Joseph Chaikin
Essay Joseph Chaikin acts like a bridge spanning the 20th century dominated by the the thinking, writing and practices of Stanislavsky to the 21st century emerging now from an eclectic, self-reflexive world theatre. At the center of Chaikin's work is, as Hulton observes, "the actor at the heart of the creative process, and at the heart of transformation and change within that process" (170). Chaikin, in the middle of the process of his exploration and examination of theatre, wanted a theater "based on questions rather than answers, on imagined possibilities rather than given formulae." (155). A great thinker and practitioner, Chaikin sought an articulate terminology to describe his work with actors. Admiring his deep care toward theatre, I want to follow specifically three points of his studies. One of his questions led me into a deep thoughtful state; "a direct rejection of his own training with teachers of Method acting, and the idea of its universal appl...