2021 Summer Intensives

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.

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

Chiara D’Anna is an Italian actor, director, lecturer and Commedia dell’Arte specialist. She teaches Movement on the MA Theatre Lab at RADA and works as Associate Lecturer at E15 Acting School, Goldsmiths University and Rose Bruford College in London. Chiara holds a BSc and MSc in Geology from the University of Turin, an MA in Physical Theatre from Royal Holloway University and a PhD in Performing Arts from London Metropolitan University. Her practice-led research on the legacy of Commedia dell’Arte in Post-Dramatic Theatre focusses on the centrality of the actor in devised performance. Chiara is co-founder of Natural You Dance, a movement meditation practice that draws on Yoga, dance, physical theatre and meditation. As Associate Artist of Alison Hodge’s 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 documented by Peter Hulton for the Exeter Arts Archives and published by Routledge in the DVD-pamphlet: ‘Core Training For the Relational Actor’ (2013). As founding member and artistic director of the award-winning physical theatre company Panta Rei Theatre, Chiara’s mission is to inspire, challenge and entertain audiences with humour, irony and powerful imagery. Her productions integrate physical theatre, dark surreal comedy, storytelling and political satire. As a screen actress she is best known for her collaboration with writer and director Peter Strickland in Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke of Burgundy.

Alessandra Faienza is a professional italian mask maker.

She studied at the Art School and then she got a degree in Archeology in Padua, Italy.

Since she was a child she has been loving theater and dance, that she practiced for fifteen years.

Through her first dance teacher she met the mask maker Donato Sartori, who suddenly became her master. After the Academic Studies she attended Sartori’s leather mask construction school and embarked on an apprenticeship at a mask lab in Milan. After two years, she was ready to start her professional activity as a mask maker. She is in constant search for shapes, materials and colors, working with the classic leather, the crazy latex, the fabric -with which she makes masks and wigs- and her beloved Worbla, a thermoplastic material on which she is experimenting new shapes and crafts. Sometimes she likes to explore the construction of simple mechanical puppets and wigs.

Jon Kellam is a theatre director, teaching artist, and performer and has worked throughout the US and Europe. Jon developed Superdrama, a method of performance, training, and devising, and has been applying, and teaching the system to professional actors and students of theatre for over 25 years. He co-founded Zoo District (Los Angeles), and was the resident director at The Actors’ Gang (Los Angeles) from 2002 to 2012. Jon is the artistic director and co-founder of Bämsemble Co. based in Italy, and artistic director, of theatre for Blue Box Earth, an emerging arts and science project and innovative venue based in Germany.

Theater companies he has collaborated with or worked for in the EU and the US, include; Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan, Cavallerizza Reale in Torino, REDCAT in Los Angeles, The Powerhouse Theatre in Brisbane, Australia, Los Angeles Theatre Center, The Actors’ Gang, and Zoo District (artistic director 2010-2012). He is a frequent guest master teacher at (Philip Radice’s) Atelier Teatro Fisico in Torino. His teaching credits include teaching for; Accademia Verticale, Padua; Accademia dell’Arte, Arezzo; Commedia dell’ Arte, at Playwrights’ Horizons in New York City; and California State University; Los Angeles/Monterey Bay/Channel Islands and for various other universities and theatre training programs independently and on behalf of The Actors’ Gang.

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.

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.

Ginevra Scaglia was trained at the Ecole Internationale de Théatre Jacques Lecoq graduating in 1996. Subsequently she specialized in Movement Studies at LEM, Ecole Jacques Lecoq and followed a series of workshops with notable practitioners including Pierre Byland and Phillippe Gaulier (clown), Théatre de Complicité and Théatre du Soleil.

She is a co-founder of Ishka Theatre Company in Dublin and PlayEnglish Theatre Company in Torino. She has performed in Physical Theatre performances on tour in Ireland, the UK, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Belgium and China: “Red Day” with Ishka Theatre company was presented at the Dublin Fringe Festival, The London Mime Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. In collaboration with Paola Valla she directed “Romeo and Giulietta” for Sinequanon Company, which toured extensively in Italy (Sardinia, Piedmonte and Aosta).

As a teacher she has led workshops and long term training modules in Torino (Atelier Teatro Fisico Philip Radice, Quinta Tinta Impro School, Columbus Cionema Acting School) as well as in Dublin (Down to Earth Theatre Company). In 2013 she was appointed as Pedagogical Assistant at the Ecole de Theatre Jacques Lecoq.

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.

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.

Sašo Vollmaier is a pianist, composer, performer and teacher. He graduated from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in 2008 – professor of piano. In 2005 he met PanTheatre (France). He joined the Slovenian avant-garde music group Laibach in 2007 – 2013 as a keyboard player. In 2013 he moved to France where he meets Viviane Gay, an actress with whom he started developing his presence on the stage as a performer trough his voice, movement and music. The voice work brought him to Malérargues (France) again where he started to give classes, collaborating with other voice teachers and giving the concerts and performances. In the same year he begins to direct the performance called “Generation”. This project allows him to meet the Roy Hart Theatre in terms of the power of the presence, fragility, expression, authenticity, curiosity…

Vollmaier teaches musical aspects, encourages the students to invent their own language, working on presence, voice and movement. In 2014 he started to collaborate with Susanne Weins – performance artist, giving the voice/movement workshops in Düsseldorf and creating their own theatre productions (Bewegte Oktaven, Fragile Breath, Melancholia,…) most of them directed by Sabine Seume. He works as a voice teacher mainly in France, Germany, Italy and Brazil.

“Electric Unicorn” is the name of electro-acoustic project created by three completely different personalities (I. Leitinger, L. Jamnik, S. Vollmaier) in 2013 with different musical backgrounds.

Vollmaier’s accomplishments include theatre and cartoon scores, choral arrangements, marching orchestras, big bands, playing as a studio musician (Laibach, Bratko Bibič, Silence, Funtango, radio/TV broadcastings,…)