Who Could Benefit From This Course?
This workshop is designed for early-career actors and performers who want to expand their creative tools and deepen their physical approach to acting.
It is particularly valuable for:
• Theatre makers interested in physical and imaginative approaches to acting
• Actors who want to develop stronger presence, embodiment, and character creation
• Directors who want to add to their rehearsal toolkit
Participants should have some experience in performance and a curiosity to explore acting through movement, imagination, and energetic expression.
How Does It Work?
This 4-hour intensive workshop introduces actors to a psycho-physical approach to acting, inspired by the work of Michael Chekhov.
Through guided exercises and ensemble work, participants explore how body, imagination, and energy work together to generate character and presence.
The workshop includes:
• Imagination-based warm-ups and ensemble awareness
• Emotional colour and imaginative action
• The Four Qualities of Movement — Earth, Water, Air and Fire
• Psychological Gesture as a tool for character development
• Centres and energetic focus in character work
• Physical impulses that translate into playable dramatic action
The session moves from physical exploration to character creation, giving actors practical tools for rehearsal, devising and performance.
What Do You Gain?
Participants will leave the workshop with practical tools they can apply immediately in their acting practice.
You will gain:
• Faster, more embodied access to character
• Clear physical and energetic choices on stage
• Tools for rehearsal, devising, and text-based work
• Expanded imaginative and physical range
• Stronger stage presence and expressive clarity
The work encourages actors to approach performance as a creative and imaginative process rooted in the body.
Dates, Times & Cost
Sunday, 10 May 2026
2:30pm - 6:30pm
In person at The Cockpit, upstairs in Studio 1
£49 early bird (book by 30 April at 12pm)
£59 regular price
Check out the other workshops in our Theatre Maker programme, and save 10% when you book 2 or more.
SOFIA BARYSEVICH
Sofia Barysevich is a theatre director, movement performer and the founder of withintheatre. Her work combines physical theatre, movement, voice and imaginative acting techniques. She trained at GITIS (Russian Institute of Theatre Arts) and is a graduate of the Michael Chekhov Academy in Moscow, where she later worked as a teacher. Sofia studied Contemporary Performance Practices at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has worked with leading physical theatre practitioners in the UK. Her practice is also informed by a therapeutic background. She completed a Foundation in Dance Movement Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, and is currently studying counselling.
Her recent musical production “Boogie on the Bones” was performed at The Cockpit. Through her directing and teaching, Sofia explores how movement, imagination and energetic expression unlock character, presence and creative freedom on stage.
MICHAEL CHEKHOV
Chekhov was born in 1891 and was the nephew of the seminal Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. He first studied stagecraft at the Moscow Art Theatre under legendary stage practitioner Konstantin Stanislavsky, who had already masterminded his own system. In 1922, Chekhov took over as the director of the Moscow Art Theatre II, where he worked alongside luminaries like Yevgeny Vakhtangov and Vsevolod Meyerhold.
Chekhov’s innovative ideas put him at odds with the USSR’s communist regime, forcing him to relocate to Germany and, eventually, the United States. His unorthodox approach to stage technique caused a rift with his mentor, Stanislavsky, whose own philosophy focused on naturalism. Chekhov went on to become a thought leader in his own right; his acting system was adopted by many Hollywood stars of the 1930s and ’40s.
Chekhov’s method takes a “psycho-physical” approach to acting, encouraging practitioners to ground emotion in physical gestures, a process specifically outlined in his five guiding principles. This allows the actor to stay present in the moment, freeing them up to experiment. The Michael Chekhov Association, which calls itself “the heart of the international Chekhov community,” says that the goal of the technique is to foster “a connection between the inner response evoked by a physical action and its outer expression.”
Read more here.
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