• 7+ hour course

  • 6 video sessions

  • 6 month access

In this Course

"If we really understand the Psychological Gesture, we will see that there are no limits for us as actors because everything can be turned into the Psychological Gesture... It is a door through which we can enter and take everything and turn them into things which we can act." Michael Chekhov

  • form + space / full body / wholeness / tempo

  • qualities / sensation / archetypal gesture

  • impulse / action / objective / intention

With purely intellectual means we will not find the way...

"We see numerous forms around us - as with this table, which is absolutely immovable. But, at the moment when we try to apply our artistic abilities, this same table, being immovable begins to move. 

What does this mean? It means a continuous down movement to the center of the earth, which it cannot reach, because there are so many obstacles. If we lift the table and then drop it, we will see the tremendous activity which lives in the table. We only approach the table from the standpoint of usage, but when we approach it as artists, it is like dynamite.

When we try to get this impression from all things we call immovable and dead, we will get this feeling of what kind of movements are there; we will get the psychological gesture. This is the psychological gesture, which is actually rhythm and flow."

(Michael Chekhov on February 21, 1938 - recorded in shorthand by Deidre Hurst DuPrey)

Course curriculum

These Classes are for anyone interested in developing their own practical understanding of the Michael Chekhov  Acting Technique. They are taught by long-time practitioners in this work. If you are unfamiliar with our teachers, we invite you to view the free preview sessions for a sense of the style and pacing of the classes, prior to enrolling in the course.


Enroll for 6 months of unlimited streaming

Faculty

Fern Sloan

Master Teacher

Fern Sloan, an actress for over 50 years, is co-founder and co-artistic director of The Actors’ Ensemble and has performed and taught the Michael Chekhov technique in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. Along with Ted Pugh and Ragnar Freidank, she is also co-founder of The Michael Chekhov School in Hudson, NY. Fern was certified by the Michael Chekhov Studio in New York City to teach the work of Michael Chekhov and was on its faculty for the last three years of its existence. She was co-director and on the faculty of the Speech and Drama Program of Sunbridge College. Prior to founding The Actors’ Ensemble, Ms. Sloan played leading roles in numerous regional theaters in the US and Off-Broadway.

Ted Pugh

Master Teacher

Ted Pugh is the co-artistic director of The Actors’ Ensemble of New York and has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Regional theaters around the United States. After having trained at the Michael Chekhov Studio in New York City, Mr. Pugh was certified as a teacher by Beatrice Straight and Deirdre du Prey in 1983, and was on the faculty at the Studio for the last seven years of its existence. Mr. Pugh has also taught workshops throughout the U.S., Europe, Russia and Australia. A founding member of the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut under the direction of Jon Jory, he began his career at Arena Stage in Washington DC in 1962. Along with Ragnar Freidank and Fern Sloan, he is co-founder of The Michael Chekhov School in Hudson, NY.

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With the Michael Chekhov School

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