Hello all,
I would like to introduce to you the Four Brothers. The brothers are actually feelings and they are always present(or should be) in our work. They are:
Feeling of Ease
The actor finds this ease as an inner thing much like a feeling. It begins from a desire to have it and it comes because we will it to be there. Once we will it and find it - once we accomplish the task or perform the action with ease - we know it. It is there, and it will be there once you allow it to be there. No matter how difficult the task or movement or exercise, if the feeling of ease is present, we discover just how much energy it takes to accomplish the task...
Feeling of Form
Everything that needs understanding needs form. We work with form in our training all the time, and oftentimes when we are looking for something to work on, we fall back on form. We can always work on form. But as you do, I urge you to experience form as a feeling. After all you are human, and your human body is a form. What does it to feel like to be in your body? Know the particulars, discover the unity, feel the form...
Feeling of Beauty
It's nice to feel beautiful, isn't it. But it's not necessarily easy to feel, it can be elusive since "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and there are many values attached to the feeling of beauty. My teacher Lenard Petit likes to substitute the word authentic for beautiful. Great substitution. Because this brings us to the purity of things, doesn't it? And purity is beautiful, almost unarguably. Chekhov notes that animals in nature are beautiful because they are true to themselves. So in your work, I urge you to play with this feeling of beauty. Remember, it's a pathway to authenticity - there is no need to try to be beautiful or to show us your beauty, just be beautiful...
Feeling of The Whole
This is perhaps even more elusive than beauty, as it can easily become a concept versus an experience. Chekhov was very interested in the Whole of the actor's experience and subsequently the technique was conceived out of the idea that the emotional and psychological can be discovered and explored through the physical. The inner can be found through the outer. As you work, remember that you are a whole actor. And that as a whole actor, you make whole movements and whole sounds, or at least have the possibility to do so. I urge you to put your attention on the whole. What does that feel like...?
*****
If you think about it, every great work of art possesses these four qualities, leading us to a satisfying experience of some sort. Each of the brothers complements and informs the other and are tangible feelings that we can apply to the work. Remember, these are not hard and fast rules; they are simply guideposts to which we can come back, to help us along the way...
See you in training...
Taylor V
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1 comment:
Taylor,
Wonderful to see you sharing the Chekhov work. Although I haven't been there to experience what you have been teaching I was deeply influenced by my workshops with Joanna Merlin and Ragnar Freidank.
What I notice looking at your writing about The Four Brothers is that there is a real connection to the Alexander Technique. The feeling of ease or buoyancy that one finds in the AT work can be so helpful in the Chekhov work. I remember that with both Joanna and Ragnar there was such a lightness to the "work" and the play of starting with a ball toss or some kind of game helped to create that feeling in the body/mind.
Also, the idea of Feeling the Whole reminds me of the Alexander Technique's idea of "unified field of awareness" that at any given moment you can be aware of movement and space inside your body as well as movement and space and other bodies outside yourself. It is less about psychology vs. physical but the idea of keeping your awareness or your sensation alive to inner and outer experience creates a similar electricity in the organism.
I hope the work continues to feed you and the entire company. I will be thinking of you.
Margi
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