香蜜影视

Doreen Bechtol

Associate Professor and Co-Director, Shakespeare and Performance; Manger, MFA Company 540-887-7261

Doreen Bechtol is the Master of Fine Arts Company Manager and Director of Training for the Shakespeare and Performance program at 香蜜影视. As a physical trainer, her approach blends several modes of training, such as: Suzuki and Viewpoints, acrobatics, dance, yoga, and basic calisthenics. As the director of the MFA Company鈥檚 devised show, she developed her brand of ensemble-based work for creating collaborative performance through years of training with the SITI Company and with Joseph Chaikin, the founder of the Open Theater. She has directed and performed in over fifteen original devised performances, and she also wrote, directed, and edited a silent film based on The Winter鈥檚 Tale called For This Time We Pardon. She is a co-founding member of the Performers Exchange Project, a company dedicated to the creation of new and original work. She worked at the American Shakespeare Center (ASC) for over ten years both as a performer and choreographer in the Resident Troupe at the Blackfriars Playhouse, and most recently she directed, Antigone, for the Touring Troupe, which is the first Greek play produced by the ASC. As the Director of Youth Programs and College Prep for the ASC from 2006-11, she ran an internationally recognized Shakespeare theatre camp for teens. While at the ASC she also developed educational outreach programs, and led workshops examining the dynamic use of architecture in Shakespeare鈥檚 plays on the early modern stage. She remains the only actor at the ASC ever to have used the fly system when she entered from what is known as 鈥渢he heavens鈥 on a circus hoop as Puck in A Midsummer Night鈥檚 Dream. She received her MFA from 香蜜影视鈥檚 Shakespeare and Performance program, and her BFA in Theatre and Education at Western Michigan University. She is a member of ATHE, SDC, and SETC.