Michael Chekhov

Describes the role of the imagination in acting, suggests a variety of acting exercises, and discusses psychological gestures, tempo, rehearsal, and the creative process.

This handbook for professional and amateur actors and directors provides simple and practical methods to train actors to quickly and effectively call up emotion, develop characters, and strengthen awareness.

"Charles Marowitz was granted special access to the Chekhov archives in Devon, England, and he interviewed actors - such as Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn - and directors who worked closely with Chekhov both in Europe and America. The book chronicles Chekhov's influential period in Hollywood when he served as an acting coach and an inspiration for so many budding and established actors and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as the avuncular psychiatrist in Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 film Spellbound. It also describes his close association with Marilyn Monroe at the most delicate stage of her career." "A charismatic actor, a compelling director, and a teacher who developed a dynamic antidote to Russian Naturalism, Chekhov remains the invisible man of the modern theatre. Was he, as Lee Strasberg alleged, a dangerous mystic who would subvert the vigor of Stanislavsky's teachings and undermine the integrity of The Group Theatre? Or was he, as his disciples - Yul Brynner, Ingrid Bergman, Jack Palance, Leslie Caron, Jennifer Jones, Patricia Neal, Anthony Hopkins, and Jack Nicholson - believed, a man who had discovered a unique approach to acting that transcended the precepts enshrined in Stanislavsky's "system"?"--Jacket.