Chekhov's Feeling of Ease

Michael Chekhov, one of Stanislavsky's most influential students, believed that the professional actor should cultivate several essential qualities: Beauty, Form, Entirety and Ease. Chekhov believed that Ease was the most important of the 4 feelings, that he called The Four Brothers. 

All actors should cultivate Chekhov's feeling of ease - because this effortlessness is what all contemporary acting, particularly film acting should be. This means that even if the scene is very taxing and a struggle, the actor should not appear to struggle, it is the sense of ease, this appearance of 'not trying' that makes the performance that much more believable. 

For M.Chekhov, the feeling of ease replaced Stanislavsky's concentration on relaxation. It wasn't relaxation for relaxation's sake, it was that everything was done without the tension of trying too hard, which saps energy and reduces the performer and the performance. 

The Feeling of Ease is a poise and a gracefulness that comes from removing any obstacles, physically or mentally. Mental and physical tension cannot exist alongside this feeling. 

Chekhov articulated his discovery about the relationship between mental and physical tension and that the more effort one had to make, the more psychologically tense the actor became. So he taught his students to move with ease, with lightness, without resistance.

Ease is playful. Ease is fun. What would it feel like to have fun and playfulness return to your acting performances?

M. Chekhov's feeling of ease seems rightly connected to performance and sports psychology, as we attempt to subvert the mind's interpretation of instructions in favour of simplicity. Tim Gallwey in the Inner Game of Tennis places relaxed concentration as the heart of his approach and I see many strong connections between the two. Chekhov's feeling of Ease brought harmony between the actor's Self 1 and 2. To quieten the interpreting mind and allow the innate to do what it is already good at.

Chekhov said "The actor has to burn inside with an outer ease." Whatever the character is feeling, the actor should approach their work with a deftness, a subtlety, even when portraying the most intense of emotions, the actor's light touch makes them believable and truthful.

The actor should not be seen trying so damn hard to act. 

This feeling of ease is the 'smoothness' that Hamlet talks about in his advice to the players.