Acting Appreciation 101: The Four Human Temperaments and the Michael Chekov Technique

Welcome to the second episode of Acting Appreciation 101. Today I’ll be addressing the use of the four human temperaments of melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic, and sanguine as tools in the art of character development; a technique favored predominantly by British actors.

Additionally, we’ll take a look at how the great Russian director Michael Chekov (nephew of the renowned playwright Anton Chekov) used these classic human temperaments (particularly as described by Waldorf education founder Rudolf Steiner for use in early childhood education) in developing his own acting method.

The Four Temperaments

Some say the British comedy troupe Monty Python was, in part, so successful because they embodied, in a farcical sense, the classic nuclear family: John Cleese was the stern, patriarchal father, Terry Jones the warm nurturing mother, Michael Palin the earnest older son, Eric Idle the cheeky younger son, gay Graham Chapman was the sister, and Terry Gilliam the weird cousin from America.