Michael Chekhov

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Michael Chekhov
Chekhov, 1910s
Born
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Chekhov

(1891-08-16)16 August 1891
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died30 September 1955(1955-09-30) (aged 64)
Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Years active1913–1954
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1914; div. 1917)​
Xenia Karlovna Ziller
​
​
(m. 1918)​
ChildrenAda Tschechowa
Parent(s)Alexander Chekhov
Natalya Golden
RelativesAnton Chekhov (uncle)
Olga Knipper (aunt)
Vera Tschechowa (granddaughter)

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Chekhov (Russian: Михаил Александрович Чехов; 16 August 1891 – 30 September 1955), known as Michael Chekhov, was a Russian-American actor, director, author, and theatre practitioner.[1] He was a nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov and a student of Konstantin Stanislavski. Stanislavski referred to him as his most brilliant student.

Although mainly a stage actor, he made a few notable appearances on film, perhaps most memorably as the Freudian analyst in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), for which he received his only Academy Award nomination.

Life

He was born in Saint Petersburg, the son of Alexander Chekhov (the elder brother of Anton Chekhov) and his wife Natalya Aleksandrovna Golden. It was his father's second marriage. His mother, a Russian Jew, had been the governess to the children from his father's first marriage. He was raised in a middle-class family; his father was in the Imperial Customs Service and was a moderately successful writer.[citation needed]

Chekhov's first wife was actress Olga Chekhova, whom he met at the Moscow Art Theatre First Studio. Olga Chekhova was a daughter of Konstantin Knipper and was the niece of Olga Knipper, Anton Chekhov's wife, after whom she was named. Their daughter, also baptized Olga, was born in 1916 and became a German actress under the name Ada Tschechowa. His second wife was Xenia Karlovna Ziller, of German origins. [citation needed]

Chekhov studied under the Russian

Stanislavski's 'system'. He was also influenced in his creative development as an actor by Yevgeny Vakhtangov and Leopold Sulerzhitsky.[2]
In 1922, after the death of
Vakhtangov, Chekhov became director of the First Studio, which was subsequently renamed Moscow Art Theatre II.[2]

Stanislavski considered Chekhov to be one of his brightest students. When Chekhov experimented with affective memory and had a nervous breakdown, this aided Stanislavski in seeing the limitations of his early concepts of emotional memory.

After the October Revolution, Chekhov split with Stanislavski and toured with his own company. He thought that Stanislavski's techniques led too readily to a naturalistic style of performance. He demonstrated his own theories acting in parts such as Senator Ableukhov in the stage version of Andrei Bely's Petersburg.

With the beginning of

Symbolist
theories of Bely. In this technique, the actor physicalizes a character's need or internal dynamic in the form of an external gesture. Subsequently, the outward gesture is suppressed and incorporated internally, allowing the physical memory to inform the performance on an unconscious level.

Between 1930 and 1935 he worked in

Kaunas State Drama Theatre in Lithuania. Between 1936 and 1939 Chekhov established The Chekhov Theatre School at Dartington Hall, in Devon, England. Following developments in Germany that threatened the outbreak of war he moved to the US with the couple, and later writers, Anne Cumming and Henry Lyon Young to recreate a drama school.[4]

Career

Chekhov in 1922, from The Russian Theater by Oliver Sayler

Following Stanislavski's approach, much of what Chekhov explored addressed the question of how to access the unconscious creative self through indirect non-analytical means.[5] Chekhov taught a range of movement dynamics such as molding, floating, flying, and radiating that actors use to find the physical core of a character. [citation needed]

Despite his seemingly external approach, Chekhov's techniques were meant to lead the actor to a rich internal life. In spite of his brilliance as an actor and his first-hand experience in the development of Stanislavski's groundbreaking work, Chekhov as a teacher was overshadowed by his American counterparts in the 1940s and 1950s and their interpretations of Stanislavski's 'system,' which became known as

Oscar for her performance in Network (1976).[7]

Chekhov's description of his acting technique, On the Technique of Acting, was written in 1942. When reissued in 1991 it had additional material by Chekhov estate executor Mala Powers; an abridged version appeared under the title To the Actor in 1953, with a preface by Yul Brynner, and reissued in 2002 with an additional foreword by Simon Callow and additional Russian material translated and commented on by Andrei Malaev-Babel, a notable Russian-born acting scholar and teacher. The English translation of his autobiography The Path of the Actor was edited by Andrei Kirillov and Bella Merlin and published by Routledge in 2005, marking the 50th anniversary of his death. Some of Chekhov's lectures are available on CD under the title On Theatre and the Art of Acting. The documentary From Russia to Hollywood: the 100 Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff, profiles Chekhov and his fellow Russian associate George Shdanoff; released in 1998, it is narrated by Mala Powers and Gregory Peck, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, for which Chekhov earned an Oscar nomination. [citation needed]

Selected filmography

Michael Chekhov as Erik in the 1921 production of August Strindberg's Erik XIV
Year Title Role Notes
1914 Kogda zvuchat struny serdtsa
1915 Shkaf s syurprizom
1916 Liubvi syurprizy tshchetnye
1921
Erik XIV
Erik XIV
1927 Einer gegen alle
1927 Man from the Restaurant Skorokhodov
1929 Der Narr seiner Liebe Didier Mireuil
1930 Phantoms of Happiness Jacques Bramard
1930 Troika Paschka, village idiot
1944 Song of Russia Ivan Stepanov
1944 In Our Time Uncle Leopold Baruta
1945 Spellbound Dr. Alexander 'Alex' Brulov
1946 Specter of the Rose Max Polikoff
1946 Cross My Heart Peter
1946 Abie's Irish Rose Solomon Levy
1948 Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven Mr. Gaboolian
1952 Invitation Dr. Fromm
1952 Holiday for Sinners Dr. Konndorff
1954 Rhapsody Professor Schuman (final film role)

Bibliography

  • Чехов, Михаил. Литературное наследие: В 2 т. / Общ. науч. ред. М.О. Кнебель; сост.: И.И. Аброскина, М.С. Иванова, Н.А. Крымова; коммент. И.И. Аброскиной, М.С. Ивановой. М., 1995.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8
    .
  2. ^ a b "Michael Chekhov." International Dictionary of Theatre. Chicago: St. James Press, 1992. Vol. 3. Updated version by Gale, 1996. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, 2018-06-26.
  3. ISBN 9780429941061
    .
  4. ^ "Obituary: Anne Cumming". The Independent. 31 August 1993. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  5. ^ "Compagnie AZOT - Méthode Michael Chekhov". www.cie-azot.com (in French). Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  6. ^ McLellan, Dennis (21 February 2009). "Dorothy Bridges dies at 93; 'the hub' of an acting family". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  7. ^ Beatrice Straight Wins Supporting Actress: 1977 Oscars at YouTube

Further reading

External links
  1. ^ "Michael Chekhov". Michael Chekhov UK. Archived from the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
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