Where are you right now as you read this newsletter? Are you on the subway, are you at work, are you at your desk? What is happening around you? What are the general sensations that you receive when you are experiencing the space around you?

Is it loud? Is it a coffee shop? Is it intensely studious like a college library? Or is it quiet and peaceful like a public library? Are you on the trail in spring, listening to new life blossom and bloom and sing?

What is the Atmosphere?

Because we’re going to be discussing it.

Atmosphere in art is how we solidify ourselves in space. It’s understanding that you’re watching a Barbie movie as opposed to Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu?

It helps you know that you’re not watching a thriller-slasher horror Barbie, but instead, you are watching the bright, floral-colored pink-coded Barbie movie.

If Atmosphere helps solidify ourselves into space, it’s a valuable tool, taught by Chekhov, to help you step into the world of the story.

The way to do so is through thresholds.

In this newsletter, I will walk you through a couple of exercises that we utilize with the Chekhov technique and how one goes into the other. The two exercises I will be teaching are Thresholds and Atmosphere.

But let’s start with the door into Atmosphere, which acts as our threshold.

In Chekhov, actors can step into a space of high artistic creativity. A space of non-judgment for the artist, a space of endless creativity.

To step in, you start first by finding your “Actor’s Ideal Center,” typically the center of the chest, not the heart, but the center of the chest. From there, radiate and ignite a warm energy that seeps in and loosens the joints throughout the body.

Let it travel to the top of the head, pinpointing more specific spots of tension, like the eyes, the cheeks, the jaw, radiating ease into each piece. Then down to the legs, doing the same.

Return to the Actor’s Ideal Center, and radiate to the entirety of you. If you are unable to imagine this, you can lightly tap the parts of your body that you are traveling to, that you are radiating toward.

Then imagine a line in front of your feet. It can be a doorway into a new world, a portal, it can be a wormhole, or it can quite simply be a line in the sand.

In front of you is a world in which you have the abilities of the higher artist. No ego, no judgment, a sense of playful creativity, and the ability to create anything. That is what is across this threshold.

Radiate into that space and then whenever you feel ready… Cross the Threshold.

Before any artistic work, we start here. A sort of warmup into the work, but it is also a mental acceptance that we are going to be doing the work, we are going to be showing up for the work, and we are going to accept what comes of the work, fully being present for the process.

This, in itself, is an atmosphere.

This is an atmosphere of creativity, an atmosphere that you are creating for yourself that is safe, that supports you and your work, and an atmosphere that is powerful enough to grant you the powers of play, joy, and ease.

But what if we wanted to change the Objective Atmosphere?

First, let’s walk you through an exercise that details how Objective Atmosphere can work.

Reach out both of your hands for an imaginary clear and maleable bubble. It won’t pop; it’s quite strong, and you can shape and form it. Build it out like putty, or dough, and expand it, further and further, higher and higher, lower and lower. Give it a full 360-degree stretch, and when it is capable of carrying a human being inside of it, find your way into it.

You can crawl into it, starting with your fingers, your hands, then your feet, and your face, then your body. Or if you are able to get a good sense of it, simply step in, cross the threshold into this bubble.

Now here. Get a sense of it around you. It’s clear, it moves with you, it encapsulates you, there’s radiant air in there, and you can breathe easily and wonderfully.

I suggest that you get up and move around in whatever space you are in, but if you are simply sitting, that’s fine too.

Now imagine that there are rose petals in your bubble, they are falling endlessly, and you can reach out and grab them if you want, you can smell them. I wouldn’t eat one, but if you like the taste of rose petals… by all means. But get a general sensation of what that does to your body. Don’t think too hard about it right now, just feel what that does to you.

Start moving into the space with rose petals in your bubble.

Remember, as you have been able to step INTO the bubble, you can always step OUT of the bubble. So if there is any sensation too intense, please feel free to step out of the bubble and simply let it go, or let it remain in front of you without you in it.

If you are still in the bubble, let the bubble become clear once again. No more flowers, no more floral smell.

Now imagine that there is the putrid smell of urine stinging your nose. Remain at ease, remember that you ARE able to breathe in here. But what does that do to your breath? There’s a little bit of urine pooled at the bottom of the bubble. What does that do to your physicality? What does that do to your speech?

Walk around in the bubble with the smell of urine in it.

Now step back out whenever you’re ready or done exploring.

Spy back, which means to fly back over the process and how it affected you. What were some of the sensations that you felt? What happened to your body in both? What was the contrast between the two?

There are two types of atmosphere:

-Objective Atmosphere - The atmosphere that is in the space. Think of a 1500-year-old Catholic Church. There is a reverence, a quiet spirit that lingers. Or think of a roller rink or a disco, the objective atmosphere is one that is a party, joy, dancing, and movement.

-Subjective Atmosphere - What is YOUR atmosphere? What are you bringing INTO the space? If I am grumpy at a disco, I am in contrast with the Objective Atmosphere because my Subjective Atmosphere is “I am a grump.” In contrast, if I were coming from a ten-seater bar bike with a group of friends, stumble into the 1500-year-old church and sing “ALELUJIAAAA” falling and puking behind a pew, I’d be in contrast with the Objective Atmosphere as my Subjective Atmosphere is “belligerent drunk.”

And contrast makes for pretty good storytelling.

So you can play with whatever you want in the bubble. But you can also now apply Subjective Atmosphere to it.

If you want to be grumpy inside of a brightly colored bouncy ball bubble, then what will that do to your grumpiness? Are you going to try to win out the bouncy ball bubble with your grumpiness, or might you eventually turn out to have a little bit of fun?

You can exist at full contrast to what the bubble is (The Objective Atmosphere) and let it give a different form or set of behaviors for your character.

If you are actively working on a character and have explored their past circumstances and the immediate prior circumstance to the scene that they are in, you will be trying to figure out what the Subjective Atmosphere is. Placing them into the Objective Atmosphere will work to inform you of whether you fight the Objective Atmosphere or if you adopt it. Yes, you can win over an Objective Atmosphere, overpowering it.

So utilize this in your next piece, in your next work of art. Play with Atmosphere, and exist within it so that you may be able to further find your characters and the story through it. Cross the threshold and begin your play.

I have five slots available to take on students. I focus on the Chekhov Technique, but bring other concepts into it. My goal, always, is to help you grow as a holistic human being who creates art. Using art as an avenue to do that and share it with others.

If you’re interested, sign up for a free 30-minute session to see if this would be a good fit for you.

Sign up here: https://calendly.com/matt-piper29/30min