ABSTRACT
Mikhail (Michael) Aleksandrovich Chekhov was born in St Petersburg, Russia, on 16 August 1891. His father Aleksandr, the brother of the great playwright, Anton Chekhov, was an eccentric and an inventor. Chekhov developed a healthy sense of the ridiculous, or the grotesque, and felt that this was very important for the actor, because it brought a sense of humour and lightheartedness into work that might otherwise have become self-indulgent. Chekhov's plays involve very little action and there is a strong emphasis on mood and atmosphere. Although Chekhov was unhappy with the naturalistic detail of Konstantin Stanislavsky's productions, it is largely due to the work of the Moscow Art Theatre that these plays have become central to the study of twentieth-century drama. Chekhov later argued that this meant that the students didn't get a grasp of the fundamental principles of the art of acting. Chekhov argued that we need to be objective in order to create good representations on the stage.
