Michael chekhov biography

Michael Chekhov (1891-1955) was an actor at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia during the years Stanislavsky was developing his system of actor-training.

Michael chekhov biography

Forced into exile under the Stalin regime, he worked in Europe before he was invited to create the Michael Chekhov Studio at Dartington Hall in Devon, in the UK from 1936-1939. There he began to formulate his own unique form of actor training which privileges the imagination, psychophysical training and ensemble, collective creation.

Chekhov’s key text is To The Actor on the Technique of Acting (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953; London: Routledge, 2002).

There are further published works drawn from the extensive Dartington Hall archive collection of his classes and lectures (held on open access at Devon Records Office in Exeter).

Further resources include:

• Rushe, Sinéad, Michael Chekhov’s Acting Technique: A Practitioner’s Guide.

  London, Bloomsbury, 2019.

• Dixon, Graham, The Master Key to Acting Freedom: