ABSTRACT
Michael Chekhov’s career moves through different phases and one way of looking at these is in terms of the roles of actor, director and teacher. As his career progressed each of these became more important in turn, although the others didn’t disappear altogether. By the time Chekhov moved to Dartington, it was the teacher and director roles which were dominant, and the same was true while the Chekhov Studio was at Ridgefield. Chekhov did consider playing King Lear in the Studio production, but eventually decided against it. By the time he moved to Hollywood, the stage actor had pretty much disappeared, although he enjoyed his film acting. Chekhov the director had also faded and Chekhov the teacher was very much to the fore. Of course, from Chekhov’s perspective, these can all be seen as aspects of Chekhov the artist and as an expression of his creative individuality; we might also add to these roles Chekhov as author, designer and graphic artist.
