Fundamentals of Michael Chekhov technique

M. Chekhov technique is based on working with the body, movement, and imagination, which are the means of transformation.

“Fundamentals of Michael Chekhov Technique” is a workshop designed for actors and performers (professional and aspiring) who are searching for new tools in their work and would like to learn the key principles of M. Chekhov acting technique.

Are you at a point in your career where:

You lack effective tools for your acting?
You have heard of M. Chekhov technique: Psychological Gesture, Atmosphere, and other tools, but don't know how to use them in practice?
You seek for more safe way to approach your emotions, and you don't want to use affective memories for this purpose?
You have heard that through bodywork, you can activate emotional and psychological processes?
You don’t know how to step in and out of a role safely?
You would like to learn how to use your imagination effectively when working on your part?

If so, Michael Chekhov technique is most likely for you.

The actor should never worry about his talent, but rather about his lack of technique, his lack of training, and his lack of understanding of the creative process.

Michael Chekhov

During these workshops, you will learn how to use the fundamental tools of Michael Chekhov technique.

3 Centers

Thinking, Feeling, Willing

4 Qualities of Movement

Molding, Floating, Flying, Radiating

Expansion & Contraction

Sometime we will realize that our profession is the only one which has no technique. A painter has to develop a technique, a musician, a dancer, every artist, but somehow we actors are left alone – we are acting because we want to act, and we act just as it goes. Something must be wrong.

Michael Chekhov

Thanks to these workshops, you will:

Learn a few tools from Michael Chekhov technique, which will help you to enrich your acting.
Be able to practice these tools while working on text and short scenes.
Experience psychophysicality – a connection between movement and your psychology.
Learn how to work with your body on a more subtle level, and you will start to trust your imagination.
Develop a healthier approach to acting that does not require drawing upon your memories and traumas.
Rediscover the joy of acting, creative freedom, and sources of new inspiration.

The method must, above all, help you, and make your work pleasant, and if properly used will not under any circumstances make it hard and depressing. For acting should ever be joyous art and never enforced labor.”

Michael Chekhov

I recommend it wholeheartedly. I will definitely work with Jakub again on other acting projects.

Magdalena Lamparska

film and theatre actress

What always impresses me about working with Jakub is his unique, multi-layered, and empathetic view on a character, his willingness to experiment, and his use of extremely vivid images that stimulate the imagination. Jakub, like a few others, is able to effortlessly combine depth and seriousness with a sense of humor and the courage to fool around.

Dominika Handzlik

actress, M. Chekhov technique teacher

Working with Jakub as part of our rehearsals opened us up to each other, helped us delve deeper into the themes through working on psychological gestures and the sensitivity of the space on stage. Thanks to you, we built fully-fledged characters with a whole range of memories that contribute to the effect the audience can ultimately see during the performance.

Zofia Jastrzębska

film and theatre actress

The workshops led by Jakub Margosiak were a breakthrough during rehearsals for "My version of the truth", dir. by Radek Kotarski at Garnizon Sztuki. Workshops allowed us to find more meaning in the words, deepen the characters, and the relationships between them. Thanks to unusual exercises that engage various areas of human energy, we created vivid family relationships, full of secrets and understatement.

Magdalena Lamparska

film and theatre actress

(…) Jakub Margosiak's Ph.D. dissertation bears the hallmarks of a contemporary, expressive, and useful compendium of contemporary applications of Chekhov's technique. (…) It is a renaissance of his exercises, reflections, and accurate observations. (…) It is an energetic shower that relaxes our tensed professional muscles.

Excerpt from a review of J. Margosiak's doctoral dissertation.

Błażej Peszek, PhD

film and theatre actor

Acting coaching with Jakub helped me find the missing link in my thinking about my character, and at the same time allowed me to put together all the fragments of my earlier work. Jakub has extraordinary intuition as an actor and teacher – he is able to guide an actor in a safe manner, while giving them enormous freedom and encouraging them to trust their instincts and creativity.

Dominika Handzlik

actress, teacher of M. Chekhov's technique

To act is to exist in the unknown—this training made me feel at home in unfamiliarity. Without sharing a common language, we built a shared world of trust, creativity, and laughter. Thanks to Jakub and Gregor, I didn’t just grow as an actor — I found a little family.

Sude Nur Yazıcı

actress from Turkey

Workshops with Jakub improved our acting skills a lot. His training is very dynamic - he turns mistakes into opportunities to teach new things. And more importantly, we have learned a technique to better approach different emotions.

Students from Balleteatro Escola Profissional (Portugal)

Check the testimonies of workshop participants

Workshops on M. Chekhov technique led by Jakub Margosiak and Grzegorz Labuda (as part of the Michael Chekhov Acting Lab).

Workshops on M. Chekhov technique for students of the Dance Theater Department, Academy of Theater Arts in Bytom - led by Jakub Margosiak and Grzegorz Labuda.

Workshops on M. Chekhov technique “Transforming Emotions” at the Olga Roriz Company in Lisbon.

About Michael Chekhov technique

Michael Chekhov developed a fully psychophysical acting technique that focuses on the connection between the body, psyche, and imagination. This technique is based on the principle that the movement of our body can change our psychology and evoke certain emotions or psychological states. The unique feature of this technique is to work with imagination - Chekhov teaches us how to trust our imagination and transform into any character.

Famous actors who worked using Michael Chekhov technique:

Marilyn Monroe
Gregory Peck

Clint Eastwood
Beatrice Straight

Anthony Hopkins
Joanna Merlin

Gary Cooper
Mala Powers

Michael Chekhov spent the last years of his life in the US, where he had many students. His technique has been and still is successfully used by many film and theater actors.

My history with M. Chekhov technique

My professional life would have been completely different if I hadn't been persistent enough to trace the origins of this technique in the US. Michael Chekhov technique completely changed my thinking about acting, creativity, and myself. Now I have the great pleasure of sharing it with others.

To read my full story about how I discovered and became fascinated with M. Chekhov technique, and what I gained from it:

click here

I believe that we are all more talented than we seem to be. Actually, I believe that we are all geniuses, but we don’t know it, and we are afraid of it (…)

Michael Chekhov

About the teacher:

Dr Jakub Margosiak – actor, dancer, director, theatre producer. Graduate of the Acting Department of the PWST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Cracow (Poland), and dance theatre studies at Olga Roriz Formation in Lisbon (Portugal). He completed doctoral studies at the Film School in Lodz (Poland) at the Acting Department. Fulbright scholar for researching M. Chekhov technique in the USA. His doctoral dissertation is entitled “Psycho-physicality and imagination in the actors’ and directors’ work – in reference to Michael Chekhov technique”.

Stage experience:
Founder of Living Space Theatre (creator of award-winning performances: “Ferdydurke,” “Jesus Mary, Refugee!,” “Kaj dzias,” “Shapes”). He has performed in shows directed by Katarzyna Minkowska, Krzysztof Popiołek, K.J. Holmes, Isabelle Schad, Thomas Richards, Hege Haagenrud, and others. He has performed in many countries, including the US, China, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Poland.

Expertise in M. Chekhov technique:
He has been involved in M. Chekhov acting technique since 2018 and is certified as a teacher by Ted Pugh and Fern Sloan. He studied at the Michael Chekhov School in Hudson (USA), as well as completed courses organised by the Michael Chekhov Association, Michael Chekhov Europe, Chekhov Studio Chicago, and Chekhov Studio New York. Founder of the Michael Chekhov Acting Lab.

Teaching experience:
He has conducted workshops among others at: The New School University in New York (USA), School of Fine Arts in Guangzhou (China), Schule für Schauspiel in Hamburg (Germany), Machulski School in Warsaw (Poland), Film School in Lodz (Poland), PWST Academy of Theatre Arts in Bytom (Poland), Balleteatro Escola Profissional in Porto (Portugal), and Busan International Performing Arts Festival (South Korea).

Learn more about me

Workshop details: