International Faculty

All our teachers are professional actors or directors in their own country and have a long experience in conducting the Michael Chekhov Acting technique in an international setting.

Artistic directors

Suzana Nikolić

Actress, Professor for Voice and Speech,

Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb

Suzana Nikolic is a graduate of the Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb. She was a Fulbright scholar at NYU – Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate Acting Program (1998/99). She has over 15 years of additional acting and voice training abroad. Since 2006 – 2010 she was a Head of Voice and Speech Department.

Ms Nikolić current position at the Academy of Dramatic Art is Full time Professor. She is a Founder and Artistic director of Performing Arts Etra and Michael Chekhov Studio Croatia.

Her acting credits include theatre performances, feature films, television films & serials, as well as radio. She is an award winning actress.

Ms Nikolić's organizational and producing credits includes over a dozen international workshops, most of them concerning voice and speech work and Michael Chekhov acting technique. She also produced M.I.Fornes play MUD which was staged at ZeKaEm, Zagreb, 2004.

Ms Nikolić has being certificated as a teacher of Michael Chekhov Technique in 2004 by MICHA, USA. She works professionally with the Technique over ten years.

Contact: studiochekhov.zagreb@gmail.com

Ulrich Meyer-Horsch

Actor and Director.

Artistic Director of Michail Cechov Schauspielstudio Hamburg

For the last twenty years he has been acting and directing in German state and regional theatres such as Theater Kiel, Theater Lübeck, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Altonaer Theater, Komödie Düsseldorf and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin. He has worked with Simon McBurney and Complicite, Philippe Gaulier, Augusto Boal, Lorna Marshall and Yoshi Oida. As an award winning director he is known for his playful productions of the works of Bertolt Brecht.

He holds diplomas in Acting from Schule für Schauspiel Hamburg, and in Theology, Philosophy and Theatre Pedagogy from the Universities of Heidelberg, Hamburg, London (King’s College) and Kiel.

Mr.Meyer-Horsch studied with Michael Chekhov’s former students Hurt Hatfield, Deidre Hurst du Prey, Mala Powers and Joanna Merlin as well as with Chekhov teachers from Germany and Russia. In his approach to the Chekhov Technique he incorporates the exploration of children’s games and work with masks. Since 1994 he has been teaching all over Europe as well as in Brazil.

Contact: chekhov@sfsh.de

Jesper Michelsen

Director and Acting Coach,

Artistic Director of Glad Teater

and Michael Chekhov Studio Copenhagen

Originally trained as an actor, over the last ten years Jesper has been working mostly as an acting coach for theatre, film and music video, director, dramaturge and producer in many different projects. He went to study with MICHA (USA) and has been working with the MC Technique in various workshops and programmes since 2003, teaching MC Technique alone or combined with Meisner, Viewpoints - and other techniques. As artistic director of Michael Chekhov Studio Copenhagen, Jesper offers workshops and ongoing training in MC Technique.

Mr. Michelsen is the co-founder of Glad Teater, a professional theater and acting school for actors with disabillities in Copenhagen. Glad Teater has over the years built a widespread reputation for creating exiting and very different performances. Glad Teater works with devising techniques, creating performances that combine the actor’s personal appearance and special talents with a physical approach to theatre.

Mr. Michelsen holds a BA in theatre studies and pedagogy from University of Copenhagen. His special interest alongside training actors is the use of the body and the imagination in human development and creativity.

Contact: jesperjaever@gmail.com

Guest teachers

Åsa Salvesen, Ekenäs/Helsinki, Finland

Actress, Director, Drama Teacher, Journalist

MA Theatre Academy, Helsinki-97, BA Political Science, Helsinki University-97

She has been working as freelance actress and director in different theatres and companies in Helsinki. Founding member of Ozonteatern, a theatre company investigating space, art, sound and acting as well as organizing workshops for professional actors.

Since 2004 Head Teacher of the Drama Programme at Västra Nylands folkhögskola in Karis. Award nominated for her unconventional and artistically challenging performances with her acting students. Recently awarded for bringing international influences into Finnish theatre education (The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland 2011).

Ms Salvesen has been working and studying the Chekhov technique since 1998 with teachers such as Lenard Petit, Jobst Langhans, Sarah Kane and Joanna Merlin. She is Co-founder of Michael Chekhov Europe.

Sol Garre, Madrid, Spain

Actress, Lecturer in Acting in Physical Theatre,

Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático (RESAD), Madrid

Ms Garre trained as an actress at the Instituto de Teatro of Asturias in Gijon, Spain. She has a BA in Psychology from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and an MA (with distinction) from Exeter University. Her Master's research was on the work of Michael Chekhov and the psychophysical training of the actor, which she is now further developing through PhD research.

Ms Garre has worked as a professional actress and director, specializing in movement based theatre and acting, and has developed a strong pedagogical approach in her career. She has given workshops at several Spanish drama and theatre schools, cultural and actors' associations and Universities in Spain and UK. She has also trained professional actors in theatre companies such as La Machina (Santander), La Casona (Barcelona), Abadía (Madrid) y Réplika (Madrid).

In 2009 she edited Cuerpos en Escena, a compilation of articles about the teaching in the Movement Department at RESAD.

David Zinder, Tel Aviv, Israel

Director, Author, Prof.emeritus of Tel Aviv University Department of Theatre Arts

Mr. Zinder was a founding member of The Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA) and has over three decades of experience in actor training and directing. Today he is a freelance international director.

He taught and directed extensively in the US, Europe (both East and West) and in the Far East. The many years Mr. Zinder spent training actors culminated in his book Body - Voice - Imagination: A Training for the Actor, published by Routledge, New York.

Since 2000 he has been directing in Romania where he produced highly acclaimed productions of The Dybbuk, The Bacchae, a Stoppard double-bill: After Magritte & The real Inspector Hound, Macbeth and Peer Gynt.

Jessica Cerullo, New York, USA

Actress and Managing Director,

Performer and Managing Director, MICHA (Michael Chekhov Association)

Jessica teaches internationally and appears in MICHA's Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique DVD Series. She is an Assistant Professor of Theater at Whitman College in Washington. Ms Cerullo edited the book, Michael Chekhov: Critical Issues, Reflections, Dreams and co-authored the MICHA Workbook with Fern Sloan to assist those studying Chekhov's work in integrating the technique into their own practice. Each year she facilitates the "Theater of the Future," an open space meeting that invites the Michael Chekhov community to gather and exchange impulses for our future. A writer and performer, her solo and ensemble work includes Miracle Tomato and Mary and Elizabeth. She collaborates regularly with the Actors Ensemble and is a former member of the Stanislavsky Theater Studio. Ms Cerullo trained with the National Theater Institute in the USA, London and at the Moscow Art Theater in Russia. She earned an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University.

Jessica Cerullo is a performer and the Managing Director of MICHA, the Michael Chekhov Association where she also teaches and facilitates an annual 'Theater of the Future' open space meeting. Also an Assistant Professor of Theater at Whitman College, Washington, her devised performance work has toured in the United States since 2007.

Jobst Langhans, Berlin, Germany

Director, Actor and Teacher.

He co-founded the theater company, WERBUHNE BERLIN, and has been its artistic director since 1998. Mr. Langhans has performed and directed throughout Berlin and Germany. In 1987 he began the Michael Chekhov Studio Berlin, where he continues to serve as its director. He organized the first International Michael Chekhov Workshop in Berlin in 1992 as well as another in 1995 and served on the board of the International Michael Chekhov Association from 1992-1995. From 1983-95 he was the director of theaterforum kreuzberg and has been a visiting teacher at various theater schools and universities, leading master classes in Moscow, London, Madrid, Riga and Glasgow. Mr. Langhans studied church music and philosophy as well as private theater studies with Else Bongers and Jurgen v. Alten.

Other guest teachers are invited for special topics and occasions.