From The Cherry Orchard to The Seagull, this book takes you on a deep-dive into the major plays of Anton Chekhov, offering a set of acting techniques to uncover character objectives and actions in order to compellingly perform his work.

Inspired by the pioneering work of iconic American acting teacher Earle Gister, this book offers a way in to Chekhov's major plays for actors.

Structured in two parts, Part One gives an overview of acting techniques to successfully bring Chekhov's characters to life. Part Two is an examination of 14 of Chekhov's most popular two-hander scenes. The scene itself is reproduced, followed by a dialogue with a pair of professional actors and the author discussing the material, and supported by online video content.

Overall, the book provides a fresh look at acting techniques that can be used to mine Chekhov's plays and characters for meaning and help you achieve compelling performances. At the same time, it establishes a foundation for analysing and acting in other dramatic texts, setting out a selection of techniques, complete with active examples, exhaustive scene analyses and first-generation insights from Earle Gister's methodologies.