Rose Burnett Bonczek joins me in this episode to talk about the book she co-authored with her colleague David Storck, Ensemble Theatre Making: A Practical Guide. Rose directed the BFA acting program for over 20 years at Brooklyn College/CUNY and is the producing artist director of Gi60 US—the one-minute theatre festival. She works as a director and theatre consultant in addition to being an educator.

A conversation with Fern Sloan and Ted Pugh, both actors and longtime teachers of the Michael Chekhov technique. Studying with them has been one of the great experiences of my life, and I feel fortunate to have taken two five-week immersions at the school before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the possibilities for in-person classes. You can learn more about them, the school's offerings, and the technique on the website of the Michael Chekhov School, which offers classes online and in the area of the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people, also known as Hudson, NY. Also be sure to check out the searchable Michael Chekhov Archive. Below, I am flanked by Fern and Ted in Ted's light- and book-filled living room.

For a while, I've been thinking it would be fun to talk to various people who have taught me, inspired me, or with whom I have worked about ensembles. It feels like a fundamental aspect of acting that we cultivate a "sense of the whole," as Michael Chekhov referred to it. We tune in to other actors onstage but also to crew members and anyone who happens to be watching. I've been enjoying these conversations and I hope you do, too.

​Podcast theme music by Alexi Action.