Acting teachers from around the world will visit NUI Galway in January as the university hosts a five-day workshop by the New York-based Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA ).
Michael Chekhov was the nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov and was widely recognised as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. He went on to teach the likes of Gary Cooper, Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Patricia Neal, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Quinn, Ingrid Bergman, Jack Palance, and Yul Brynner. MICHA is training a new generation of practitioners in Michael Chekhov’s acting technique, which is based in a psycho-physical approach to acting.
Joanna Merlin and Fern Sloan, two master teachers, will lead classes at the workshop. Joanna, who is president of MICHA, studied with Michael Chekhov during the last five years of his life. She made her Broadway debut opposite Laurence Olivier in Becket and created the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof. Her film credits include Invasion, starring Nicole Kidman, and co-starring roles in City of Angels with Dennis Franz, Class Action with Gene Hackman, Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts, Fame, All That Jazz, and The Killing Fields.
Merlin was most recently on screen in The Wackness and has a recurring role as Judge Lena Petrovsky on Law and Order, Special Victims Unit.
This is MICHA’s first visit to Ireland and the workshop takes place from January 4 to 8.
