragnar’s dissection of those images
arranged for his MICHA colleagues, Jesand exploring how to live with them in
sica Cerullo, Ragnar Freidank, Marjofront of people. He also introduced transRiikka Makela, Craig Mathers, Joanna
ference of energy and motion between
Merlin and Fern Sloan, to guide us
one person and another, in other words
through Chekhov. With these fearless
Radiating and Receiving. Craig brought in
leaders we embarked on a two-week
the ball exercise where one kept a giant
journey of creative chaos.
red ball in the air while maintaining ease,
In the first week, the group was split in
listening to the group, and listening to
two. Half of us were taught by Ragnar
Moonlight Sonata! We also learned from
the other half by Fern, then they would
a simple observation: Fern’s passion for
switch off with Craig. The days began at
this technique and for art transformed her
9 a.m. and went until about 6 p.m. with
into a woman with more youth and power
than everybody else in the room put together.
…the technique is
a tool for acting
because of the
capacity it has to help
an actor listen...
Above and right, some of the 36 students,
studying Michael Chekhov technique with
MICHA faculty at the Cal State Summer Arts
Festival, perform a piece they devised, July
2014. Photo Credit: Todd Sharp
Great Realization
Our first great realization — that we
were psychophysical beings — was followed quickly by another: the Michael
Chekhov technique is a tool for acting
because of the capacity it has to help an
actor listen. It helped us listen to the
whole and to ourselves to access our
“Creative Individuality,” an essential element Michael Chekhov said an actor
must find deep inside to achieve artistic
transformation.
The transition to week two brought a
change in teachers: Joanna, MarjoRiikka, and Jessica. Joanna delved into
psychological gesture and how to use it
exploring monologues; we picked pieces
from Anton Chekhov’s major plays. I
found this particularly exciting as we explored both the power of psychological
gesture with text and the use of image
and gesture to influence sound and
movement. Marja-Riikka delivered a
classic and memorable exercise called
“The Palace of Beauty,” where actors
confronted images of what inspired
them, terrified them, and even stood between them and their creative potential.
Continued on Page 19
MICHA Students at CSU Summer Arts
Monterey Bay, Calif.—July 2014
Zane Alcorn, Maria Mercedes Amezcua, Sebastian Arboleda, Kayla
Beard, Philomena Block, Ashley Bravo, Hunter Brier-Roeschlaub,
Helen Brinich-Barnes, Andrew Bullard, Jaime Caldera,
Rachel Carter, Karina Ciulik Pennett, Kaitlyn Cornell, Robert Corona,
Britanny DeLeon-Reyes, Edgar Dias-Guiterrez, Elizabeth Ferreira,
Lindsay Fisher, Gabrielle Gutierrez, Caitlyn Huss, Jenny Huynh,
Mikayla Lambeth, Beau McCoy, James McKinney, Colleen O’Brien,
Jennifer O’Brien, Matthew Parson, Christine Penn, Norberta Ramirez,
Tyler Reardon, Luis Roman, Danielle Sappleton, Dilians Sosa,
Breayre Tender, Jaclyn Wernofsky, Ryan Woods
Creative Chaos Continues...
Jessica then expanded our horizons by
introducing mask-work and how we could
use “sensing the whole” to create a narrative. She guided us through listening to
our audience as well as other actors on
stage.
The culmination of our two-week session was a creative conglomeration
which all 36 of us developed. It began
with the “open-space technology” (ed.
note: known to MICHA participants in the
annual Theater of the Future weekends).
Jessica and Ragnar guided us through
the process, asking us what we as a
group wanted to present to the rest of the
CSU Summer Arts community. In a flurry
of what became even more creative
chaos, we decided to collaborate with
foley (sound effect) artists and creative
writers who were attending other Summer Arts programs.
We incorporated as much as we could
from our entire workshop, mixing mask
work and traditional forms of acting,
physically interpreting poetry written by
our collaborating writers and set to sound
generated by our collaborating foley artists. I learned even more from this work,
as I came to see how frustration is not
only a normal part of the creative process, but a key element.
...frustration is not only a
normal part of the
creative process, but a
key element…
New Heroes
News
magic that happens when people allow
themselves to play and wonder. One
final lesson we received came through
Fern, who read unpublished notes from
Michael Chekhov’s archivist Deirdre
Hurst du Prey. In them, Chekhov said
that as actors we cannot be accepted as
people who simply make others laugh or
cry. He said we are artists, we are people who show our hearts for the greater
good, and that in order to honor this
work, we have to be brave. “We must be
heroes,” he said. As we all went on our
separate ways, the initial 35 people I
met were no longer just people, they
were heroes: inspired, determined, and
capable of holding a little more love in
their hearts.
Ultimately, I saw how a Michael Chekhov intensive turned all 36 of us into a Sebastian Arboleda is an MFA student at the
company, a family even. I experienced Yale School of Drama. He previously studied
Michael Chekhov technique with Hugh
first-hand what makes the arts and theaO’Gorman at Cal State Long Beach.
ter unique: the love, respect, and the
Summer Arts, a poem by Summer Krafft
They shake hands like they already know each other, eyes like lockjaw. Names muttered between smiling lips.
But again, eyes like lock and key. The names are just a vehicle for connection. I can’t look away.
Arms flail in nervousness, endearing.
Soles of shoes padding over the carpet, all green and grey, like she’s a dancer.
These same soles have explored the surrounding land, legendary.
Eyes have found lanterns, all illuminated colors.
They are light and imaginative. Expressive. Human lanterns.
I come to remember that an actor never plays, they simply cloak themselves with the characteristics of others.
They are never strangers to anyone, it seems. They offer their care to one another.
Nurturing lights, shining in a circle in this old church. I see the altar behind them, stripped of religion.
I’m sure that this is where they come to be spiritual. This is a sacred space. They come to play, to discover, to evolve.
They introduce themselves as an image. And in relation to another. They do not know it, but they are poets, too.
They are daughters, brothers, the last son, fathers, caretakers, girlfriends, friends, climbers, grand-daughters.
They are flames, the messy sibling, givers, witnesses of art and light, playmates, cherished, heart-protectors, loved, heavy, weightless, sharers,
question marks.
All of them are all of these things, in one way or another. They are a chorus of voices, with individual truths, but a shared energy.
They hold each other up. They find themselves in one another, a found family. They laugh together.
They allow each other the quiet moments, of vulnerability, or honesty, of nudity.
I wonder if any of them think about the definition of sanity, and whether or not they think they possess it.
They are not ashamed –outwardly. I hope they feel as safe in their skin, in this world, as they do in this group.
They speak of Greek gods who drag the sky, bringing night and day with them. These are the beckoners of thought, of emotion.
They offer endless gifts. I suddenly forget that it is two pm.
Summer Krafft is a writer and performer based out of California’s central valley, hoping to connect and create, endlessly. At
CSU Summer Arts Festival in 2014, she attended Jessica Cerullo’s three-hour class on incorporating images into creative work.
She wrote this poem after the class, portions of which were used in the final presentation by the 36 actors studying Michael
Chekhov technique at the festival.
See MICHA’s Vimeo page for all of MICHA’s latest videos — vimeo.com/channels/micha —
including one called A Found Family, on the very class that inspired the above poem and previous article.
News
The Art of Acting
author Dawn Langman teaches integrated
Chekhov/Speech Formation at the Drama Center Flinders University, South Australia. She studied Stanislavsky and performed for many years before undertaking a four year training in Rudolf Steiner’s approach to speech (called Speech
Formation) in London. She taught speech and acting at England’s Emerson College for 10 years. Later, she spent four years studying with MICHA’s Ted Pugh
and Fern Sloan. She has written this comprehensive book on the nature of
drama and theater, the first of three books in a series. She spoke about her journey and the book with MICHA News.
MICHA News: How did you discover Michael Chekhov?
Dawn Langman: In Speech Formation I had recognised there was a path of
certainties in relation to speech, but felt increasingly acting methodologies were
too arbitrary. While teaching in England, Diane Caracciolo came to be my student. She had worked intensively for many years with Deidre Hurst du Prey; one
of Chekhov’s original Dartington actors and scribe of so much of his work. I invited her to teach some ‘Chekhov’ lessons and my ‘student’ became my teacher.
In the very first lesson I recognised that here was a path of certainties for the
actor.
What kind of impact has Chekhov’s work had on your evolution?
DL: Chekhov’s psychophysical technique is the only thorough and systematic
method I have found that consciously transforms acting talent into artistry.
What was your inspiration to write this book?
DL: First, as a student of acting, and then as a young actor and teacher, I searched desperately for a book that would help me
explore my questions about the nature of drama and theater, the actor’s art, the need for it to be integrated with the art of
speech and the relationship of all of these to the spiritual dimensions of reality. At that time I could find no such comprehensive
book and realized that perhaps I would have to write it myself. Along the way I discovered Chekhov whose own work grew out
of similar questions and whose books gave tantalising hints of all I was searching for. Through the inspiring teaching of Ted
Pugh and Fern Sloan I was led into the depths of his methodology and knew I had come home.
Does your book dovetail with MICHA work?
DL: I remember back in 1994 Mala Powers sharing her memories of Chekhov with us. She said how he had tried to find, in a
way appropriate to his profession, a process that would make the ‘intangibles tangible’. He had lived in a time when it was
frowned upon to speak directly of such things. I have tried to imagine, if he were alive today, how he would choose to write
about them now.
What was your goal in writing the book?
DL: To fully document my research, undertaken over many years, to develop a holistic path in which Chekhov’s psychophysical technique could be thoroughly integrated with the art of speech and with the spiritual understanding of the nature of the
human being from which Chekhov himself drew inspiration.
The book is reviewed on page 21
Taking Technique into
Rehearsal: A Guide
MICHA participant Maria Cominis
Glaudini published a book in 2014 entitled, Rehearsing in the Zone: A Practical
Guide for Rehearsing Without a Director.
She calls it a means to provide specific
steps for actors who need to rehearse
without directors, as in class, for showcases and for auditions. She explained,
“Like the musician, actors learn that how
they practice is how they perform.”
The book goes on to say, “If you practice your craft with specificity you develop professional habits and skills,
which transfer into rehearsals when you
work with a director in the future.”
Maria received her MICHA Certificate
of Completion in 2009, after attending
several MICHA workshops.
She has a successful acting career, on
the stage and screen. She is best know
for her role as Mona Clarke on ABC’s
Desperate Housewives. She also
teaches acting, currently as associate
professor at California State University
Fullerton.
News
John McManus is teaching Voice and Speech
Scott Fielding wrapped up the year traveling to the
Balkans, teaching workshops for six weeks. His studio in
Boston, kicked off the season in September with students
signing on for training in both Michael Chekhov and Meisner technique. He also plans to create a video series in
the spring of 2015. Details of his studio’s work can be
found at michaelchekhovstudioboston.com.
Sarah Kane announced that her training program, inte-
grating Michael Chekhov’s approach to acting and Rudolf
Steiner’s approach to speaking, called PerformInternational, has begun at Emerson College, Sussex, in the U.K.
They are offering a series of short courses presently. In
September, 2015, they will begin offering a foundation year.
Details can be found at performinternational.org. She says
if any MICHA friends would like to take a short course or
even just pay a visit, Sussex is a short distance just south
of London.
at Point Park College in Pittsburgh, Pa. In the fall of
2014, he played Candy in the Pittsburgh Playhouse
production of Of Mice and Men, directed by Robert
Miller, Arthur Miller’s son. In May 2015, he will direct A Midsummer’s Night Dream at Pittsburgh
Playhouse.
Marjolein Baars reports her Michael
Chekhov Center Netherlands drew actors,
clowns, directors, and drama teachers from
several countries. In 2014, they began to
work with businesses that incorporate acting exercises into their employee training.
She also spent time during the year working
with the Michael Chekhov Studio NY in New
York and Act’as in Lithuania. As an actress,
she continued to perform her one-woman
show Black Holes & Loose Ends, which
focuses on dealing with dementia.
Ulrich Meyer-Horsch is going into his second season as
associate artistic director of Kreuzgangspiele Feuchtwangen,
starting with Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid and Fontaine’s
Effi Briest. In 2014, he taught workshops in Taiwan, Croatia
and Germany.
Lenard Petit taught a four-day workshop in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in
the first collaboration between MICHA and Michael Chekhov Brazil. His
Michael Chekhov Acting Studio New York is offering semester-long
training courses in both the Spring and Fall of 2015.
The Art of Acting:
A Book Review
by Marjolein Baars
The Art of Acting, Body-Soul-SpiritWord is written “…for those who resonate with a sense that acting and theater
spring from a spiritual dimension…” and
it is the first of a trilogy. The book came
into existence because over the years,
students, friends and colleagues asked
Dawn Langman to write about the practical and esoteric aspects of her work to
integrate Michael Chekhov’s acting technique with Rudolf and Marie Steiner’s Art
of Speech Formation. She took up the
challenge and used her experience as a
student, teacher and performer over
more than 40 years.
The book starts with a clear overview
of the spiritual origin of theater and its
evolution through today. It addresses
and opens new doors to the theater of
the future as Michael Chekhov called it
by connecting the Chekhov exercises
directly to the Speech Formation exercises. While reading these exercises I
found myself already inwardly doing
them and I experienced the organic connection. In this respect I found the book
made me feel a deepening of the acting
work.
For people who come from a Speech
Formation background it seems to me to
offer a clear and practical addition and
way to free the Speech Formation work.
It also addresses the connection to daily
life and applying the principles consciously to our collaboration as actors in
an ensemble or in our individual
David Zinder is preparing a
production of Hedda Gabler for the
masters students at the Zurich
Academy of the Arts, to open in
March of 2015. He thanks those
who participated in MICHA’s 2013
teacher training workshop for piquing his interest in the play. In late
2014, he taught a workshop with
MICHA participant Soledad Garre
in Madrid, Spain.
connection to our instrument.
In his time Michael Chekhov never
talked openly about his connection with
Rudolf Steiner.
For those who dó want to know about
it, it is a gift that Dawn Langman opens
this door through her experience and
perspective.
And as a colleague it is a joy to read
the body of work, that is so familiar, from
someone else’s focus point, a perspective that is full of life; literally lived
through and fed with lifelong experience.
I look forward to the second and third
books; The Art of Speech and The Integrated Actor.
Ed. Note: Langman’s second book referenced above also is available in 2015.
The third is not yet released.
Around the World
Taiwan
Kim Chen is an actor, director, playwright, teacher, and theater producer in Taipei, Taiwan. She is the founder and director
of Taipei Theater Lab and a fulltime faculty member at the
Theater School of Taipei National University of the Arts. She
attended her first MICHA workshop in 2012. In 2014, she invited MICHA faculty member and Michael Chekhov Europe
co-founder Ulrich Meyer-Horsch to lead workshops with acting
students and professionals there. She spoke, via email, with
MICHA News about the experience.
News
come, and most important of all, not to force anything into happening without listening. I saw the young actors starting to
glow with the joy of acting.
How did professional actors respond to the work?
KC: With them, Uli worked on creating a character, guiding us
through a poetic journey infused with objectives, archetypal
gesture, qualities, imagination, and psychological gesture of
the character. It was amazing to see actors’ moods lighten up
during the process. The most remarkable example was the
most experienced actor in the workshop, known for his severe
working attitude and discipline. On just the second day, he
complained that this technique was too “bright and positive” for
him, but later that same day he started to beam with joy while
working, opening himself and exploring like a little boy. Towards the end of the workshop, he created a vulnerable and
sensational character that no one had ever seen from him! He
even shared his gratitude saying, “It’s not just about acting. It’s
also about living… Uli taught me the right attitude… I was too
critical about everything. Now I start to tell myself: don’t judge!”
Any final thoughts?
KC: Both workshops ended with the classic “golden hoop,”
and I’ve never seen so many happy tears come out of it. The
golden hoops might have been sent away, but a blissful
golden light has risen, and now pervades the atmosphere of
our theater community. It’s truly a wonderful introduction to the
joy of acting and living, we all cannot wait to work with Uli
again next year!
MICHA News: What was the state of theater in Taiwan that
made you think MICHA’s work might be welcomed?
Kim Chen: In Taiwan, theater has been very experimental
and director-oriented since the ’90s. Most productions are not
text-driven and require great commitment to physical work,
which make actors feel foreign when it comes to telling stories
in straight theater. We have this desire to experience life and
tell stories, but our work is often confined to the realm of physical expression. Acting thus becomes a competition of physicality and emotional range. Actors are constantly forced by
directors to produce “conditions,” making us a tool to achieve
directors’ designs. The joy of acting is scarce in our work.
As a teacher, how did you decide to proceed?
KC: I have been practicing and teaching Michael Chekhov
technique for three years, thrilled by its brilliant psychophysical approach, considering it an antidote to the actors’
plight in Taiwan. I, then, invited Uli. He spent a good amount Above and upper left, Ulrich Meyer-Horsch guides students through
of time working with atmosphere with students, teaching them the Michael Chekhov technique in Taipei, Taiwan, in Fall 2014.
to trust the process, to leave an open space for what’s yet to
Elsewhere around the world...
•
TURKEY: Yeditepe University Istanbul and Kumbaraci50
Theater Istanbul invited Ulrich Meyer-Horsch and Suzana
Nikolic to open a regular Chekhov Teaching Program.
•
FINLAND: Michael Chekhov Europe held an International Chekhov Symposium in Helsinki in November 2014.
Contributors were Asa Salvesen, Suzana Nikolic, Jobst
Langhans, Ulrich Meyer-Horsch and Liisa Byckling.
•
BRAZIL: Michael Chekhov Brazil published the MICHA
Workbook in Portuguese, only the second book concerning Michael Chekhov ever published in Portuguese after
To the Actor.
•
SWEDEN: A Swedish translation of To The Actor was
launched in 2014. It was edited by Asa Salvesen.
•
GERMANY: Schule fur Schauspiel Hamburg (School for
Drama) announced plans for faculty members Ulrich
Meyer-Horsch and David Zinder to lead a 2015 workshop.
News
MICHA’s Summer 2015: Back to the Connecticut Coast
•
Beautiful Location: Connecticut College once again will host the MICHA Summer Workshop and
Festival, in New London, Conn., halfway between New York and Boston, on its amazing campus.
•
All-Encompassing Atmosphere: MICHA will offer classes in the technique, plus an opportunity for
an artist retreat and an Open Space weekend, allowing for a personalized experience.
•
International Faculty: As always MICHA’s top notch international faculty members will lead MICHA’s
workshops, including Joanna Merlin who worked with Michael Chekhov.
At left, the lush campus of Connecticut College, in New London, Conn.,
the site of the 2015 MICHA International Summer Workshop and Festival. Pictured here is a morning
meditation with an amazing view
during the 2014 Summer workshop.
Summer 2015 Faculty:
Joanna Merlin, Ted Pugh,
Dawn Arnold, Jessica Cerullo,
Scott Fielding, Craig Mathers,
John McManus,
Suzana Nikolic
Summer Workshop - Arrive: June 14, Depart: June 20
The Pause: A Retreat - Arrive: June 14, Depart: June 20
Theater of the Future - Arrive: June 20, Depart: June 22
(Faculty subject to change.)
Register, reserve space and find
deposit and fee information now on
our website.
Each option has separate fees, allowing participation in either the Workshop or the Pause only, to include the Theater of the Future, or to attend
the Theater of the Future only.
www.michaelchekhov.org
An Opportunity to Open Up
MICHA’s popular Theater of the Future - Open Space weekend allows participants to start new conversations or continue old ones. MICHA also takes the “open” idea further than ever once more this year,
offering a week-long opportunity to “pause,” with The Pause: A Retreat. Those interested can take time
for independent study and informal conversation, and choose to be day observers.
Board of Directors
President: Joanna Merlin, Vice President: Fern Sloan
Secretary: Mary Jo Romeo, Treasurer: Jessica Cerullo
P.O. Box 175
Quaker Hill, CT
06375 USA
Marjolein Baars, Ragnar Freidank, Zelda Fichandler,
Phelim McDermott, Andrei Malaev-Babel, Michael Mayer,
Lenard Petit, Ted Pugh, Deborah Robertson
202.841.5141
www.michaelchekhov.org
Advisory Board
Anne Bogart, Martha Clarke, William Elmhirst,
Tom Schumacher, Jimmy Smits, Julie Taymor
Front cover: Participants at the MICHA International
Workshop and Festival, New London, Conn., Summer 2014.
Back cover: Students at the CSU Summer Arts intenstive,
Monterey Bay, Calif., Summer 2014.
Become a F ri e n d of MI C H A
Managing Director:
Jessica Cerullo
Office Manager:
Tamara MacGregor
MICHA News Designer: -First right of attendance at workshops
-Discounts on all US workshops and performances
Peter Tedeschi
MICHA News Editors:
Peter Tedeschi
Membership/Workshops Jessica Cerullo
Production Manager:
Rebecca Joy
Photographers:
Scott Burrell
News
A Publication of
Peter Tedeschi
The Michael Chekhov Assn.
Copyright 2014
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Mail this form with a check (in U.S. dollars) to:
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