Chekhov Technique 3-Day Intensive
With Gretchen Egolf, Cass Fleming, Roanna Mitchell & You-Ri Yamanaka
Immerse yourself in Chekhov’s techniques in this three-day intensive workshop led by four expert practitioners from the Chekhov Collective. Over three full days, participants will explore a selection of Chekhov’s core tools and approaches, gaining practical experience and insights from facilitators with complementary styles.
The course is open to complete beginners and experienced performers alike, and includes a follow-up online reflective session designed for performing arts teachers, facilitators, directors, and choreographers.
Course Information
Dates
Friday 12, Saturday 13, Sunday 14 June 2026
Time
9.30am – 7.30pm
Reflective Online Session
Monday 15 June 2026, 7.00–8.30pm
Access
This studio is accessible. Please let us know in advance if you have access requirements.
Ticket Prices
Full price £135 / Concession £90
(All events are for participants over the age of 18)
Pay It Forward & Supported Places
If you’re able, you can choose our Pay It Forward option and purchase a place for someone who may not otherwise be able to attend. Your contribution helps us open these workshops to a wider community of artists and creatives.
We also offer two full scholarship places. If cost is a barrier to participation, please email The Chekhov Collective Team to enquire.
About the Workshops
This three-day intensive workshop is led by a team of the Chekhov Collective’s core members and will introduce participants to a selection of Chekhov’s techniques. The teaching team includes Gretchen Egolf, Cass Fleming, Roanna Mitchell and You-Ri Yamanaka. All the facilitators are highly experienced Chekhov practitioners and will bring complementary, but different, approaches to the technique in line with their individual creativity. Following the three-day workshop there will be an online reflective session. This online session will focus on the use of the technique for performing arts teachers, facilitators, directors and choreographers.
This workshop is open to complete beginners and those with experience of Chekhov Technique. Please wear comfortable clothing.
About the Facilitators
Cass Fleming is a theatre practitioner, teacher and researcher. She trained at WAC Arts, Goldsmiths and Central School of Speech and Drama, and holds a PhD on the use of the techniques developed by Michael Chekhov and Suzanne Bing in actor training and theatre making. Cass has over 25 years of experience working in theatre, physical theatre, dance-theatre, music theatre, opera, film and television. She is the Founder and Co-Director of The Chekhov Collective and has used Chekhov Technique in her own directorial work, and her training of performing arts practitioners, since 1998. During this time, she has trained stage and screen actors, directors, choreographers, dancers, devised theatre makers, scenographers and community theatre practitioners in the use of Chekhov Technique at Arts Ed, Central School of Speech and Drama, E15, Rose Bruford College, and at Goldsmiths, Brunel and Kent Universities. Cass has also trained directors in the use of Chekhov Technique in professional contexts such as the Royal National Theatre Studio and the Young Vic Theatre Directors’ Programme. She was a Board Director for MICHA in the USA and contributes to their international teacher training programme. As a researcher, Cass has written articles/chapters, and delivered papers, on many aspects of Chekhov’s practice and was co-lead researcher on the long-term and cross-institutional practice research project that led to the publication of Michael Chekhov in the Twenty FirstCentury: New Pathways, which she co-edited with Tom Cornford (2020). In addition to her work with Chekhov Technique, Cass is a specialist in the use of play in actor training, directing and making theatre, and has been practically exploring and researching the work of the seminal French actor, director and actor-trainer Suzanne Bing since 1998, sharing her research widely as practice, pedagogy, practice-research, articles, papers and book sections. She is a highly experienced creative and pedagogic leader in actor and director training, and currently works as a consultant at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Gretchen Egolf is an actor, teacher, and director. She has taught and directed regularly at LAMDA, Central School of Speech and Drama, Rose Bruford, RADA, and Goldsmiths, as well as Brunel, Arts Ed, East 15, ALRA, and in independent practice, as well as with The Chekhov Collective UK. In her teaching, Gretchen’s foundation is in the Michael Chekhov approach, having studied with Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA), and Michael Chekhov NYC, UK, and Europe. As an actor, Gretchen trained at Juilliard and has performed for over 30 years in theatre, film, and television, in America and the UK. She has appeared on and off Broadway, in and off West End, and in many regional theatres across the US. Her screen work is extensive, mostly in American television. www.gretchenegolf.com
Roanna Mitchell is a performance-maker, facilitator and movement artist, creating work internationally including movement direction, audio work and choreography for theatre, dance, music videos and site-specific events. Roanna is also Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent where she specialises in psychophysical performance practice, and is Course Director for the MA Performance and Theatre Making. Roanna was co-founder and co-director of The Chekhov Collective UK for its first decade. She has studied with the Michael Chekhov International Academy in Berlin and contributed as faculty for MICHA in the US. She has published on actor-wellbeing, body activism, Chekhov technique in actor-movement and dance, and dialogues between theatre training, therapy and creative facilitation. Since 2020 she facilitates long-term community creative arts spaces for making/discussion/discovery, and is the creator of RAW, a programme of Relational Arts Workshops designed for medical professionals and community mental health contexts.
You-Ri Yamanaka is an actor, movement director, intimacy coordinator, voiceover and acting coach. She was born in Japan and has lived in the UK for a long time. She trained at LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) and Lecoq (Phillipe Gaulier) in the UK after completed an MA in directing at the Drama department at Royal Holloway, University of London, also in Kabuki dance (traditional Japanese dance) and Butoh (avant-garde Japanese dance) in Japan for over 25 years. She first encountered Michael Chekhov’s work in 2002 and has been integrating these practices into her creative work ever since. You-Ri has also been exploring the meeting points between the East and the West to find the universal aspect in acting. She has taught at LAMDA, BADA, East 15, ALRA, ArtsEd, Rose Buford, Fourth Monkey, the London Dramatic Academy in the UK, New National Theatre Drama School Tokyo Japan, Theater Fuusikaden, Gorch Brothers, Wantabe Music School, Sophia University and Tokyo University. She has worked in theatre, film and TV as an actress in the U.K and her unique style deeply connected with the body has been much appreciated by many theatre companies such as: Royal Shakespeare Company, Watermill Theatre Newbury, dreamthinkspeak, Volcano Theatre, Theatre 503, Southwark Playhouse, New Earth Theatre, StoneCrabsTheatre, Dash Arts, amongst others and beyond the border of culture. Movement Director/Coach/Choreographer and Director work includes: My Neighbour Totoro (Royal Shakespeare Company), Dido and Aeneas, Temple Middle Hall (Temple Festival), Magic Flute (New National Theatre Tokyo), Madam Butterfly (ENO) and Illyria (Theatre Royal Bath), Richard III / A Midsummer Night’s Dream (East 15), Crucible / Our Country’s Good (New National Theatre Tokyo, Drama Studio), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (NAHDA, Cairo, Egypt). Also, her tailor-made workshop “Freeing the Inner Voice – Body and Expression” has been in consistent demand worldwide for many years. www.you-ri.com