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"I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy."
Rabindranath Tagore
I have been listening in the car to Michael Chekhov's lectures on CD over the last few days, and what comes across to me so vividly, hearing him speak- much more so than in his writings in fact- is the true significance, depth and sheer beauty of his highly practicable spiritual wisdom. What he called 'the Love thing', his radical ideas of Giving ("...giving! Giving!!") and the 'expansion of the Soul' through the Imagination underpin his entire philosophy. The concepts of the Higher Ego and the transformative power of Divine Love were woven into every single aspect of his teaching. What a disservice the editors, critics, teachers, academics and biographers do when they neglect to appreciate the importance of those spiritual ideas to the maturation of the actor's development- opting instead to focus their attention on Chekhov's technical discoveries alone! Wonderful as they are, his legacy is far, far richer than just the Psychological Gesture, Physical Centres and the Imaginary Body exercises for which he is still most famous. Chekhov demonstated such extraordinary courage venturing as he did to share the 'crazy', 'simple' idea of Love and its primary importance to the art of the actor, especially with a deeply cynical and no doubt utterly bemused Hollywood of the mid-50s. I know he loathed the name of 'Mystic' being attached to him, but he is the closest the theatre has ever come to having one as their patron saint.
Tally's Blood is very obviously all about Love. That's really what attracted me to the play in the first place. Family love, friendship, romantic love, patriotic love, love of God, love of the past, etc. As I conduct the relaxation and psycho-physical warm-up exercises each day I coax the actors to focus on something or someone that their character happens to deeply love and then to express that love in an ardent PG. I ask them what as actors they most love about their work? and then get them to imagine inwardly a multiplication and an immense expansion of that love- connecting and merging it with the love their character has. The quality of the work produced is very, very high from those members of the cast who are willing to yield to this strange exercise. I am convinced that this simple shift and opening-up in our thinking can transform the humblest artist into a genius. I have been very moved by what I have seen from the actors already and we have only had eight rehearsals,. Progress has been rapid, and working with them is a joy. I'd like to think they are feeling as positive and excited as I am.
3 comments:
Looking forward to your next post...btw I met a lovely guy today who's interested in Chekhov. Was so nice spending two hours talking to someone about all that, miss chatting to you about it though!
Was thinking about your book today, I hope you are still thinking of writing it...
Thanks for all the support and encouragement, Sarah- it means a great deal.
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Right now I'm introducing more and more of Chekhov's ideas into the rehearsals for Tally's Blood; stuff to do with objective/subjective Atmospheres, Qualities & Sensations, the subtle communication between the Creative Imagination and the body, and especially the transformative power of Compassion as the major source of inspiration for the actor. Di Mambro's writing has such immense emotional warmth to it- and it's an ideal text for examining the potential power and richness of human love and affection. It may not sound like it, when put like that, but we are having such FUN!!
I believe I mentioned I'm fascinated right now by the connection between the Higher Self/Love and the actor's characterisation process and the audience. It's this that's most probably going to be the main area of area of focus for my next blog, (hopefully by this weekend, I promise!) Meanwhile I've got more mundane spadework to deal with- (including music and LFX cues, props and costume lists to make up)- before I can even get round to organising and editing my emerging thoughts on the more esoteric aspects of the 'artistic process'!
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Actually I'm not just THINKING about my book; I've actually been WRITING it for about 6 weeks now- 500 words a day. I've written nearly 20,000 words so far. I am still probably almost a year away from completing a first draft, but what a real joy it is watching it slowly come together, discovering fresh perspectives that had never properly occurred to me before, attempting to articulate a light-filled and hopefully coherent vision of the alchemical fusion of acting with the inner work of the Spirit.
Funnily enough, I'M actually learning a lot from it!!
Hopefully your own class preparation is going well too. Wish I could be there! On Thursday evening I've given everyone a night off rehearsals so I can attend a 2hr 'Heart Voice' workshop run by a lady called Patricia Iris who channels archangels. She trained at the RSAMD and wrote a book about the healing power of the spoken word called 'Viva Voce', which I read over the summer. Should be interesting, eh!?! Will let you know all about it! :-)
Mark x
Oh wow! I'm so happy you've started it! And "Tally's Blood" seems to be the perfect play for developing your ideas right now...it all seems to be coming together.
I've nearly finished the Chekhov cds and have been reading my way through his book. All my thoughts for the class are still growing in my mind. Tomorrow I will put them into form...I am trusting the process. I can't wait to talk to you about what has been coming together in your mind about it all.
I can't believe I am teaching again. It was something that just seemed to come about and yet it feels so right! I don't think I would do anything differently from what I am doing right now.
Would you?
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