Directors’ Workshop With Cass Fleming Founder and Co-Director of The Chekhov Collective

This four-day workshop explored using Chekhov Technique for the creation of dynamic ensemble practice and direction of text-based theatre, devised and physical theatre, and improvisation.  The workshop also explored the way in which Chekhov’s methods and key principles can help contemporary directors be self-reflexive and capable of empowering actors to work as artists in rehearsal processes.  The sessions introduced a use of selected techniques that help directors be attentive to issues such as rehearsal atmosphere, boundaries, agency, diversity and identity.

This workshop was open to those who have had some previous encounters with Chekhov’s methods. Participants are asked to apply with a CV and a short letter giving some detail of their own practice and interests. A number of full scholarship places are available by application.

Cass is the Founder and Co-Director of The Chekhov Collective Practice Research Centre which has been running for a decade. She has used Chekhov Technique in her directorial work, and her training of directors, since 1998. She has trained actors, directors, choreographers, devised theatre makers and scenographers in the use of Chekhov Technique at Goldsmiths, University of London, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Rose Bruford Drama School, E15 Acting School and the University of Kent. She has also trained directors in the use of Chekhov Technique in professional contexts such as the Royal National Theatre Studio, the Young Vic Theatre Directors’ Programme and with the Chekhov Collective. Cass also draws on Suzanne Bing Technique (later used by Jacques Lecoq) and her collaborators in France, and number of other directing and making methods. She is a specialist in the use of play in training, making and directing performance. Her PhD explores Chekhov Technique and its use in directing and she has presented various papers, and written articles, on many aspects of Chekhov’s practice over the past 15 years. Cass was co-lead researcher on the long-term and cross-institutional practice research project that led to the publication of Michael Chekhov in the Twenty First Century: New Pathways, which she co-edited with Tom Cornford (2020). She contributed three chapters for this book, including one that addressed the use of the technique for directing and devising theatre.

In addition to her work with Chekhov Technique Cass has also been exploring and researching the work of the French actor, director and actor-trainer Suzanne Bing since 1998 and has shared her research widely since that time. She has also collaborated with Mark Evans on the work of Jacques Copeau and Bing’s contribution to his practice (2018). Cass also has a long-standing interest in developing non-canonical approaches to, and histories of, actor training and she conceived a special edition of the Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal entitled ‘Against the Canon’ (11:3) which she co-edited with Mark Evans and Sara Reed (2020).

DATE

Monday 19 June 2023, 10.30am-5.30pm;

Tuesday 20 June 2023, 10.30am-5.30pm;

Wednesday 21 June 2023, 10.30am-5.30pm;

Friday 23 June, 10.30am-7.30pm.

Location: Goldsmiths RHB 154, London.