ABSTRACT
An actor’s development is experiential and cultural. Beyond building a scaffolding of the conventions of theatrical (and cinematic) practice, there is a vast horizon of possibility that can best be described as the art of the actor. Each actor discovers, role by role, experience by experience, this particular art form within themselves, and it is there, in the interior realm of the soul, that the ever-expanding realization of inspired acting unfolds. Perhaps an actor meets Chekhov’s ideas about acting by reading one of his books for the first time. Their consciousness opens in amazement that such a method exists and they are excited to have found it. Chekhov was a talented actor, a “natural,” yet he never stopped trying to understand more about the art of the actor. Reader can see that questioning in his writings. The foundation for the technique rests on the concept of psycho-physical, the unity of mind and body.
