Mike trained in London as an actor, at Mountview Theatre School, and subsequently studied physical theatre with Desmond Jones and the Meisner Technique from 1989. As an actor his experience includes West End productions of Blood Brothers, The Patsy Cline Story and The Beautiful Game.  Also, The Duchess of Malfi directed by Phyllida Lloyd, and Edward Bond’s Lear directed by Tim Stark both for the Royal National Theatre. 

Elsewhere, The Merchant of Venice, Of Mice and Men, Justin Butcher’s buffo-inspired Passion (all national tours), Romeo and Juliet (Bracknell), Dial M for Murder (London), The Trojan Women (Cheltenham). For the Original Shakespeare Company: Angelo in Measure for Measure (Cambridge) and Bertram in All’s Well that Ends Well (London). Most recently for screen in the lead role in “Krakatoa” for Channel 4 and HBO.

As a director, until leaving London, Mike was the Artistic Director of Fervent Theatre Company, where he directed and produced over thirty productions in six years. Most recently these included, Patrick Marber’s “Closer”, John Steinbeck‘s “Of Mice and Men”, William Shakespeare‘s “Twelfth Night”, Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”, Tom Kempinski’s “Duet for One”, David Mamet‘s “Oleanna” and “Speed the Plow” and Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story”. He also regularly directed student productions and casting showcases throughout London, including Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot”, William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and several dance-theatre pieces for Springs Dance Company.

Mike now lives in Berlin with Dominique and their four children, Charlie, Toby, Jack and Madeleine.


ANDRE BOLOURI
Year-Long Course Tutor, Company Director

André Bolouri moved to New York from California in 2008 to study the Meisner Technique with William Esper at his studio. William Esper is considered the leading teacher of the Meisner technique in the US. He not only studied with Sanford Meisner but was also appointed by him to teach at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Andre Bolouri translated W. Esper´s book “The Actor´s Art and Craft” into German which should be published in 2010.

Since 2000 Andre has worked regularly with an international theatre ensemble – the ´Grace and Glory Ensemble´ including actors from the National Theatre London, Russia, Israel, Italy, France and the U.S. They focused on classical theatre, and he directed the company at its base in California for three years.

His work there as an actor included Romeo, Hamlet, Gilgamesh, Pinocchio, and he directed The Tempest, Gilgamesh, Quetzalcoatl and Twelfth Night, among others. He also trained the company as well as young aspiring actors in the Chekhov technique, improvisation, rhetoric, voice and speech and movement.

Between 1998 and 2005 Andre worked and studied with Yoshi Oida as assistant director in Hamburg at the Thalia Theater, as well as in Paris.

He trained with Frieder Kranz for three years in the Chekhov technique and performed with his Berlin Ensemble ´the studio´ – based on this technique, in ´Rashomon´. For two years he experienced the advantages and disadvantages of being employed by a Stadttheater, in this case Bremerhaven, where he took the opportunity to start teaching and co-founded the ´Theater Jugendclub´, training and directing it for two years. He performed a solo of “Der Ansager einer Stripteasenummer gibt nicht auf”, touring Germany. He played Paul in ´Fireface´at the former Kleist-Theater Frankfurt that got invited to Theater festivals in Germany and Europe. In 2004 he worked as assistant director to Ismael Ivo at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

Other Workshop experiences include Keith Johnstone (Improvisation, Berlin), Kristian Lupa (Stanislawski, Krakow), Zygmond Molik (Grotowski, Berlin), Per Brahe (Masks, New York).

Andre's original training was between 1995 and 1998 when studied at the Fritz Kirschhoff School of Acting.

He continues to work for TV, commercials, movies and theatres as an actor.

Annette Goeres is a teacher for voice, speech and presentation at the Universität der Künste Berlin at the College of Arts and Music, the College of Music "Hans Eisler" as well as the Folkwang Hochschule Essen. For more than 20 years she has worked as a speech therapist and educator for professional moderators, actors and singers both individually and in groups. Some projects she has worked on are: Im Winter ein Jahr, Coaching mit Karoline Herfurth,
Krabat, Sommer 04, Der rote Kakadu, and Napola to name a few.

 

KAREN CIFARELLI
Karen Cifarelli trained with renouned American acting coach Eric Morris at the New American Theater in Los Angeles. She has worked for Walt Disney Co., the Jacobson Company and American Zoetrope as casting consultant and in development. Besides giving acting and American accent coaching in Germany, she works as casting consultant, producer and actress. Karen is the owner of Cifarelli Talent Consulting in Berlin. Projects she has worked on include: Underdogs, SOKO Leipzig, Running Scared, Tamanama, Must Love Death and the award winning Köy.