Dawn Arnold, Director, Acting Ensemble

Dawn Arnold, is an actress, director, and teaching artist. She is the founder and Artistic Director of The Moving Dock Theatre Company and Chekhov Studio Chicago. With The Moving Dock she has directed/created Unsung Stars, Celestial Mechanics- or the Questionable Attraction of Entities, Savage/Love, and The Anton Chekhov Book Club, and co-directed/adapted Galway Bay, Einstein’s Dreams, Ocean Sea, The Quiltmaker’s Gift, and Shakespeare’s Notebook. As an actress she has performed with The Moving Dock in The Anton Chekhov Book Club, Galway Bay, Undercurrents, Ocean Sea, and Eleemosynary, with Alchymia Theatre in Flood, and numerous other roles including Ranyevskaya in Cherry Orchard, Hesione in Heartbreak House, Mae in Mud, and Margaret in Richard the Third. She created and performed the Spirit of the Dance for Chicago’s Boitsov Ballet and her solo show, The Lydia Etudes – About Loving Anton Chekhov. As a movement director and rehearsal coach, she has worked with Vitalist Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, House Theatre, and Janus Theatre. She coaches actors working for Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and Court Theatre among others, and opera singers at Lyric Opera Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center.

Dawn is a certified teacher of the Chekhov Technique, trained by the Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA). She appears in the documentary, Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique, produced by the Michael Chekhov Association. She has been on the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Theatre Conservatory, Music Institute of Chicago, Northern Illinois University, The Theatre School at DePaul University, Aurora University, and North Park College. She is currently on the Faculty of the Michael Chekhov Association and the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio New York City, Chekhov Studio Chicago, and Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. She is a guest artist around the country in workshops and residencies for colleges, high schools, and theatre companies.

Alicia Hall, Outside Eye

Alicia Hall-Flesch has been studying and practicing the Michael Chekhov Technique for about ten years. She was first introduced to the technique by another MICHA Master Teacher, Scott Fielding and worked as an actor for him on Flood and several other productions at Alchymia Theatre. She has worked with Shakespeare on the Green, Shattered Globe, The Journeymen, Next Theatre, as well as many others throughout Chicagoland. She holds an MFA from the Theatre School of DePaul Univ. and a BA from Barat College. She has ben involved with Moving Dock for several years. She was in Moving Dock’s first workshop project for Unsung Stars, originating the role of Annie Jump Cannon and performed that role at the Adler Planetarium. She appeared in Moving Dock’s Shakespeare’s Notebook.

Christa Macbeth, Acting Ensemble

Christa Macbeth comes to the Chekhov Technique and Moving Dock Theatre by way of the spoken word. She spent many years with Eurythmy Spring Valley in NY State, where she taught creative speech and was the ‘voice’ for performances. She also collaborated with like-minded artists on independent recitals. In 2002 she moved to Chicago, where she seeks to light a flame teaching English as a second language. Her latest program is A Man Called Dante which has been performed in Chicago and in Spring Valley. She is enjoying growing in new directions as she works her way into the richness of Chekhov’s Technique with the Moving Dock Acting Ensemble. She appeared in Moving Dock’s Shakespeare’s Notebook.

Sue Mullins, Acting Ensemble

Sue joined the Moving Dock Theatre Company Acting Ensemble in The Anton Chekhov Book Club Returns after studying Chekhov Technique at Chekhov Studio Chicago. She learned about the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique and Chekhov Studio Chicago in Ireland when she competed at the West Limerick Drama Festival as Cass McGuire in The Loves of Cass McGuire for which she receiving the award for Best Actress. A childhood actor, Sue returned to the Irish stage in 2013 while also being a full time farmer. Some of her accomplishments include Golde in Fiddler on the Roof and Mrs. Mullins in Carousel. After moving to Chicago from Ireland, her other Chicago projects include Helen Laius/Serza/Hera in Anon(ymous) and Olga/Valentina in The Fairy Tale Lives of Russian Girls with The Cuckoo’s Nest Theatre Project.

Ginger Schmidt, Acting Ensemble

Ginger Schmidt returns to The Moving Dock Theatre Company Ensemble with the production of The Anton Chekhov Book Club Returns. She was with us for our production of Ocean Sea, playing Dira. Some of her favorite past credits include B in Three Tall Women and Stella in Streetcar Named Desire at the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre. Ginger also loves directing and teaching. In 2014 she was named the State Director of the Year for Secondary Theatre by the Mississippi Theatre Association, and in 2015, her drama competition team was chosen to perform at the South Eastern Theatre Association’s convention in Chattanooga, TN, for Lady White Snake, a play she wrote and directed. Ginger received her M.F.A. in theatre from Roosevelt University.

Weston Williams, Acting Ensemble

Weston Williams first collaborated with Moving Dock as a sound designer for 2016′s Anton Chekhov Book Club after being introduced to Michael Chekhov’s acting technique by Dawn Arnold the year prior. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Weston recently moved to Chicago after graduating from Principia College, where he studied Philosophy and Theatre. He has had experience both onstage as an actor and offstage as a director and designer. Weston has also appeared in a number of student films and lent his voice to several voiceover projects that include corporate advertising, radio newscasting with an NPR branch radio station, and the production of the internet radio show Crescendo!, a project he created in order to showcase and promote opera and classical music for newcomers to the art form.

Timothy McCain, Acting Ensemble

Timothy McCain is an actor, director, and playwright. He was a cofounding member of Goat Island Performance Group. His work has been seen at P.S. 122 in New York, the ICA in London, the Arnolfini, Bristol, UK, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MCA in Chicago, as well as other venues throughout the US and Europe. His plays The True (2007) and Mmmoa! (2009) were both finalists for the Actors Theatre of Louisville Heideman Award. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Performance Network for the Arts, Illinois Arts Council, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Community Arts Program, and British Arts Council Grant for his work in theatre/performance and playwriting. His theatre process has been written about in The Drama Review, Theatre Journal, The Analysis of Performance Art, Physical Theatre: A Critical Introduction, A World of Art, and Small Acts of Repair. Timothy is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America. Recently, his play The Previous Cry was published in Imagined Theatres: Writing for the Theoretical Stage (Routledge 2017).

Timothy has trained in the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique with Joanna Merlin and Lenard Petit at The Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA) and Chekhov Studio Chicago with Dawn Arnold. He has also trained in theatre/performance with Jean-Claude van Itallie, Augusto Boal, Robert Scogin, and Del Close, as well as being trained in the Sanford Meisner Technique. He holds a MFA in Playwriting and a BFA in Performance.

Shannon Naylor, Acting Ensemble

Shannon Naylor is a Chicago actor. She most recently collaborated with Moving Dock as the stage manager for The Anton Chekhov Book Club Returns in 2016. Other professional work includes working with the Jones Theatre in Westcliffe, Colorado, where she played Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Mariane in Tartuffe. She graduated from Principia College in 2015, with a double major in theatre and English. In school, she developed her skill as both an actor and director. Some of her favorite roles from college include Hermione in The Winter’s Tale (2014) and Liz Morden in Our Country’s Good (2015). She was an Irene Ryan 2016 semi-finalist for the latter role.