Darshan — with Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson

Time: 2-4pm UK time | Location: on Zoom

This workshop will investigate the connections between Michael Chekhov’s exercises on Merging and the Hindu tradition of Darshan. Anjalee will lead a voyage through discussion and exercises that seek to deepen Chekhov’s meaningful explorations. Together we will take a deep dive into the sacred nature of concentration and its links to transformation, spirituality, creativity and joy.

In Hinduism, the word for sacred seeing is Darshan. It means to behold a sacred object such as an adorned statue in a temple or a framed illustration of a Goddess on a home shrine. Those who pilgrimage to Hindu temples go to take Darshan, and when they do, they feel not only are they beholding the sacred, but that the sacred becomes a part of them. This is because Darshan is a mutual interaction between the viewer and viewed.

Michael Chekhov’s description of concentration in Lessons for Teachers speaks to a very similar idea; the idea of merging, of sending energy to an object (or being) at the same time as taking in energy from the object (or being.) This act of ‘radiating towards’ and ‘receiving from’ simultaneously results in developing something new: a third being that is neither the viewer or the viewed but a new entity that is a merging of the two.

Please bring a few (3-5) sacred objects to this workshop. Objects could include but are not limited to: a photograph of a loved one, something found in nature that speaks to you, a piece of clothing that belongs/belonged to someone special, stones, things passed down to you, an object (new or old) that represents some important part of who you are/were/will be someday, etc.

Anjalee Deshpande Hutchinson is a director/deviser/educator who teaches at Bucknell University, where in 2019 she received the Bucknell Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence and in 2020 was nominated for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. Anjalee, a graduate of the MFA directing program at Northwestern University, studied under Robert Falls of the Goodman Theatre. Before and after graduate school, Ms. Deshpande freelanced as an actor /director in New York City, Chicago, London and Mumbai. Anjalee has trained in Moment Work through Andy Paris of The Tectonic Theatre Project, is an accredited teacher of the Chekhov Technique through The National Michael Chekhov Association and is an accredited teacher of the Sanford Meisner Technique through the True Acting Institute. Anjalee’s recent book; Michael Chekhov and Sanford Meisner; Collisions and Convergence in Actor Training, is available through Routledge Publishing, who also published her first book, Acting Exercises for Non-Traditional Performance: Michael Chekhov Reimagined. Most recently Anjalee was appointed as: Faculty Fellow with Bucknell University’s Office of Equity and Inclusive Excellence, a Member of the MICHA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and as Co-Vice Chair of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Region 2. Anjalee will be Co-Chairing KCACTF through 2027.