ABSTRACT
Michael Chekhov, nephew of the playwright Anton, and student of Stanislavsky, brought his version of the Russian tradition of acting to Britain, where he ran a theatre studio for training actors in his methods for two years (1936-8). The Chekhov Theatre Studio, situated in Dartington Hall near Totnes in Devon, is a remarkable and virtually unique example of an attempt at establishing a residential actor-training centre in Britain. This chapter will explore how the Studio was established; the particular approaches to training which were undertaken; and the reasons for the eventual relocation of the Studio to America. Despite Chekhov’s having lived in england for three years, there was no continuous transmission of his work in Britain in the aftermath of the Studio. In fact, there is a fiftyyear gap from the end of the Studio until a resurgence of interest in his work in 1989 as a result of the effort of one of his past students. As such, this chapter will also examine the notion of a broken transmission, assessing how the lineage of Chekhov’s teaching can be traced through a range of both ‘routes’ and ‘roots’1 from different parts of the world. These are now consolidated within teachers in Britain but they show that there has been no direct or continual thread of transmission within Britain itself from the time of the Dartington Studio. Thus the notion of the revival of a tradition is also significant, along with the ways in which adaptation and the tracing back of a lineage to the original Russian master play a part for those who use his methods in drama schools and universities, and professionally, in contemporary Britain.
