Tennessee Williams Cafe
Posted by Chekhov Studio | Filed under Acting Related, Announcements, Class Update, In Production
Questions about the Michael Chekhov Technique? Come to the Chekhov Studio Cafe on December 13th & 18th!
An Evening and Matinee of Scenes & Monologues
- Q&A with the Actors & Teachers
Using the means of the Michael Chekhov Technique, Chekhov Studio Ensemble explores works of Tennessee Williams.
What is Chekhov Studio Cafe?
As part of our classes, we created the Chekhov Studio Café, a fun and relaxed way for our actors to work on building the ensemble. We invite friends and professionals to view our work from class and share food and drink. This is also a great way for prospective students to see the work of their colleagues. The Chekhov Studio Café is designed to work on building the ensemble and providing a performance opportunity to enhance the training done at Chekhov Studio.
TO SEE OUR WONDERFUL ACTORS CLICK HERE
When? Dec 13th at 7.30pm & Dec 18th at 3.30pm
Where? At the Complex Theater on 6476 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90038
Chekhov Studio Ensemble
Posted by Chekhov Studio | Filed under Acting Related, In Production
ACTORS:
Doug Agnew
SAG, AEA
Doug’s Los Angeles theater credits include: Sex is Good For You, The Beard of Avon, Othello, Eavesdropper, The Wind-Up Puppet Show, and Dirty Suitcase. Doug has performed stand-up comedy in Los Angeles and New York at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, Broadway Comedy Club, The New York Improv, New York Comedy Club, and Stand-Up NY. He has studied acting at Chekhov Studio International, Playhouse West, and Margie Haber Studio. His improv comedy training is from iO West and UCB.
Rena Andrews
AFTRA, SAG
After graduating from Brown University, Rena deferred Med School to follow her passion for acting and to study with Richard Pinter through the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. As fate had it, her neighbor was Joanna Merlin, a first generation student of Michael Chekhov, as well as a teacher. Joanna invited her to a Michael Chekhov Association’s NYU Intensive featuring herself and other well-known Chekhov instructors such as Mala Powers and Jack Colvin. It was her first introduction to Chekhov and she finished the intensive longing to do more. Rena soon moved to Los Angeles where she booked several commercials, print, dance, voice-over and acting work in addition to producing a documentary. After recently rediscovering Chekhov through his 5-hour master class CD, Rena stumbled upon the Chekhov Studio International. Chekhov’s words had instantly inspired her again. She found his exercises and technique to fuse so many integral parts of her life from acting to dance, movement, yoga, and meditation which all have the same goals of invoking presence and an open heart. Rena looks forward to integrating more and more of herself and the technique into her work and her life as an inspired actor.
Jody Barton
AFTRA
In October 2009, Jody left his life as a Civil Rights Attorney in Austin Texas to pursue the craft of acting. In his brief time as an actor he has starred in 19 student/independent short films. Many of his films have been featured in short film festivals throughout the country. Under the guidance of Marjo-Riikka Makela and the instructors at Chekhov Studios International, he continues to expand his knowledge and range, and strives for truth in his characters. Jody will be starring in his first feature in February. Click Here for Jody’s Website
Ben Bela Boehm
SAG, BFFS
Ben has always been interested in Michael Chekov and is so happy to finally learn more about that technique. With a B.A. from the acting conservatory in Berne, Switzerland, he was a series regular on three German TV shows for a few years. Theatre credits include: Mozart in AMADEUS, John in BASH, the prince in EMILIA GALOTTI etc. Commercials currently airing are a tonic water one in which he plays a shy reporter interviewing Uma Thurman and a Carl’s Jr ad. He loves voiceover work, his reps Fran Blain, BBR, Affinity, Vox, and FFM, the Chekov Studio International, and his family. Click Here for Ben’s Website
Edward Gusts
EMC
Edward Gusts is thrilled to perform with an entire ensemble that uses the Michael Chekhov technique. When he isn’t acting, he is fighting with swords.
Franz Klainsek
SAG
Franz Klainsek was born in Miami, Florida. His first love was tennis. When his aspirations to play professionally fell short, he traveled the world looking for his next great love affair. His travels took him to Boston, where he found his passion for acting. He then moved to Los Angeles, studying at the Meisner Studio and more recently under the tutelage of Marjo-Riikka Makela and Kim Lane at Chekhov Studio International. He feels very fortunate and thankful that life has brought him to such a wonderful place. Much love to all.
Wes McGee
AFTRA, SAG
Wes is filled with excitement to be working with Chekhov Studio International! He has appeared on stage with CSI as Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplyov in Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” and his most recent appearance on stage was with the The Loft Ensembles production of “What Happened in Mayville?” as Deputy Mitchell that closed in October. His TV credits include TNT’s “Southland”, Nick’s “iCarly”, and just wrapped filming the upcoming USA show “Common Law” as FBI Agent Vincent Conrad. He is also currently involved in producing the short film “Calling for Liberty” and the police drama pilot “The Blue Line”. You also catch him on the current Nationally running commercials for Coor’s Light and Fisher Investments. Love and Light to you all!
“Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.” ~ Tennessee Williams
Masha Mendieta
Masha is a young actress of Russian and Ecuadorian descent that grew up in New York. She studied acting and film at the University of Miami, Cambridge University (UK), and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). At 20 years old, Masha graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s in International Relations, Theater Arts, and Modern Languages. In NYC, she starred in a variety of independent films, including the thriller feature Siodmak that premiered in NYC this past December, a spanish-language TV pilot, and the martial arts film The Nice Guy, an official selection of the 2010 New York International Film Festival. She also frequently performed theatre Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway; her favorite portrayal as Frida Kahlo in a role she originated in My Night with Frida. Masha is also the reigning Queen of Europe and Asia Latina 2011, having represented Russia at the Miss Latin America of the World competition. Recently transplanted to Los Angeles, Masha has found deep inspiration at Chekhov Studio International. In her spare time, Masha loves to debate politics, dance, and read literature.
Olga O’Farrell
Olga O’Farrell is once again awakening her senses to the challenges of Michael Chekhov. She is grateful to the Chekhov Studio International for giving her a platform to learn, grow and perform. Oh yeah, and to play and have fun! Olga will be producing and starring in her play, Pedestrian in Hollywood next spring.
Thomas Owen
AFTRA, SAG, EMC
Thomas Owen is excited to be studying the Checkhov technique. Thomas has been seen on such programs as NCIS, Las Vegas, and Beverly Hills 90210 as well as appearances on Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives. In NYC, he studied at HB Studios in NYC and became a member of the Workhouse Theatre Company. He has performed at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival (FRINGE), the Portland Center Stage Theatre in Portland Oregon, and the Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company. Thomas is continuing his pursuits and the love affair he has with the craft of acting in Los Angeles. Thanks to outstanding internationally known instructors Marjo-Riikka Makela and Kim Lane, practicing the Chekhov Technique has opened up new methods for creating characters and practical applications in the world of TV and film for auditions, performance, and life.
Jennifer Polansky
Jennifer Polansky is a Canadian actress who recently moved to LA in order to push further with her acting career. An experienced performer with many credits under her belt, all of her material (demo reels, photos, resumes and video links) can be found here.
Avila Reese
Avila Reese received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of California, Davis and her B.A. from the University of California Berkeley. She has worked with Tony award winning theatre director Dominique Serrand in his debut of “Come Hell and High Water” playing the lead role, Woman in Tree, and with legendary performance artist and activist Guillermo Gómez-Peña on numerous projects including his notorious “Corpo Ilicito.” A northern California native, Avila’s past theatre credits include; Elly Dunn in Heartbreak House, Viola in Twelfth Night, Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Ernest, Rosie Pye in Humble Boy, and Titania in A Mid Summer’s Night’s Dream.
Leah Yananton
SAG
Leah is grateful to work with Marjo-Riikka Makela, Kim Lane, and Chekhov Studio who bring to life the playful poetic technique of Michael Chekhov. Background: After earning a B.F.A. from Columbia University in Literature & Creative Writing, Yananton pursued acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse with historic Meisner mentee James Brill. She performed in numerous off-off Broadway plays while living in New York City. Now in love with Los Angeles, she is finishing her first feature film as writer-director and actor in SURVIVING ME, also in which Marjo-Riikka Makela appears as a deeply sympathetic and loving mother.
Sean Topps
Sean Topps holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor. He has performed in various international productions and projects in Vancouver, Toronto, Tel Aviv, and, now, Los Angeles. An attentive student of Michael Chekhov Technique, he looks forward to continued study with Chekhov Studio International.
DIRECTORS:
Marjo-Riikka Makela
Director
Marjo-Riikka Makela is a director, master teacher, acting coach, and a professional actress. She has specialized in a variety of different acting techniques, is a long-standing member of the Michael Chekhov Association, and has worked extensively with the M. Chekhov Technique both as an actress and director. Ms. Makela received her training at the Russian Academy of Dramatic Arts (GITIS) and holds an MFA in Acting from CSULB. She was a company member of the groundbreaking theatre group The Actors’ Gang, and has extensive stage credits from Europe. Here in USA some of Marjo-Riikka’s favorite roles include Medea in direction of David Bridel, Yelena in Uncle Vanya at the Classic Stage Company in NYC, and her work with Sarah Kane and Andrei Malaev-Babel at the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio in Washington DC. Her directing credits include Shakespeare, Chekhov, Schiller, and devised work. Recently, Ms. Makela has taught at the Stanislavsky Institute, California State University LB, Acting Corps Studios, ActorFest, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, The Insurgo Theater Movement, The Actor’s Movement Studio (NYC), the INTAR Theater (NYC), The Actors’ Gang, University of Southern California, and CalArts MFA programs. Marjo-Riikka does weekly private coaching for many successful TV and film actors and actresses. She has clients around the world, and she has been featured in Back Stage, the Los Angeles Times, American Theater Magazine and several major European publications.
“Being allowed to teach, learn, share, play, discover, and create each day, is a true blessing. THANK YOU all my students, clients and friends. YOU are highly appreciated!” ~ Marjo-Riikka
Kim Lane
Director
Actress and Director, graduated from The Ohio State University. She has appeared in Independent films OUTTASYNC, In Dreams, and Night of a Thousand Faces. Stage Appearances include Fiddler on the Roof, Taming of the Shrew, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and the premiere of Keeping Clean Amind the Messy, as well as the world premiere of Aeschylus Unbound, in Pasadena, Hermione, Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale which she also directed, and The Laramie Project at The Ohio State University as guest artist and director. Kim’s most recent project has been her 5 month old son, Donald. Kim studied the Michael Chekhov Technique extensively with Mala Powers as well as other 1st generation teachers, and currently teaches ongoing classes on the Technique in Los Angeles as well as guest artist at various universities around the U.S. Kim would like to thank her husband, Scott, for introducing her to Mala. She is grateful to the Chekhov Studio International and Marjo-Riikka Makela for the opportunity to share her love of theater and Michael Chekhov with such talented actors.
Back Stage Actor’s Craft Article
Posted by Chekhov Studio | Filed under Acting Related, Michael Chekhov Related Articles
THE CRAFT
Michael Chekhov’s Technique Facilitates the Search for Inspired Acting
By Marjo-Riikka Makela
NOVEMBER 1, 2011
In our fast-moving film, television, and theater industry, we actors are continually asked for “quick results.” We must be emotionally available, learn our lines rapidly, and fill our characters with the objectives and desires of a multilayered human being—all without much preparation time. Now more than ever, the deciding factor in a successful audition or performance is the actor’s ability to call upon focused inspiration at a moment’s notice. After all, inspiration leads to real, organic, surprising, fresh performances. How is such focused inspiration readily achieved? It was Michael Chekhov’s lifelong endeavor to answer this question.Chekhov was a world-renowned early-20th-century Russian actor, nephew to the famed playwright Anton. He was a true chameleon, mesmerizing audiences by making consistently bold choices and disappearing into fully fleshed-out, unique characters. Chekhov was openly praised by Konstantin Stanislavsky as his most brilliant student and was highly respected by Group Theatre luminaries such as Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, and Harold Clurman. He developed his ideas on acting in such influential books as “To the Actor” and became the acting coach of many Hollywood stars of his day. The technique he eventually developed has been praised by Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, Johnny Depp, and Clint Eastwood, to name a few.Although most acting techniques search for gateways to the actor’s inspiration, no other technique seems to have “inspired acting” at its center. Chekhov proved that inspiration is not something vague that we need to wait for; rather, we can coax and invite it in. Thanks to his well-documented psychophysical exercises, this inspiration is available to us today.
Thinking With Your Body
For me, probably the biggest difference between Chekhov’s technique and other techniques lies in the almost immediate effect it has on the actor’s imagination and physicality. There is very little talking or intellectualizing; the focus is on the actual doing and experiencing “on your feet” right away. Through different psychophysical exercises, actors quickly start developing a sensation of inspiration and learn to trust their own artistic individuality. All the while, they are also discovering ways to bypass mental acting blocks and preconditioned ideas of themselves, other people, or acting in general.
Using a holistic approach, the Chekhov technique emphasizes synergy between the body, imagination, emotions, and intellect. It also treats the actor as an artist, supporting the most valuable, vulnerable area in the actor: his or her creative individuality. In the Chekhov technique, this creative area, from which all artistic impulses rise, is located in the center of the chest. It is also the area where we feel the uplifting and expansive sensations of love and empathy, which both have a large role in Chekhov’s teachings. By simply acknowledging this artistic center and opening it, inspiration begins inside us.
Some of the biggest realizations about the art of inspiration can occur during the most uninspired moments. One example of this happened to me on a film shoot some years back. We were far behind schedule, running out of daylight, with a skeleton crew and a director who had very little understanding of or respect for an actor’s process. During a pivotal moment in the film, without warning, the director decided to change the tone of the scene. He told me, “Now, instead of being enraged, cry a single tear out of one eye only—preferably your left, because it’s closer to the camera. Action!”
The new direction came so quickly that there was no time for preparation. The camera was rolling, and I stood stupefied, knowing that the light was disappearing and we might only have this one take to “get it right.” I was filled with rage and confusion. What an unreasonable request! The only way I knew that I could give an inspired performance, find unwavering focus, and create such specificity of form as “one tear from the left eye” organically in the moment was to call upon what I had learnt in my Michael Chekhov technique training.
I focused upon the sensation of falling downward in the center of my chest, allowing the energetic movement of confusion and rage to transform into despair that flooded through me like a tsunami. As soon as I accepted the sensation in my body, it strengthened. I imagined that the flood could be released only through my left eye. I was filled with images and sensations that grew throughout the scene. The tear came from the left eye, but I didn’t even notice it, as inspiration had already taken over! Lesson learned: Everything is possible if I know how and where to focus to invite inspiration.
‘Just Be Yourself!’
What draws me to the Chekhov technique is not only its ability to empower and inspire actors, but also the help it offers in the creation of nuanced, multileveled characters. Nowhere is this technique more vital and more helpful than in the confusing marketplace of today, where an actor is continually asked to “just be yourself.” But isn’t it the transformation, the “becoming someone else,” where all the fun and the art of acting is?
According to Chekhov, “the actor must divorce his own personality and mannerism from those of the character, and give himself over completely to the will, feelings, habits, and appearance of the character.” Chekhov advises the actor to let go of his or her own ego so that the character’s ego can take over. He says that if the character is trapped inside the actor, it will always be imprisoned within the actor’s mannerisms—and character ends up being limited by the actor’s personality. He talks about characters having “a will of their own.” So, according to Chekhov, we should never attempt to be “just ourselves” when acting, but rather we should, via our imagination, “cross the threshold” into an artistic realm—transforming first into an actor who is capable of anything, and then transforming into character.
As a Michael Chekhov actor, you would never enter an audition as “yourself.” You would cross the threshold into your artistic realm, where you are free of your inner critic and any cynicism, doubt, or ego-based fears. This part of the technique serves well as a starting point for all creative work (as well as a tool for actors who get anxious in auditions or experience stage fright). From here, all the choices that you make can become those of your character. The energetic charge in your actions, the “how” with which you do things (the quality of your movements), becomes the presence that articulates your inner emotional life and your current circumstances. You are no longer just you—you have become an artist and a creator of character.
A Little Wisdom
Although the techniques that Chekhov left us are precise and well-proven, he was never didactic. For him, many acting techniques offered great value: “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.” These words are so typical of the humble yet brilliant teacher who showed so many of us the path to inspiration.
Marjo-Riikka Makela is a director, master teacher, acting coach, and professional actor. She is the artistic director and acting and audition coach at the Chekhov Studio International in Los Angeles. She is a company member of The Actors’ Gang and has extensive stage credits in Europe. Her favorite roles in the U.S. include Medea under the direction of David Bridel, Yelena in “Uncle Vanya” at the Classic Stage Company in NYC, and her work with Sarah Kane and Andrei Malaev-Babel at the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio in Washington, D.C. She will be conducting the intensive “The Michael Chekhov Technique: An Alternative to the Method” at Back Stage’s trade show Actorfest LA on Sat., Nov. 5.
Tags: acting, Acting Coaches, Acting Teachers, Audition Technique, Audition Techniques, Auditioning, inspiration, Marjo-Riikka Makela, michael chekhov, Michael Chekhov Acting Technique