Michael Chekhov quotes
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“An actor has to burn inside with an outer ease.”
-- Michael Chekhov -
“The essence of our profession is to give. What is it that we in the theater give? We give our body, voice, feelings, will, imagination - we give a form of pulsating art to life itself; we give it to our characters and we give it to our audiences. Nothing, absolutely nothing remains for us save the pleasure of having given pleasure. And yet it is only by this miraculous process that our love grows and our talent is fulfilled and replenished.”
-- Michael ChekhovSource : "To the Director and Playwright".
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“As actors and actresses, we must rejoice in the possession of our physical faculties. We must experience joy in the use of our hands, arms, body etc. Without this appreciation and realization of the body and its many possibilities, we cannot perform as artists You should feel a flow of joy because you are alive. Your body will feel full of life. That is what you must give from the stage. Your life. No less. That is art: to give all you have. And what have you? Your life-nothing more. And to give life means to feel life throughout your whole being.”
-- Michael Chekhov -
“This longing for knowledge makes the real artist brave. He never adheres to the first image that appears to him, because he knows that this is not necessarily the richest and more correct. He sacrifices one images for another more intense and expressive, and he does this repeatedly until new and unknown visions strike him with their revealing spell.”
-- Michael Chekhov -
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“All true artists, bear within themselves a deeply rooted and often unconscious desire for transformation.”
-- Michael ChekhovSource : Michael Chekhov, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich Gogolʹ (1963). “To the director and playwright”
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“The inner life of the [imagination], and not the personal and tiny experiential resources of the actor, should be elaborated on the stage and shown to the audience. This life is rich and revealing for the audience as well as for the actor himself.”
-- Michael Chekhov -
“You cannot keep bumping your head against reality and saying it is not there.”
-- Michael Chekhov -
“I am a creative artist. I have the ability to radiate. Lifting my arms above me, I soar above the earth. Lowering my arms, I continue to soar. In the air moving around my head and shoulders, I experience the power of thoughts. In the air moving around my chest, I experience the power of feelings. In the air moving around my legs and feet, I experience the power of will. I am that”
-- Michael Chekhov -
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“Compassion may be called the fundamental of all good art because it alone can tell you what other beings feel and experience. Only compassion severs the bonds of your personal limitations, and gives you deep access into the inner life of the character you study, without which you cannot properly prepare it for the stage”
-- Michael ChekhovSource : Michael Chekhov, Mala Powers (2013). “To the Actor: On the Technique of Acting”, p.90, Routledge
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“Why be narrow-minded, why cut ourselves off from any of these rich heritages when… we have the freedom to make the most of the best in all techniques? There are no prohibitions against it. All it takes is a little wisdom, imagination and courageous experimentation.”
-- Michael ChekhovSource : Michael Chekhov, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich Gogolʹ (1963). “To the director and playwright”
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“When you really concentrate, you will get a sense of expansion. You will feel that you are larger person than you are physically, as if you become a person two or three sizes bigger than your ordinary physical self, and that you are flowing with all your being toward the object of your concentration. Whether it is a physical thing or an image that you are concentrating on, your whole invisible person will be in movement.”
-- Michael Chekhov -
“In every well-written play the battle rages between the primary powers of Good and Evil, and it is this battle which constitutes the life impulse of the play, its driving force, and is basic to all plot structures...In any true piece of art...the beginning and the end are, or should be, polar in principle. All the main qualities of the first section should transform themselves into their opposites in the last section.”
-- Michael Chekhov -
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“Real inspired acting is never DOING, it is always HAPPENING”
-- Michael Chekhov -
“That is art: to give all you have. And what have you? Your life - nothing more. And to give life means to feel life throughout your whole being.”
-- Michael Chekhov
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