2022 Summer Intensives

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

Actor, director, scholar, and theatre educator, Giangiacomo Colli received his formal acting and directing training with two of the major figures of post-World War II Italian theatre, Vittorio Gassman and Orazio Costa. An accomplished practitioner of Commedia dell’Arte, he was introduced to this popular form of theatre by his father, a renowned theatre and television director, and then perfected his skills under Carlo Boso. His theatre formation also includes workshops with Joseph Chaikin, Shiro Nomura, Jerzy Grotowski, and Chuck Mike, among others.

Alongside his professional career, Giangiacomo graduated from the University of Rome in theatre history, received an M.F.A. in directing from the University of Hawaii, and a Ph.D. in drama from the University of Toronto. He has taught in Canada at the University of Toronto, Sheridan College, and Brock University, and in the US, at Franklin & Marshall College, Texas State University-San Marcos, Middlebury College, and Coastal Carolina University. Since 2014, in Italy, he has taught history of directing at the University of Bologna, and has collaborated with the Master of Social Theatre at the University of Rome, the Training Course for Actors “Orazio Costa” at the Pergola Theatre, in Florence, and the Rome–based association Teatroavista. Giangiacomo has developed his own devising technique, Il F-Attore Umano, based on collaborative dramaturgy, and is also the author of a volume on Orazio Costa’s holistic acting training, a few articles, and an educational play on Commedia dell’Arte.

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.

Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Scott McGehee moved to Italy as a Fulbright Fellow in 1995 and has lived in Italy since. He received his Doctorate in European Intellectual History from Boston College in 1996 and is the President and Founding Director of the Accademia dell’Arte.

Scott’s research interest centers on the convergence of radical social thought with the organization of aesthetics perception and artistic expression. He has been active in the formation of the CrisisArt Festival and contemporary social movements including Occupy Wall Street. He continues to work on projects that explore the potential for collective and collaborative creation and has written on the subversive character of the Commedia dell’Arte. (Link Essay: the-pre-eminence-of-the-actor-in-renaissance-context-2.)

Scott gives lectures and seminars throughout the year at the Accademia on various topics including the history of cabaret, understanding Commedia politically, the commodification of artistic experience and related topics.

Hobbies are many, none of which are well developed, but he does have a knack for writing bad pop-songs.

Elia Moretti develops a research on the performativity of sound in music and performing arts, with a specific focus on the relationship between movement and sound.
He regularly plays in national and international festivals as percussion player or composer. Among others he has composed for or performed with the theatre companies Divadlo Continuo (CZ), Phoebe Zeitgeist (IT), ALDES (IT), Chemicke Divadlo (CZ), Bábkove divadlo na rázcesti (SK).

He directed projects of ethnomusicological research on the concept of imaginary folklore in Moravia (CZ), Maramures (RO), South Bohemia (CZ) and Spiš (SK) with an ecological approach to the perception of sound.
He plays drums and vibraphone in different ensemble units, from solo to orchestra, nevertheless he privileges radical and experimental chamber music. He cooperates with the ensemble of contemporary music New Made Ensemble (Milano, IT) and he’s member of the Prazský Improvizačni Orchestr (Praha, CZ). Sometimes he writes on the magazines Musica Jazz, Cultweek and Quaderni D’Altri Tempi.

He published some of his works on the labels A Simple Lunch, Floating Forest, Kohlhaas, Setola di maiale, Many Feet Under, Poli5 and Dinzu Artefacts.

Dory Rebekah Sibley is the Undergraduate Programs Associate and the professor of Voice and Ensemble Performance at the Accademia dell’Arte. She is the Co-Founder of the NYC based physical theatre company Tut’Zanni Theatre Company. Already in their sixth year, Tut’Zanni has performed and taught all over the world. She is also a founding member of the all-woman clown troupe Women From Mars and recently toured their ‘clown-noir’ cabaret SILENT REFLECTIONS through Italy and parts of the USA. Dory is one of the pioneer teachers of Voice in the Mask work and currently teaches and develops new projects in collaboration with colleague Torbjörn Alström, Head of Puppetry, Masks and Animation at the Frölunda Kulturhus in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dory is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and has over ten years of experience in various voice and bodywork fields including Roy Hart Experimental Voice, classical voice and opera theatre, Alexander and Feldenkrais techniques. She completed her teaching certification in the Elemental Body Alignment System (EBAS) in 2013. She was an ArezzoFestival organizer for over 4 years, was the CrisisART Festival Collective Facilitator from 2012 – 2014 and serves as President of the ADA Alumni Association. As a freelance artist, she continues to perform her original devised work in the USA and Europe. Learn more about Dory’s ongoing projects and pedagogy on her website: www.doryrebekah.com

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.

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,…)

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.