The Paris Manuscript (e-book) (used book) | Michael Chekhov | bookbook.eu

Description

In the early 1930s, during his first years of exile and 20 years before the publication of his seminal To the Actor, Michael Chekhov wrote his first book about his acting method.

This important, though now largely forgotten, work was handwritten in German and in it Chekhov lays the groundwork for the canon of exercises and practices that, a century later, actors generally know as "the Michael Chekhov Technique".

Although never completed, the text affords a rare fly-on-the-wall insight into the raw material of Chekhov's vision and the processes of a spirit of true artistic genius.

In this manuscript, which is published here for the first time in an English translation, we find Chekhov often at far greater ease expressing the intangible elements of the artist's creative process than later in English, and he is at times prescient in exploring the challenges of maintaining our creative dignity within the relentless tide of materialism and technological progress.

We also gain fascinating insights into Michael Chekhov's collaboration with the dramatist, painter and illustrator Georgette Boner at this time and on this manuscript. And the text itself is supplemented with visuals including facsimile scans of the original; a visiting card of Chekhov's from Paris; and photographs from Georgette Boner's personal archives.

As the popularity of Michael Chekhov Technique continues to spread globally, the 'Paris Manuscript' offers a timely invitation for us to take a step back and rediscover Michael Chekhov as a source, rather than a template.

This extensively revised and abridged text is presented with an introduction by Hugo Moss, co-founder and director of Michael Chekhov Brazil, and a series of contemporary short essays ("Reflections From the Studio"), which offer practical suggestions, building on a few key elements emerging from the manuscript and over a decade of exploring Chekhov's artistic legacy in the studio environment and in performance.