Every afternoon our students have an Acting/Directing class. This week they worked with GITIS Directing Faculty professor Mikhail Chumachenko. What is particularly interesting about working with Chumachenko this week is that he was a student of Zvereva and a teacher of Litvin who each had a week of teaching the course prior to him. It is such a rare and great opportunity to have the chance to work with three masters who know each others work so well, have learned from and taught each other and have very clear and interesting ways of presenting the material from their own, very different points of view.
Chumachenko is really active and hands-on in the way that he works. He chose Romeo and Juliet as the text to work with over the course of the week. The first part of class was spent doing an in-depth analysis of the text and then would move into training exercises from the Stanislavsky System that directly related to the analysis. By doing so, directors and actors alike could immediately bring the analytical work to life. The week ended with a large project for students to apply the week’s work to before studying with Chumachenko again in a week. Students have chosen paintings to bring to life by analyzing the story that they see in the work of art and putting a short scene on stage that comes directly from the painting. We’ll be sure to update you on the progress of the project!