GRADUATE ACTING'S JOANNA MERLIN HONORED BY RUSSIAN EMIGRE GROUP IN MOSCOW

By Richard Pierce

Joanna Merlin, adjunct teacher in the Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, was honored earlier this month in Moscow by Russians Abroad, an organization founded by the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn to honor Russian émigrés who have made significant contributions to American scientific and cultural life. She received a medal for her work in continuing the legacy of the late Russian actor, director, and author Michael Chekhov (1891-1955).  
    Merlin, an actor, teacher, and former casting director, was a student of Chekhov, and is co-founder of the Michael Chekhov Association, a not-for-profit organization based in New York that links the artistic vision Chekhov created with the work of contemporary actors, teachers, and directors. She has also produced a six-and-half-hour series, supported by the NEA, entitled “Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique.”  
   Merlin has been on the graduate acting faculty for more than 10 years, and helps to prepare third-year students in auditioning for camera work, as well as run a series of workshops for students with film and casting directors. In addition, she teaches a Michael Chekhov intensive class to second-year students and then coaches them in their final-year productions using the technique.
    Chekhov, the nephew of the famed Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, was regarded in Russia as one of the finest actors of the 20th century. He studied with the great Constantin Stanislavski in Moscow, and was considered by the master as his most brilliant student.  Chekhov immigrated to the United States in the late 1930s and founded his own acting technique. He was later invited to Hollywood where he acted in films and became the coach to such well-known stars as Yul Brynner, Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Marilyn Monroe, and Anthony Quinn, among others.