Creating Character - Michael Chekhov's approach to acting and theatre
11th January to 12th February 2010
 
An enthusiasm for play is vital to the artistic creative process that leads up to any performance. How can this then flow into and connect with what seems to be the serious business of creating and playing a character who has specific actions and given lines to perform within a scripted play or performance piece? 
 
Creating Character will investigate what it means as a performer to truly transform oneself by exploring the specific physical appearance, movement and inner life of the individual character to be played. We will develop an in-depth and practical understanding of the tools for characterisation - or transformation - developed by the Russian actor and teacher Michael Chekhov: the Imaginary Body, the Imaginary Centre, the Personal Atmosphere, the character's Objective and the Psychological Gesture. These make clear which artistic principles lie at the heart of an inspired performance, in any theatrical or film style. The principles will be applied to specific theatre texts in more than one style and the course will conclude with a short performance. 
 
This is a five-week, full-time course. Each day begins at 8.30 a.m. and ends at 5.30 p.m.. The course may be taken on its own - in which case some performance experience would be essential - or as part of the 'Art of Performance' year.

Course leader: Sarah Kane