FACULTY

Andrei Malaev-Babel

Bethany Caputo

Bethany Caputo studied at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1997 where she was introduced to the Chekhov Technique. She now teaches the work for the Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA), the Michael Chekhov School of Acting, Terry Knickerbocker Studios, The New York Drama Center, The New School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and this Fall she will teach a workshop for the Graduate Acting Program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Ms. Caputo has taught internationally at the University of the Arts in Zurich, Shanghai Theatre Academy in China, Victoria College of the Arts (VCA) in Australia, and at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney. Ms Caputo was an actor in the Master Classes DVD series produced by MICHA. Bethany is now the Artistic Director of Chekhov Studio NYC in Manhattan. chekhovstudionyc.com

Camille Litalien

Camille Litalien is a movement artist, therapist, and educator whose work resists finality; It is porous, unfinished, and always composting itself in dialogue with the sensorial world and the presences, human and more-than-human, that shape it. Rooted in collaboration, her practice draws artists seeking not only craft but intimacy, transformation, and entanglement.

Camille has performed and directed internationally, with engagements at the Royal Opera Ballet (Covent Garden), the Young Vic Theatre, and festivals across Europe and North America. She directed and produced the work of Indian Runner Productions in London for twelve years, co-created Earth Body Place, an immersive site-specific dance theatre project in the US, and co-owns Trilokya, a somatic and artistic retreat place in New Mexico.

Her creative and embodied research lives at the intersection of performance, pedagogy, and deep ecology. She teaches movement and embodiment informed by lifelong studies in Classical Indian Arts, Body-Mind Centering, Releasing and Contemporary Dance, and Mask Work. Her pedagogy is deeply rooted in the Michael Chekhov Technique, approached as a living practice of imagination, presence, and transformation.

Camille’s artistic work invites a deceleration of perception, an embodied reclaiming of presence, and an attentiveness to what remains unheard beneath our cultural noise.

Chuk Obasi

Chuk Obasi is an actor, writer, and director who works across disciplines of theatre, film, television, dance, opera, and live poetry. He is also an arts educator, having served as a Movement Project Director at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, a Musical Theatre Adjunct Professor at Drew University, and a frequent guest teacher for the Black Arts Institute and LAByrinth Theatre among other engagements.
Obasi is a founding member of the theatre company TÉA Artistry (www.tea-artistry.org) and currently serves as Co-Director. He is also currently a company member with the People’s Theatre Project (www.peoplestheatreproject.org). Other organizations that he has worked with include The Private Theatre, Broadway Dance Center, National Dance Institute, and Mind The Art Entertainment (MTAE).

In conjunction with his artistic work Obasi is a social justice advocate, and has taught workshops based on several social themes as well as on using art for social justice at colleges, high schools, and professional organizations - most recently including Fordham University, University of Montana, Fieldston Ethical Culture, and Girl Be Heard.

Obasi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY Geneseo. He was also the recipient of the 2019 Zelda Fichandler Award - a full scholarship to study with the Michael Chekhov Association, where he has also served as a faculty member.

A son of Nigerian immigrants, Obasi resides in his birthplace of New York City with his family.

Connie Rotunda

Connie Rotunda is a somatic practitioner, actor, and educator. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner since 1999. She has worked as a training program practitioner/organizer for the Feldenkrais Professional Training Program (FPTP), and as a teacher at the Feldenkrais Insititute in New York City. Connie is professor emerita and the former associate chair of the theatre department at SUNY New Paltz. She synergizes her Feldenkrais practice with her background as an actor, movement coach, director, and intimacy coordinator. She is currently on the faculty and the board of the Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA). She continues to teach theatre courses as an adjunct, offers private Feldenkrais lessons and group classes to the public, as well as developing and teaching workshops focusing on weaving the Feldenkrais Method with Chekhov Technique and the Viewpoints. Her current study is in training with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés and compassionate presence with the Peaceful Presence Project.

Craig Mathers

Craig is currently a Professor of Performing Arts at Emerson College where he serves as the head of the BFA Acting Studio and teaches Chekhov and Stanislavsky based approaches as well as Shakespeare text. He has taught Chekhov workshops for Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramatico (RESAD) and Estudio Vertigo, both in Madrid, the Warsaw Academy of Drama; Gdansk University; the Interior Theater of St. Petersburg, Russia; Teatro Argos in Havana, Cuba; Teatro Alumbra in Lima, Peru; Escuela Nacional de Arte Teatral and Icaro Compania Teatral, both in Mexico City; and for Michael Chekhov Europe in Groznjan, Croatia. He serves on the board of the Michael Chekhov Association, and is also a faculty member of the Michael Chekhov School in Hudson, NY, and is a designated Linklater teacher. Craig is a graduate of Yale Drama School.

Dawn Arnold

Dawn Arnold is an actress, deviser/director, and teaching artist focused on the Chekhov Technique. She is the founder and Artistic Director of The Moving Dock Theatre Company and Chekhov Studio Chicago. With Moving Dock Theatre, she directs/devises original theatre pieces using the Chekhov Technique as her creative process. Her professional work includes working with theatre companies as a rehearsal coach, guiding companies in the early stages of rehearsals for scripted or devised theatre projects. She has been on the faculty teaching movement, acting, and voice in the undergraduate and graduate theatre programs of Roosevelt University’s Theatre Conservatory, Northern Illinois University, and The Theatre School at DePaul University, and coached opera singers at Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. In addition to her ongoing teaching at Chekhov Studio Chicago, she is a member of the faculty of MICHA (Michael Chekhov Association) and appears in MICHA’s series Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique. She has also taught with Michael Chekhov Acting Studio NYC, Michael Chekhov Europe, Michael Chekhov Studio Tokyo, The Chekhov Collective, and in guest workshops and residencies for colleges, high schools, and theatre companies. https://movingdock.org/chekhov-studio-chicago-1

Fern Sloan

Fern Sloan is an actress for over 40 years, is co-founder and co-artistic director of The Actors’ Ensemble and has performed and taught the Michael Chekhov technique in the US, Canada, Croatia, Ireland, England, and Europe. She was certified by Beatrice Straight to teach the work of Michael Chekhov and was on the faculty of the original Michael Chekhov Studio in New York City for the last three years of the studio’s existence. She was co-director and on the faculty of the Speech and Drama Program of Sunbridge College. Before founding The Actors’ Ensemble, Ms. Sloan led roles in regional theaters in the US and Off-Broadway. Together with Jessica Cerullo, Ms. Sloan wrote the MICHA Workbook to assist those practically studying the Chekhov technique. Along with her faculty role with MICHA, she is currently teaching with the Michael Chekhov School in Hudson, NY.

Hugh O’Gorman

Co-Executive Director of the National Alliance of Acting Teachers, Hugh O’Gorman, is
an actor, director, author, and teaching artist who has been active in professional theatre
for nearly 40 years. Since 2002, he has served as Head of Acting at California State
University, Long Beach, overseeing the BA, BFA, and MFA actor-training programs. He
also teaches at USC in the BFA Acting and BFA Musical Theatre programs. Hugh is the
author of Acting Action: A Primer For Actors, The Keys To Acting, and the forthcoming
The Art of Teaching the Art of Acting for Routledge. He is a faculty member of MICHA:
the Michael Chekhov Association, MCE: Michael Chekhov Europe, and Actyn
Hollywood, and runs The PraXis Acting Studio in Los Angeles. Hugh has appeared on
Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at over a dozen of the nation’s most respected Regional
Theatres and Shakespeare Festivals. He is a founding member of New York City’s Mint
Theatre Company (2002 Drama Desk Award). He portrayed Jeff Singer on AMC’s
critically acclaimed, Emmy award-winning show Remember WENN (SAG Award
nomination). Other television: HBO’s Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning John
Adams, for CBS Still Standing, That’s Life, and for NBC The 10th Kingdom, Law &
Order, and ER. Film: Killers, Upstate, The Bend. Hugh earned a BA from Cornell
University and an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington.

Jessica Cerullo

Jessica Cerullo is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose training and career are rooted in the theater. Harnessing the arts and taking a somatic-based approach, she guides collaborators into their creativity in ways that begin to repair the body’s response to stress so they can hone their presence as listeners, speakers, and creators. For over two decades, Jessica has taught and facilitated international arts-based retreats and trainings for artists and educators at MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association. She co-authored the MICHA workbook, edited the expanded edition of Chekhov’s Lessons for Teachers and guided the translation and publication of Chekhov’s original story. “A Tale About Lies and How Swiftly They Spread Across the Earth.” She is an actor in MICHA’s masterclass series. Jessica is the director of Connecticut’s “Connect To Create”. Her independent community-based projects enjoy partnerships with groups such as an immigrant rights coalition, poverty alleviation advocates, pandemic caregivers, the incarcerated, arts and culture organizations, historical societies, public schools, and universities. Her book, Some Stranger Somewhere documents one of her many projects. A former Associate Professor of Theater at Whitman College where she taught acting, speech, voice, and solo performance, Jessica continues to lecture on the intersection of arts and well-being and to teach acting at Connecticut College. Her work in the classroom, coaching, and group facilitation is consent-based and trauma-informed. Her practical study of Open Space Technology, Intergroup Dialogue, Critical Response Process, Psychophysical Acting Techniques, and Body Mind Centering(TM) underpin her work.

Jobst Langhans

1955 (Director, actor, acting coach)
Studies: Church music and philosophy, private acting training with Else Bongers and Jürgen von Alten.
Engagements as an actor and director (approx. 80 productions) at various theaters in Berlin, West Germany, and abroad.
1983-95 Director of the theaterforum kreuzberg.
Since 1984 Director of the Michael Chekhov Studio Berlin.
Initiator and organizer, together with Jörg Andrees, of the 1st International Michael Chekhov Conference Berlin 1992, the 4th Michael Chekhov Workshop (MCIW) Berlin 1995, and the Michael Chekhov International Conference Berlin 2025.
1992-95 Board member of the International Michael Chekhov Association.
Since 1998 Director of the WERKBÜHNE BERLIN.
Guest lecturer at drama schools and universities in Germany and abroad.
Leader of masterclasses in Moscow, London, Madrid, Riga, Glasgow, Amsterdam, New York, Zagreb, Helsinki, Istanbul, etc. - Masterteacher of the Michael Chekhov Association - USA. Training facilitator for organizational development processes.