Parodos Journal

When we’re talking about society, when we’re talking about the world we live in — and I have students from all sorts of backgrounds — when we’re telling stories, it’s messy. And when we talk about race and identity, it’s always going to be messy. Race as a social construct continues to be at the messy root of who this country is. It’s in the institutions; it’s in the philosophy of thinking; it’s in the very fibers of this country. We’re always going to find it in our society and we’re going to find it in our students when they walk into the classroom. And it’s a mistake to not address it.

One of those things that’s kept me with Meisner for so long is what his work does. It’ll take you to Shakespeare. It’ll take you to Restoration. It’ll take you to avant-garde stuff … The work prepares the student to be any kind of actor. They can go anywhere with it. Because truth is truth, and an impulse is an impulse. I think that anybody is improved by the study of acting in the way we teach it.

Thanks to the liberating and holistic nature of Michael Chekhov’s acting technique, there is no one way to begin training, no rigid formula, or linear sequence to be followed religiously. It is the fluid essence of Chekhov’s approach that allows it to provide both a foundational training for beginning actors as well as a supplementary training boost for experienced, professional actors.

Countless actors believe that of the many thoughts and emotions continually coursing through them, fear is the one thing they must hide. The result is that they use a great deal of energy trying not to feel what they are feeling, and so this energy is not available for the acting work. But if, instead of trying to hide this fear, actors allow themselves to feel it and permit that energy to inhabit their bodies, they find that is workable, that they can use it to their benefit.