He was born 28 years after Stanislavsky and was unfortunately caught up in the Russian Revolution whilst he was creating theatre. Stalin didn't like what Chekhov was doing and what his theatre stood for so he was banished from Russia and went to live in America. There he trained many famous Hollywood actors.
He wrote a book called To The Actor in 1953 which explained all of his teaching and methods of acting. He emphasized a lot on movement and imagination because he looked at the difference between the actor and the character they were playing. In most cases, there were big differences and Michael believed you shouldn't try to become the character but pretend to be them instead. Imagine you're them "You don't have to use your emotional memory, you can imagine".
He believed that actors should understand the composition and be concerned about the whole play like a director and not just immerse themselves in their character. Actors should also be able to build atmosphere and bring out their higher ego.
This lesson we looked at our own mannerisms and ways of existing in a space and then becoming our characters then assessing how big of a difference there is between us. The differences between my character and I are:
- I'm female, he is male. there are going to be differences is how I move and speak on stage
- I'm 17 and he's probably in his late 30s. Maturity and difference in age will have to be shown
- I have no army training at all, he does.
- I'm in 21st century Britain, he's in 18th century Australia. There will be very big differences in dressing, speech, movement, interaction with other characters, etc.
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