ABSTRACT
As President of NMCA has often said, psychological gesture is “the cherry on top of the Michael Chekhov cake”. The ideal of the psychological gesture is that it will be a springboard to an entire performance – whether that is containing the arc of your journey in a two hour play or allowing you to maintain continuity shooting a film out of sequence. The “PG” as it is typically referred to, can encapsulate what a performer needs for a complete role, or a scene, or even just a moment. In this chapter you will improvise various ways to discover this gesture for yourself, incorporating the whole body and working with the NMCA's three possible methods of discovery: Inspiration, Imagination, and Intellect. Once discovered, taking your “PG” into improvised scenarios allows you to fully experience the detail that incorporating this gesture can provide.
