POSTS FROM OUR PROCESS

Michael Chekhov’s acting technique offers a wealth of tools to help actors go beyond simple imitation and truly embody their characters. One of his most fascinating concepts is the "Qualities of Movement," a method that helps actors explore how movement can reflect a character's inner life. At its core, Chekhov’s Qualities of Movement involve using physical gestures to convey the invisible aspects of a character. Rather than simply performing actions, actors are encouraged to explore how and why a character moves the way they do.

Read More

Today we’re taking a look at some of the great work in process by two of our designers for Amerikin: Victoria “Kermit” Mearnini, costume designer, and Alan Costa, set designer. This is Victoria’s first time working with SOTP…

Read More

It was fun to watch the comfort and ease that was already developing between them - the rapport between their characters, the generosity they extended to one another as actors, and the sense of “I got you” that was already suffusing their joint efforts onstage. I came away invigorated by their beautiful and truthful storytelling and then was buoyed by this thought: “And we still have five weeks to work on this!”

Read More

Over this time, it’s been so great to be able to develop relationships outside of the work.  It’s a gift to get to be in a safe space and that the safe space is built before we have to work in it. When we are in this process time… it’s really cool to stretch that muscle in my brain thinking: “this is discipline in addition to an art.” I’m very conscious that art benefits from discipline. How cool and fruitful it can be when you’re in a space thinking: “I’m excited because I get to work on this!” rather than “I have to work on this” because we’re running out of time. It just sparks something different.

Read More

 Every once in a while I will hear from someone who is newer to SOTP say something along the lines of, “Gosh, I just don’t think I could spend that much time on a play.” …What surprises me most at this point in the process is how little we’ve actually worked on the play, but how intimately I feel connected to the play by knowing it’s in the background while we explore all of these various tools. [It’s) a rapid-paced crash course in a slew of new things, and we spend time on ourselves as artists and collaborators, priming the pumps before getting to work. 

Read More

One of the tools that has proved fruitful to a number of the SOTP main stage productions is The Palace. This tool is chiefly imagination-based but is enriched deeply when actors have a space where they can work physically without impediment…In a play that contains strongly polarized characters, the way these rooms affect characters or the way they take shape may wildly differ from character to character. Characters may choose to explore the room in a naturalistic or realistic way, or they may be inspired to explore more abstractly.  

Read More

What is energizing and accessible about these methods, both MC and Laban, is that every possible movement, every possible actionable choice an actor can make has been studied and synthesized into something simple, repeatable, and instantly informative to the actor’s imagination. Methods like this are sometimes referred to as “psycho-physical” which is a fancy word that acknowledges that what the body does physically will naturally inspire the character’s psychology and the character’s psychology can inform their physical movement. 

Read More

[W]e know it can be hard to digest or follow what that means in a brief snapshot posted to social media.  Well, if you’ve been curious while also scratching your head and/or rolling your eyes when “process” is mentioned in our stuff, we have good news for you: SOTP has a standing offer that our rehearsal processes are open to attend. The beauty of process is that it’s best witnessed out loud, on its feet, and in-person.  It’s surely possible to talk about all of the many tools and exercises a cast explores, but it’s still shy of experiencing what it’s like to be in space while the work is happening. 

Read More

Some standardized tools that we are finding to be universally fruitful in our SOTP productions are “The Play Through”, “Observations & Interrogations”, “Michael Chekhov’s (MC) The Four Brothers”, “Stanislavsky’s Principles of Objectives and Given Circumstances”, and “The World of the Play.” There are certainly other tools making their way into the box, but these are the ones that serve as a solid backdrop for the work we build. Over the next weeks, we’ll talk more about these other tools, but today we’re going to introduce you to the World of the Play for Amerikin by Chisa Hutchinson.

Read More