At Your Service

Marjo-Riikka Makela

Artistic Director
Acting & Audition Coach
Michael Chekhov Technique I, II, & III
Advanced Scene Study
Advanced On-Camera
Advanced Actor’s Instrument
Directors Circle
Marjo-Riikka Makela is a director, master teacher, acting coach, and a professional actress. She has specialized in a variety of different acting techniques, is a long-standing member of the Michael Chekhov Association, and has worked extensively with the M. Chekhov Technique both as an actress and director. Ms. Makela received her training at the Russian Academy of Dramatic Arts (GITIS) and holds an MFA in Acting from CSULB. She was a company member of the groundbreaking theatre group The Actors’ Gang, and has extensive stage credits from Europe. Here in USA some of Marjo-Riikka’s favorite roles include Medea in direction of David Bridel, Yelena in Uncle Vanya at the Classic Stage Company in NYC,  and her work with Sarah Kane and Andrei Malaev-Babel at the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio in Washington DC. Her directing credits include Shakespeare, Chekhov, Schiller, and devised work. Recently, Ms. Makela has taught at the Stanislavsky Institute, California State University LB, Acting Corps Studios, ActorFest, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, The Insurgo Theater Movement, The Actor’s Movement Studio (NYC), the INTAR Theater (NYC), The Actors’ Gang, University of Southern California, and CalArts MFA programs.  Marjo-Riikka does weekly private coaching for many successful TV and film actors and actresses. She has clients around the world, and she has been featured in Back Stage, the Los Angeles Times, American Theater Magazine and several major European publications.
“Being allowed to teach, learn, share, play, discover, and create each day, is a true blessing. THANK YOU all my students, clients and friends. YOU are highly appreciated!” ~ Marjo-Riikka

Elizabeth Swain

Director, Acting Coach, Shakespeare Intensive
Elizabeth’s recent directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Cal State, Long Beach, Medea for the Antaeus company and Macbeth for NY State Theatre Institute. Other credits include Pam Gems’ Camille, Stoppard’s Arcadia, The Winter’s Tale, an all-female Hamlet, and the NY premiere of Wendy Kesselman’s The Executioner’s Daughter. She also directed Hamlet and Biyi Bandele’s adaptation of Aphra Behn’s novel Oroonoko for TWAS Theatre at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Broadway acting credits include Charley’s Aunt, Crown Matrimonial and Sherlock Holmes (the RSC production). Ms. Swain has also worked Off and Off Off Broadway, in Regional Theatres across the country (NJ Shakespeare, Theatre Co. of Boston, ACT, Seattle, Olney Theatre MD, et al) and in a variety of tours. Television credits include five years on Guiding Light and stints on As the World Turns, One Life to Live and Dark Shadows. Ms. Swain has taught at NYU, Hunter, CCNY Barnard and Marymount Manhattan College, and currently at the Shakespeare Sedona Institute and the Michael Howard Studio in Manhattan.  She was a participant in the National Endowment for the Humanities 2002 summer institute, Shakespeare’s Staging: Inside and Out at the Blackfriars Theatre in Virginia and at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Ms. Swain holds a doctorate from the City University of NY.

Martin Thompson

Instructor, Essentials of Acting, On-Camera Scene Study
Martin Thompson is an award winning professional actor with extensive credits in motion pictures, television, and commercials, plus decades of work on the New York stage and in regional theatres nationwide. His daytime television work includes recurring roles on The Guiding Light, The Edge of Night, and All My Children. His motion picture credits include Spies, Mr. Destiny, and Billy Bathgate with Dustin Hoffman. He co-stars with Dean Jones and Hayley Mills in Mandie and the Secret Tunnel and in Mandie and the Cherokee Treasure. He appears opposite Kevin Costner in The New Daughter, and with Colin Firth in Horton Foote’s Main Street. He recently wrapped filming on Lake Effects with Jane Seymour, and Wanderlust with Paul Rudd, directed by David Wain for Universal Pictures.  Thompson has developed a unique and passionate style of teaching – from the actor’s point of view – which provides an extremely strong foundation and technique, while inspiring each student to creative, imaginative, and truthful performance on both the stage and screen. He is highly trained in the methods of Stanislavski, Meisner, Adler, Strasberg, and Lewis, as well as the techniques of the legendary Uta Hagen, with whom he studied at HB Studios in New York.  For nearly two decades, Thompson has offered professional acting classes, workshops, seminars, and private coaching to actors in New York and throughout the Southeast. He has also taught Master Classes in Acting at NC State University, Master Classes in Film Acting at Davidson College, and served as Artist in Residence at Chowan College. Thompson is a proud member of Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Actors Equity Association.

Avila Reese

Instructor, Actor’s Instrument
Avila Reese received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of California, Davis and her B.A. from the University of California Berkeley. She is an actress, artist, teacher and acting coach, and has worked with luminary artists such as Tony award winning theatre director Dominique Serrand in the debut performance of “Come Hell and High Water,” playing the lead role, “Woman in Tree,” and legendary performance artist and activist Guillermo Gómez-Peña, collaborating with him on numerous projects in the performance art genre.  Avila has taught introductory and advanced level acting, as well as a self-designed course in devised theater and the scripting of performance.  Passionate about creative engagement, the idea of beauty and surrender, the psycho-physical connection, and the body as instrument, Avila’s teaching combines key elements of the Chekhov and Stanislavski techniques. Her classes seek to provide a practical set of ‘tools’ for the actor to be explored, utilized and set into practice. In her classes, students acquire fundamentals to create technique, apply these fundamentals, and in doing so, empower their own artistic process and acting methodology.

Natalia Duncan

Instructor, Michael Chekhov Technique I, Career Coach & Virtual Assistant
A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, Natalia Duncan graduated from Yale University cum laude with a degree in Theater Studies before moving to Los Angeles. Her career as a performer began at a young age when she traveled extensively in the United States and abroad, dancing with a professional children’s dance company. At Yale, she was artistic director of Groove Dance and co-president of the Yale Film Society. Moreover, she is a graduate of the Michael Howard Studios Conservatory in New York.  In Los Angeles, Duncan serves as an assistant teacher in the Michael Chekhov Technique to Marjo-Riikka Makela at the Chekhov Studio International as well as developer of a course in Acting for Dancers. She also serves as an associate producer with Firefly: Theater & Films, Artistic Producer at Chekhov Studio International, and co-founder of Coyote-Nightingale Productions, a company merging film, theater and dance within narratives.  Selected stage credits include: Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Meredith in Five Women Wearing the Same Dress, and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Producing credits include: Stage Matters!? (Firefly in association with TCG), The Seagull (CSI), and DIRT (Firefly).  She is a member of SAG and The Actors’ Network and an AEA membership candidate.  www.nataliaduncan.com

Ryan Honey

Instructor, Business of Acting “Nuts and Bolts”
Ryan Honey’s first role was in the feature film Men of Honor with Robert DeNiro and Cuba Gooding Jr. A short time later, Ryan was cast as Brad Riley on General Hospital, a role that he performed for nearly a decade. Other television work quickly followed, including roles on E.R., Alias, Invasion, Cold Case, L.A.X., Star Trek: Enterprise, N.C.I.S. and others. Recent feature films credits include Saving Lincoln, Hallowed Ground, Rebound, and The Victim in which he stars. Ryan has played the hero in several national commercials including spots for Chrysler, EA Sports, Bud Light, and Proflowers.com. While establishing himself in film and television, Ryan continued to work in live theatre. He toured the Southland for several years starring in three shows for the non-profit group Enrichment Works. He has also been a member of several award-winning companies around Los Angeles including the Syzygy Theatre Group, The Gangbusters Theater, and The Open Fist Theater. He is represented by David Ankrum and Caleigh Vancata at Schiowitz, Connor, Ankrum, Wolf. Ryan’s extensive time on sets as an actor kindled a passion for producing that has proven to be very productive. His first foray into producing, the feature film Westender, was ultimately purchased and released by Warner Brothers. He has since produced numerous award winning short films starring actors Sandra Oh, Nicki Aycox, Billy Lush, and Kaitlin Olson among others. Most recently, he produced Michael Biehn’s directorial debut, The Victim, in which he also stars. Ryan graduated valedictorian from the University of Oregon Theatre Department with a degree in Theatre Arts. While there, he was recruited to take part in the pedagogy program that allowed him to teach underclassmen while finishing school. Along with teaching acting fundamentals, voice, and script analysis, Ryan founded Absolute Improv and taught improv workshops to students and corporate clients. After moving to Los Angeles, Ryan was hired to conduct after school performance workshops for students in the LA Unified School District. Recently, Ryan has been teaching blind and visually impaired students the basics of film making in workshops around the country to promote the Cinema Without Sight film festival. Throughout his years of teaching, Ryan has become aware of the fact that most of the aspiring actors he encountered didn’t know how to turn their talent into acting work and, ultimately, a career. To fill this gap, Ryan now offers Hollywood Nuts and Bolts.

Kim Lane

Technique I, Scene Study
Actress and Director, graduated from The Ohio State University.  She has appeared in Independent films OUTTASYNC, In Dreams (2007), and Night of a Thousand Faces (2007). Stage Appearances include Fiddler on the Roof, Taming of the Shrew, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and the premiere of Keeping Clean Amind the Messy, as well as the world premiere of Aeschylus Unbound, in Pasadena, which she also directed.  Kim’s most recent project has been her 5 month old son, Donald. Kim studied the Michael Chekhov Technique extensively with Mala Powers as well as other 1st generation teachers, and currently teaches ongoing classes on the Technique in Los Angeles as well as guest artist at various universities around the U.S.  She is grateful to the Chekhov Studio International and Marjo-Riikka Makela for the opportunity to share her love of theater and Michael Chekhov with such talented actors.

Lisa Pelikan

Instructor, Fitzmaurice Vocal Technique
Lisa Pelikan trained at The Juilliard School of Drama and has worked professionally in theater, film and television. Lisa teaches weekly Fitzmaurice Voice Labs in Los Angeles, and works with private clients in the performing arts and other professions interested in her synthesis of work as a voice coach in NY and LA.

Michael Barrett

Acting/Administrative/Marketing Intern, International Student Advisor
Michael is thrilled to have the opportunity to be part of the Chekhov Studio Team and to grow as an artist in this inspiring environment.

 ACTORS: 

Doug Agnew

SAG, AEA
Doug’s Los Angeles theater credits include: Sex is Good For You, The Beard of Avon, Othello, Eavesdropper, The Wind-Up Puppet Show, and Dirty Suitcase.  Doug has performed stand-up comedy in Los Angeles and New York at The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, Broadway Comedy Club, The New York Improv, New York Comedy Club, and Stand-Up NY.  He has studied acting at Chekhov Studio International, Playhouse West, and Margie Haber Studio.  His improv comedy training is from iO West and UCB.

Rena Andrews

AFTRA, SAG
After graduating from Brown University, Rena deferred Med School to follow her passion for acting and to study with Richard Pinter through the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. As fate had it, her neighbor was Joanna Merlin, a first generation student of Michael Chekhov, as well as a teacher. Joanna invited her to a Michael Chekhov Association’s NYU Intensive featuring herself and other well-known Chekhov instructors such as Mala Powers and Jack Colvin. It was her first introduction to Chekhov and she finished the intensive longing to do more. Rena soon moved to Los Angeles where she booked several commercials, print, dance, voice-over and acting work in addition to producing a documentary. After recently rediscovering Chekhov through his 5-hour master class CD, Rena stumbled upon the Chekhov Studio International. Chekhov’s words had instantly inspired her again. She found his exercises and technique to fuse so many integral parts of her life from acting to dance, movement, yoga, and meditation which all have the same goals of invoking presence and an open heart. Rena looks forward to integrating more and more of herself and the technique into her work and her life as an inspired actor.

Jody Barton

AFTRA
In October 2009, Jody left his life as a Civil Rights Attorney in Austin Texas to pursue the craft of acting.  In his brief time as an actor he has starred in 19 student/independent short films.  Many of his films have been featured in short film festivals throughout the country. Under the guidance of Marjo-Riikka Makela and the instructors at Chekhov Studios International, he continues to expand his knowledge and range, and strives for truth in his characters.  Jody will be starring in his first feature in February. Click Here for Jody’s Website

Ben Bela Boehm

SAG, BFFS
Ben has always been interested in Michael Chekov and is so happy to finally learn more about that technique. With a B.A. from the acting conservatory in Berne, Switzerland, he was a series regular on three German TV shows for a few years. Theatre credits include: Mozart in AMADEUS, John in BASH, the prince in EMILIA GALOTTI etc. Commercials currently airing are a tonic water one in which he plays a shy reporter interviewing Uma Thurman and a Carl’s Jr ad. He loves voiceover work, his reps Fran Blain, BBR, Affinity, Vox, and FFM, the Chekov Studio International, and his girlfriend and family.Click Here for Ben’s Website

Franz Klainsek

SAG
Coming Soon!

Wes McGee

AFTRA, SAG
Wes is filled excitement to be working with Chekhov Studio International! He has appeared on stage with CSI as Konstantin Gavrilovich Treplyov in Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” and his most recent appearance on stage was with the The Loft Ensembles production of “What Happened in Mayville?” as Deputy Mitchell that closed in October. His TV credits include TNT’s “Southland”, Nick’s “iCarly”, and just wrapped filming the upcoming USA show “Common Law” as FBI Agent Vincent Conrad. He is also currently involved in producing the short film “Calling for Liberty” and the police drama pilot “The Blue Line”. You also catch him on the current Nationally running commercials for Coor’s Light and Fisher Investments. Love and Light to you all!

“Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.”
Tennessee Williams

Olga O’Farrell

Olga O’Farrell is once again awakening her senses to the challenges of Michael Chekhov. She is grateful to the Chekhov Studio International for giving her a platform to learn, grow and perform. Oh yeah, and to play and have fun! Olga will be producing and starring in her play, Pedestrian in Hollywood next spring

Avila Reese

Avila Reese received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of California, Davis and her B.A. from the University of California Berkeley. She has worked with Tony award winning theatre director Dominique Serrand in his debut of “Come Hell and High Water” playing the lead role, Woman in Tree, and with legendary performance artist and activist Guillermo Gómez-Peña on numerous projects including his notorious “Corpo Ilicito.” A northern California native, Avila’s past theatre credits include; Elly Dunn in Heartbreak House, Viola in Twelfth Night, Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Ernest, Rosie Pye in Humble Boy, and Titania in A Mid Summer’s Night’s Dream.

Ciara Robinson

SAGe
Coming Soon!

Leah Yananton

SAG
Leah Yananton is very humbled at the opportunity to get to know closely the firm love of Maggie the Cat and smooth Southern honey of Tennessee Williams. Leah is grateful to work with Marjo-Riikka Makela, Kim Lane, and Chekhov Studio who bring to life the playful poetic technique of Michael Chekhov. Background: After earning a B.F.A. from Columbia University in Literature & Creative Writing, Yananton pursued acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse with historic Meisner mentee James Brill. She performed in numerous off-off Broadway plays while living in New York City. Now in love with Los Angeles, she is finishing her first feature film as writer-director and actor in SURVIVING ME, also in which Marjo-Riikka Makela appears as a deeply sympathetic and loving mother. Applause to my scene partner Jody Barton who jumped on board to learn the “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” scene 2 days ago.

Permalink | Comments (0) | April 4, 2009