Largely we are exploring a Michael Chekhov-based approach to acting, which connects actors to our physical impulses and embodied knowledge through movement and imagination. A Chekhov approach invites you to explore and play first, and then make choices from the things you discover. It’s what is known as a psychophysical approach, which means that feeling and knowing arise from doing. Whilst Chekhov’s approach can take actors into the depths of any character, it is not personally emotionally invasive, nor does it require analytical work up front. I am also including other practices beyond Chekhov, because I don’t believe there’s only one way to approach acting, but again these are physically- and intuitively-based.

No! the beauty of this work is that it partners well with so many other acting approaches. Actors who’ve learned more analytical approaches often find this work releases their creativity, giving them a way to put those approaches into practice on the floor in new ways. Actors who approach their work from a more personal place can find Chekhov helps them to play relationship to other actors and to space, so they don’t get lost inside their own feelings.

No. You won’t be asked to get up with someone you’ve never met and randomly improvise. You won’t be asked to do your speech to be critiqued or quizzed. You will always have the option to step out for any part of the work. Everything is optional: you’re given opportunities to challenge yourself, but everything is within your control. Our purpose is to nurture your creativity, not to humiliate, deconstruct, provoke or psychoanalyse you.

Every workshop is self-contained. It also isn’t a prescriptive approach, where steps and stages that must be completed in a set order. However, coming every week will achieve a few great things: firstly, you’ll get to learn a series of practices that together can help you build or add to your process; you’ll be practicing some fundamentals every week so those skills will become deeply known to your body and finally – you’ll be ensuring that the classes maintain sufficient numbers for us to continue offering them!

Everything we do in the workshops is guided: you don’t need any prior knowledge or preparation. The general map of each workshop is as follows: We start with something that prepares us for the focus of the day’s workshop (this might be a ball game and/or a physical warmup). Then I lead the group through learning or re-exploring a practice – during this time we are moving, playing and experiencing. That is both solo and group work: we often play off each other as we move around the space but again, this is guided, and you can choose to work in a more solo mode if you wish. In the last stage, I offer time to test what we’ve worked on with text: you can use something you’re working on, or one of the speeches I bring with me to class. Sometimes we then pair up at the end to test out that work on a partner, but this is in a group context and you can stay working alone if you prefer. There’s no ‘performance outcome’. We finish up with a chat about any discoveries and close off the workshop.

That’s the beauty of this approach: it will meet you where you are. When I’m prepping for each workshop I have two questions in mind: can I lead this if a participant has never done an acting class before, and if I was a participant rather than the workshop leader would I still learn from this, even though I’ve been an actor and acting teacher for thirty years? The material I’m offering fits both those criteria.

Sure, if that’s the way you feel, maybe this isn’t for you. But if you have even a tiny little voice that asks – ‘I wonder how good I could actually be?’ or ‘I just feel a bit stale’, this is a space for you to explore your practice, with nothing at risk if you do some bad acting. Nobody is judging you or assessing you. We’re all just here to do the work, and be with other people who want to do the same.

Acting, unlike painting or playing an instrument or writing, is hard to do alone: we all know that from self-taping in our bedrooms! And the time between auditions is even tougher: that’s where our skills and confidence can really drop away. The only way to know you are an actor is to do some acting. That’s what these workshops are for: to remind you of your unique creativity, to exercise your talent and to build your toolkit.

One reason you mightn’t have trained this way before is that there are very few Michael Chekhov teachers in Australia. My training has come as a result of multiple trips to the USA and to Europe to train with select master teachers, and also at the Michael Chekhov School in Hudson, NY, and with Michael Chekhov Europe. I also spent three months working on a Chekhov-based solo-devised project in New York with Bethany Caputo. I have benefitted from working with so many incredible, creative and generous teaching artists over the past 8 years and I want to share that with artists in Melbourne, without the prohibitive cost of traveling overseas.