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TEACHING

Jessica Cerullo teaches with MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association and as a guest artist at Universities and Colleges.  In the 2009-2010 academic year she will be Visiting Assistant Professor of theater at Whitman College, Washington. Jessica is available to teach workshops in Michael Chekhov’s acting technique and to mentor in the creation of original work. Occasionally she teaches an open class in New York City or abroad.  In these cases, an announcement will appear on this website.

If you would like to be emailed teaching and performing updates please e-mail jessie (at) jessicacerullo.com and request to join the mailing list.

Thoughts on Teaching

Although I teach Michael Chekhov’s acting technique, my personal philosophy does not insist on a singular training method or technique. Rather, what is most important to me in the classroom is that the student learn to develop their sense of truth when working alone, with partners and in front of an audience. From this point of view, as a teacher I believe that guiding students toward integrating the body and the creative intellect is the main focus of our work.

In striving to teach with openness, I hope to allow space in the classroom for inspiration to catch fire so that ‘art’ can be made. In some classes we get there, in others, we simply work and wait. In active working and waiting we touch on the elements of Chekhov’s technique. In broad strokes these elements include character development, training of the physical and imaginary body by means of sensing and feeling, establishing presence by giving and receiving our attention, our bodies and our voices. In working we also notice and find form, ease, beauty and wholeness in our work. Style, tempo, psychological gesture, composition and objective also serve to lead students toward inspired acting. Whatever the path, working in this way allows the student’s innate talent or confusion to serve both the individual and the group.

Supporting my teaching is my training and practice, not only in Chekhov’s technique, which I studied with Joanna Merlin, Lenard Petit, Ted Pugh and Fern Sloan, but also in yoga, meditation, Body Mind Centering ™ and the Viewpoints (as developed by Mary Overlie, Barbara Dilley, Wendell Beavers and the SITI Company).

DHARMA ART LETTER, written by Chogyum Trungpa Rinpoche

In talking about Dharma Art here, we do not mean art, which necessarily depicts Buddhist symbols or ideas, but rather art which springs from a certain state of mind on the part of the artists.  We can call this the meditative state: an attitude of directness and unselfconsciousness in one’s creative work.

The basic problem of artistic endeavor is the tendency to split the artists from the ‘audience,’ trying to send a message from one to the other.  When this happens, art becomes exhibitionism: the person who gets some tremendous flash of inspiration, them rushes to ‘put it down on paper’ to impress or excite others; or the very deliberate artist who strategizes each step of his work to produce certain effects on his viewers.  No matter how well intentioned or how technically accomplished, these approaches inevitably become clumsy and aggressive, towards others and toward oneself.

In ‘meditative’ art, the artist embodies the viewer as well as the creator as he works.  Vision is not separate from operation, and there is no fear of being clumsy or failing to achieve his aspiration: he simply makes his painting, poem, piece of music, whatever.

In this sense, a complete novice could pick up a brush and, with the right state of mind, produce a masterpiece.  This is possible.  But it is a very hit-and-miss approach.  In art, as in life generally, we need to study our craft, develop our skills, and absorb the knowledge and insight passed down by tradition.

But whether we have the attitude of a student, who could still become more proficient in handling his materials, or the attitude of an accomplished master, when we are actually creating a work of art there is a sense of total confidence; our message is simply appreciating the nature of things as they are and expressing it without any struggle of thoughts and fears.  We give up aggression, either toward ourselves – that we have to make a special effort to impress people; or toward others – that we can put something over them. Genuine art – Dharma Art- is simply the activity of non-aggression.

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