Faculty – Summer Intensives

Chiara D’Anna is an Italian actor, director, lecturer and Commedia dell’Arte specialist with over 20 years of experience. She trained in Italy, Poland and the UK. Her work on the contemporaneity of Commedia dell’Arte culminated in her PhD “A Journey back Home: The Legacy of Commedia dell’Arte in Post-dramatic Theatre with particular focus on the centrality of the Actor in Devised Performance” (The Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design- London Metropolitan University 2014-18). She regularly teaches and runs workshops/masterclasses on Commedia dell’Arte and Physical Theatre at RADA, East15 Acting School, Rose Bruford College and the National Centre of Circus Arts. As Associate Artist of the research group ‘The Quick & the Dead’ she worked for over eight years in developing a new methodology for Actor Training known as the ‘Core Training’. The outcome of this research was published by Routledge in a DVD-pamphlet: ‘Core Training For the Relational Actor’ (2013) and documented by Peter Hulton for the Exeter Arts Archives. Chiara is co-founder of Natural You Dance, a movement meditation practice that draws on Yoga, dance, physical theatre and meditation.

Greg Pierotti is an assistant professor of dramaturgy and collaborative playmaking at the University of Arizona. He has taught theatrical devising for twenty years and is also a certified assistant teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework™. He is co-writer of the plays The Laramie Project, Laramie:10 Years later, and The People’s Temple and the HBO teleplay The Laramie Project. For these works received the Bay Area Theater Critics Award, a Will Glickman Award, and the Humanitas Prize, and received NY Drama Desk, Alpert and Emmy award nominations.

As an actor he has performed at Lincoln Center Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, La Jolla Playhouse, The Union Square Theater, to name a few. His current academic research explores the cross-pollination of theatrical devising practices and affect theory.

André Casaca is one of the most popular professionals of physical theatre and clown in Italy. He’s Brazilian and a resident of Italy since 1995. The Lume Teatro (Lume Theatre – Campinas, Brazil) and Yves Lebreton were fundamental to his preparation and formation. Actor, theatrical researcher, clown, director, and founder of the method called “Body Comic Identity”.

Engaged in theatre for more than 25 years, his artistic and pedagogic method is recognized in Italy and abroad in university theatrical studies. He is the artistic and pedagogic director at the Teatro C’art Comic Education Onlus (Castelfiorentino, Italy) and he collaborates with many theatre schools. www.teatrocart.com

As Director of Communications and Recruiting, Bob Shryock directs and manages all marketing and US recruiting for the Accademia dell’Arte. Bob is also on faculty at ADA, where he teaches topics in Devising / Collaborative Creation, Physical Storytelling and Ensemble Dynamics. He also teaches on behalf of the ADA at colleges, universities and conferences around the US.

Originally from Manila, Philippines, Bob is a Director, Actor-creator, Teaching artist and Theatre-maker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is Producing Director of Ragged Wing Ensemble, an Oakland, California based theatre company focused on innovative, collaborative processes for creating dynamic performance. Bob is part-time faculty at Academy of Art University School of Acting (San Francisco, CA) where he teaches Mask, Pantomime and Clown. He also teaches Acting and Improvisation for the Academy at Bay Area Children’s Theatre.

Previously based in New York City, he was the Associate Artistic Director of Off-Broadway theatre company, Ripple Effect Artists, and the Director of Training for Lev Leytzan, a professional hospital clown organization.

Bob holds an MFA in Physical Theatre from the Accademia dell’Arte and studied Acting and Directing at Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY).

Bob is a member of the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), where he serves on the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Task Force and Steering Committee. He’s also a member of Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME), Network of Ensemble Theatres (NET) and Theatre Bay Area (TBA). Bob recently directed the world premiere of GOLD: the Midas Musical, winner of the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best New Musical and finalist for the Theatre Bay Area Award for Outstanding Direction of a Musical.

Samuel Angus McGehee 1987, originally from Boston, grew up in Tuscany where from a young age was engaged in music, street circus and philosophy. Sam studied clarinet performance with Igor Begelman and philosophy with Marina Vitkin at Sarah Lawrence College NYC. He also studied sitar with Rajesh Shah and philosophy with Shashank Srivastava at Benaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India. Sam holds an MFA in physical theatre from the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. Sam’s interdisciplinary approach has brought him to collaborate with a variety of people including painters, dancers, poets, musicians, actors, and researchers. So far Samuel has performed in Italy, Germany, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and India; he has also taught in many of these places. Sam was original member of experimental rock band Sycamore Age (IT), and was member of physical theatre company Divadlo Continuo (CZ). He is founder of Broken Jump Theatre and experimental duo Zvukulàska; he also lectures on Indian philosophy at Florence University of the Arts. Sam continues to pursue a variety of collaborations with other artists; he is interested in poetry, composed theatre, experimental music and movement. Samuel has also always remained for better or worse a devout student of metaphysics.

Elena de Renzio teaches dance, physical theatre, traditional Italian songs and clown.  She is also a dancer and stage actress who has worked primarily in Italy and Paris.  In Paris she worked closely with clown masters Philippe Gaulier, Michel Dallaire, and Philippe Hottier.  Elena has a diploma in Theatre from the Université Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle and in Psychosomatic Pedagogy.  As an actress and dancer she was in numerous productions with Robert Wilson, Raffaella Giordano, Danielle Labaki, Isabelle Dubouloz, Pierre Doussaint, Nathalie Garraud and Stephane Olry. She created “Ah!Ah!” a solo physical theatre/clownesco with a grant from Junge Hunde EU that toured in Italy and France. She performed in concert with “Nuda Voce,” a duet of traditional Italian songs at numerous festivals
She has worked as a physical theatre and dance teacher with a trans-disciplinary approach that integrates movement, voice and touch as a gestural theatrical language in which practical somatics and energetics are combined with special attention to improvisation and the techniques of the clown.
Elena was an acting teacher for many years in the school of Philippe Gaulier and a dance teacher with Sosta Palmizi.  She has been involved in projects of international cooperation in Algeria, Mozambique and in the Philippines with Clowns Without Boarders in collaboration with Wolfgang Fasser.

Wagner Moreira was born in Brazil and has been living in Germany since 2003. As a teacher, freelance performer and choreographer, he has worked in various theatres, universities and international projects. In 2011, he was awarded a scholarship for the “International Choreographers Residency” at American Dance Festival at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina-USA. In 2012 he received the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) award in professional choreography for his outstanding social and intercultural commitment. In 2012 he received a Master of Arts in Choreography. For the last six years, Wagner has extended his C.O.R.E project to several mixed-able-bodied projects in Europe.

Helena Fernandino holds a masters degree in cognitive linguistics. She started her dance training in her home country of Brazil and continued her education in Belo Horizonte and throughout Europe, including Germany, Belgium and Austria. She has been based in Germany since 2003 working as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. As a dancer and choreographer her work includes video dance, site-specific performance and interventions in public spaces. In 2013 she was awarded the graduate scholarship from the State of Saxony for the Artistic Masterclass at Palucca University for Dance Dresden, researching the interface between dance and cognitive linguistics, with a focus on contemporary dance for children and adolescents. In 2014 she began her training as a Somatic Movement Educator – Body Mind Centering – © BMC.

Alessio Trevisani, Germanist, Choreographer, Director, Performer. Recently founded his international company: the Freies Tanz Ensemble. Former member of Tanzfabrik Company, co-initiated in 2000 the Sox36 in Berlin Kreuzberg. 2003 won the German dance prize for best solo. He gained important artistic experience with the composer K. Stockhausen at Leipzig Opera and working in NY in 2005. 2007 was resident choreographer at Palucca Schule/ Tanzplan Dresden. 2006-10 created 4 works for the mixed able Theater Thikwa. 2011-18 created 8 successful works directing Leipziger Tanztheater.

Marina Abib Candusso is a dancer and foundress of the Soma Company, São Paulo, Brazil.

In 2017 premiered her first solo piece “The Goat” directed by André Casca in a co-production Brazil-Italy (Casa do Movimento, Teatro C’art and Teatro del Respiro). With this piece she has already performed in Brazil, Italy, Slovenia, England and Portugal.

Since 2016, in addition to working with her own company, she lives between Brazil and Europe and works on different projects: is a collaborator of the C´art Theater (Italy); danced in the production “Raizes” of Untamed Company (Belgium); and debuted in Slovenia her new production “400 Rabbits”, a partnership with the dancer Beno Novak (Slovenia). In Brazil she premiered “Devil Woman and Dr. Strangelove”, a duet with the dancer Diogo Granato.

Roman Zotov-Mikshin was born in Tula, Russia. From his 17 he is based in Prague, Czech Republic. During his studies in Duncan centre dance conservatory he was learning contemporary dance, modern techniques as Graham, Limon and Cunningham, martial arts, street dance and performed in numerous local and international dance pieces. From 2015 he mostly lives his life between rehearsal spaces and the stage. He artistically collaborated with Nadar Rosano, Maxim Didenko, Lenka Flory, Michal Záhora, Mirka Eliášova, Jana Bitterova and many other artists from the field of contemporary dance, physical and experimental theatre. Roman is a member of Spitfire Company – an artistic company that includes works of physical, visual and dance theatre. From 2018 he teaches composition, improvisation, contemporary dance and martial art in Duncan centre.

The Slovak theatre director Marika Smreková graduated from the Directing and Dramaturgy Studio at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Czech Republic. During the last five years her main interest finds expression in her artistic research on performative theatre as a chance for intercultural dialog. Se has been working on cultural traditions of the Carpathian region and contemporary performative folklore, always bringing performers and the audience collective to an interactive and immersive experience. Her wish is to fight against racism and climatic crimes through intercultural dialog and community art. Together with the important Slovak choreographer Jaro Viňarský and the students of Physical Theatre Atelier in Janáček Academy, she created the choreography L ́Amour: Experiment (2015-2018). At the moment she is curating the ninth edition of UM UM Festival and she is working on the new environmental art project called eKo(laboratorium) which brings professional artists to confrontation with local communities.