{"id":22,"date":"2015-01-10T23:09:18","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T23:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/?page_id=22"},"modified":"2024-08-19T10:55:51","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T09:55:51","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/?page_id=22","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image: Ken Plas<\/p><\/div>\n

Roanna Mitchell<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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Born and raised in Germany, I moved to the UK in 2005 to study Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths. I continued on to an MA in Movement Studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and a PhD and PGCHE at the University of Kent. I am also certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov technique through the Michael Chekhov International Academy in Berlin.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
My work is driven by a love of movement and curiosity about the embodied human experience as both individual and relational, and by what I feel is my responsibility as an artist: to create spaces for people to be, relate, and communicate.<\/h6>\n
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You will usually find me busy in one of the following areas (and often in the overlaps between them):<\/h6>\n

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Teaching and training<\/b><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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I\u2019m passionate about teaching and training performers, and artists more broadly, and have been doing so since 2010, with a specialism in Michael Chekhov technique; psychophysical training for performance and performance-making; ensemble practice and the dance-theatre crossover; and actor-wellbeing.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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Higher Education: <\/b>I am Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent (Head of Drama 2022-2025), where I have been Course Lead for the MA Physical Acting (2015-2024) and MA Theatre Making (2017-2019) and Head of the BA Drama, Theatre and Performing Arts.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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I have also taught at: Goldsmiths (Lecturer); Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Associate Lecturer); Rose Bruford (Assistant Lecturer) and the BRIT School (Visiting Professional), and delivered masterclasses and guest sessions at a range of Universities across the UK.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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Professional Artist Development: <\/b>As co-founder and co-director of The Chekhov Collective UK<\/a> \u00a0I have delivered professional development training, mentoring and networking events<\/a> for a wide range of artists and non-arts professionals nationally and internationally. I am also teaching faculty for MICHA (the American Michael Chekhov Association).<\/h6>\n

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Research<\/b><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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My research focuses on theatre\/therapy crossovers and their potential benefit in arts and to society more broadly; arts-for-health; and actor-wellbeing. \u00a0I also explore interdisciplinary rehearsal- and training vocabularies in the intersection between theatre and dance, and body politics in the context of performer training.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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The Chekhov Collective UK: <\/b>I am Co-Founder of The Chekhov Collective UK, the leading practice research centre exploring applications of Michael Chekhov\u2019s technique in theatre and beyond. With TCCUK I have organised over 90 events that include practice research, professional development, network-building and mentoring and more. The full portfolio of TCCUK\u2019s work is captured on our website here<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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Theatre\/therapy crossovers, Arts for Health, and Community\/Relational Arts: <\/b>I am founder and lead facilitator of the \u2018Inappropriate\u2019 Anger project, a long-term creative arts- and discussion space for survivors of Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis. I have published a chapter on this work in the book Trauma and Embodied Healing in Dramatherapy, Theatre and <\/i>Performance<\/em><\/a> (ed J.F. Jacques, 2024)<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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I have received AHRC Impact Accelerator funding to run Relational Arts Workshops with trainee psychiatrists in the local NHS trust.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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As part of the AHRC-funded project Playing A\/Part I have led on the development of a movement-based smartscript to inspire creative movement explorations for autistic homeschoolers.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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I have published on\u00a0the (student) actor\u2019s aesthetic labour<\/a>, the cost of typecasting<\/a>, and the third space between training and therapy<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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Training for physical theatre and the dance-theatre crossover: <\/b>A summary of my research investigating training for the dance-theatre crossover can be found here<\/a>, including further resources such as interviews and links to related publications.<\/h6>\n

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Community and Relational Arts<\/b><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Research and creative work for me only begin to make real sense and come to life when activated and finding a use in communities and social contexts.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
I run Relational Arts Workshops (RAW) for medical professionals and in community mental health contexts, including RAW training for trainee doctors; and the \u2018Inappropriate\u2019 Anger<\/i> project for survivors of BPD diagnosis. I have also run performance and poetry workshops for Kent and Medway Recovery and Wellbeing College<\/a> .<\/h6>\n
For eight years I worked as Artistic Director for the body activist organization AnyBody UK, convened by Dr Susie Orbach. AnyBody UK are co-founders of the local-global initiative\u00a0Endangered Bodies<\/a>, and received substantial funding from ROSA UK to run a series of schools projects including presenting in the Houses of Parliament. See my 2014 TEDx talk on the struggle with body hatred and why magic wands don\u2019t work\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/h6>\n
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My chapter exploring the links between body activism and performance in a Festschrift celebrating Susie Orbach\u2019s work will be published in 2024.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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Performance<\/b><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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I work as a performance-maker and movement director nationally and internationally, and a selection of past works can be found here<\/a>, including Imagining O <\/i>(dir. Richard Schechner) in Kent, India<\/a> and the US (5 Stars New York Times)<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
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Publications about my performance work include the article Imagining O encountering India: Recounting an Embodied Experience<\/i><\/a>, and the book chapter \u2018The Dramaturgy of Wine, the Terroir of Performance: Multi-Sensory Performance-Making in Through the Grapevine<\/i>\u2019<\/a>.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n
In 2024 I am focusing my performance work on a collaboration with classical guitarist and composer Laura Snowden for her upcoming album This Changing Sky.<\/h6>\n
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Roanna Mitchell Born and raised in Germany, I moved to the UK in 2005 to study Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths. I continued on to an MA in Movement Studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and a PhD and PGCHE at the University of Kent. I am also certified teacher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5oOkq-m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1087,"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22\/revisions\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roannamitchell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}