'More Lessons For Teachers' An Expanded Collection Of Michael Chekhov's Teachings To Be Released In Three Languages

More Lessons For Teachers, a newly expanded collection of the iconic acting teacher Michael Chekhov's lectures and technique, will be available in hard copy and PDF this summer. Published in English, German and Russian, the new edition supplements the 18 lessons from Chekhov's original book with nine additional lectures from the Chekhov archives.

Produced and published by The Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA), the not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving the artistic vision and technique of Michael Chekhov, More Lessons For Teachers approaches the technique from a creative and practical point of view. It features several concentration exercises along with teachings that touch on the spiritual aspects of Chekhov's work. Each exercise contains practical learning but is also connected to the whole of his technique.

MICHA President and Founder Joanna Merlin praised the publication saying, "As someone who was fortunate to have studied with Michael Chekhov, I am happy to see that this book represents his extraordinary teachings. Chekhov was ahead of his time and this expanded edition depicts the depth and breadth of his imaginative technique and will continue to inspire teachers at all levels in the 21st century."

"Michael Chekhov's Lessons for Teachers is a beautiful prism through which we can examine the practice of Chekhov's technique," says Phelim McDermott, MICHA Board Member and Artistic Director of Improbable Theatre Co, UK. "For any teacher or director it will bear returning to again and again. New aspects of the technique will reveal themselves and prove valuable each time."

The book is transcribed from the original shorthand notes by Deirdre Hurst du Prey. Edited and Introduced by longtime MICHA faculty member Jessica Cerullo, the book will be published in three languages. It was translated into German by Ragnar Freidank and Mani Wintsch and into Russian by Maxim Krivosheyev.

Michael Chekhov, born in Russia in 1891, was an internationally celebrated actor, teacher, and director. The nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov, and a pupil of Constantine Stanislavsky, Chekhov's psychophysical approach advocated for the power of the imagination, which, he claimed, led actors to a place of pure creativity, free of their own limited experiences and emotions. Chekhov's acting technique was developed during a period of immense international crisis and personal chaos. After leaving Russia in 1928, he lived the remainder of his life in exile, performing, teaching, and directing in Germany, France, Latvia, Lithuania, England, and the United States. His first book in English, To the Actor: on the Technique of Acting, was published in 1953. He died in Hollywood in 1955.

Deirdre Hurst du Prey enrolled as a student in the Chekhov Theatre Studio and served as Michael Chekhov's personal assistant from 1935-1942. Chekhov awarded her an actor's diploma and teacher's certificate in 1939 and she assisted him in writing his first book, To the Actor. She later compiled and edited Chekhov's teachings in the book Lessons for the Professional Actor. The typescript of her archive The Actor is the Theatre, a collection of Michael Chekhov's unpublished notes and manuscripts on the art of acting and the theatre, is deposited at the New York Public Library, Adelphi University, Harvard University, The University of Windsor, Queen's University at Kingston, and the Devon Record Office in England. She died in 2007 at 100.

Jessica Cerullo, Editor, serves on the faculty of MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association, and as a Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Whitman College. She edited the English language version of Chekhov's illustrated story, "A Tale About Lies and How Swiftly They Spread Across the Earth" and is an actor in the series Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique.

Ragnar Freidank, German Co-translator, was trained as an actor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg (Germany) and studied the Michael Chekhov Technique with Ted Pugh and Fern Sloan in NYC. He is an award-winning film maker and co-founder of the Michael Chekhov School in Hudson, New York.

Maxim Krivosheyev, Russian Translator, is a theatre management graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre School, where he managed the international acting programs for many years. He translated Michael Chekhov's Lessons for the Professional Actor into Russian in 2011.

Mani Wintsch, German Co-translator, is a director. He co-produced the Michael Chekhov Symposium at the University of Zurich in 2013 and taught as a Professor ZFH from 1991 to 2014 in the Department of Performing Arts and Film at the Zurich University of the Arts.

MICHA is a not-for-profit association that celebrates and preserves Michael Chekhov's artistic vision and legacy. We provide a community for performers, teachers, scholars and directors in the form of workshops and events. We research approaches to teaching that utilize Michael Chekhov's technique. We publish primary and secondary source materials, have a growing archive, and support individuals engaged in practice as research as it relates to Chekhov's psycho-physical approach and its many forms of application. The organization is committed to providing opportunities to artists interested in comprehensive teacher training in the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique.