Our Story

Our Mission

MICHA aims to be the heart of the international Chekhov community — connecting, supporting, and championing the flow of ideas and training around the world.

Dedicated to upholding the legacy and technique of Michael Chekhov, MICHA trains performers, directors, teachers, scholars, and artists; fosters cross-community collaboration and creative spaces; and produces publications, programming, and processes, all in support of artistic exploration and the cultivation of a performance-based practice with future generations.

Our Values

Psychophysical Approach: The Michael Chekhov technique seeks a connection between the inner response evoked by a physical action and its outer expression. We believe in taking the time necessary to enable integration and embodiment. We support this through active participation in classes and events as well as in intentional retreats.

Teacher Training: We embrace a diversity of pedagogies and seek to respect and empower creative individuality. Whether you are experienced or just beginning to lead others, MICHA will help guide you toward a teaching practice based in practical exploration, and a feeling of the whole, fueled by questions that will inspire your development in the classroom and rehearsal room.

Transformation: Michael Chekhov’s technique is an imaginative approach to transcending limiting personal perspectives, and experiencing the truth of the character. We seek the truth both in performance and in our daily lives. We believe in the power of the imagination to inspire, enliven, and transform the artist as an individual, and the potential of the work to lead to socio-cultural change on a collective level.

Accessibility: Our workshops, publications, translations, digital archive, community-based projects and scholarships are accessed by artists the world over and are a testament to our global footprint. We seek to maintain and expand our ability to reach and support anyone who wishes to engage Chekhov’s technique and to ensure that finances are not a barrier to participation.

Inclusion: MICHA recognizes that it was a predominantly white group when founded. Ever evolving, we are actively working to foster a care-driven, anti-racist artist community. We prioritize and value equity and inclusiveness in our pedagogical approaches and in the makeup of our faculty, staff, membership and workshop participants.

Our Board

Board President
Meryl Weinsaft Cooper

Vice President
Jessica Cerullo

Secretary
Kristi Dana

Treasurer
Liz Stanton

Directors
Marjolein Baars, Margaret Kemp, Michael Mayer, Jessica Maynard, Phelim McDermott, Thomas Morrissey, Pratik Motwani, Suzana Nikolić, Rena Polley, Mary Jo Romeo and Pamela Weinsaft

Founder and President Emeritus (1999-2023)
Joanna Merlin

Committees and Councils

Advisory Board
Anne Bogart, Martha Clarke, Pierre du Prey, Ted Pugh, Floyd Rumohr, Tom Schumacher, Fern Sloan, Jimmy Smits, Julie Taymor

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Council
Youness Bouzinab, Ludmila Brito, Jessica Cerullo, Tia James, Julian Stetkevych

Faculty Council
Margaret Kemp, Phelim McDermott, Sineád Rushe, Connie Rotunda

Our Staff

Artistic Director
Jessica Cerullo

Executive Director
Thomas Morrissey

Staff Associate
Colleen Harris

Our History

Incorporated in 1999 as a not-for-profit, MICHA brought together a faculty that included individuals taught at the Michael Chekhov Studio in New York by teachers certified by Michael Chekhov himself – Beatrice Straight, Deirdre Hurst du Prey and Blair Cutting. One of MICHA’s founders, Joanna Merlin, was a member of Michael Chekhov’s Drama Society in California where she studied with him for five years. MICHA’s associations and roots date back to the beginnings of Chekhov’s work in America and to Dartington Hall in England. Since its founding, MICHA has been committed to training a new generation of performers and teachers to share this remarkable work as it has been passed down from Michael Chekhov himself.