David Chambers: Analysis through Action for Actors & Directors

Workshop:

Professor David Chambers (Yale University) offers a 5-day workshop: Analysis through Action for Actors & Directors. Analysis through Action (aka Active Analysis) is a vigorous rehearsal technique drawn from Stanislavsky’s little-known final experiments, fusing intense personal text analysis with spontaneous physical actions on the floor with no scripts. Études, or structured improvisations, allow actors to grasp subtext, and then text, on their feet first through the body and then through paraphrase.

During the five days, participants will explore scenes and events from Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard through a series of text actions and Études drawn from Chambers’ pioneering research into this rehearsal technique, as well as, the development of this methodology in contemporary acting and directing practice.

About:

David Chambers (he/him) is a director, writer, and producer of theatre and opera. His work has been seen in New York from basements to Broadway to BAM, in theatres throughout the US, as well as Europe, Russia, and Asia. He taught acting and directing at the Yale School of Drama for three decades. Since then he has been on the faculties of The New School for Drama, The Stella Adler Studio, and Harvard University. He currently teaches in the department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at Yale University, USA. His most recent publication, Analysis Through Action for Actors and Directors: From Stanislavsky to Contemporary Performance (2024), is available from Routledge.