Frank Camilleri is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta and Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project. Camilleri’s research interests revolve around the spaces between training and performance processes via the development of technique and improvisatory structures. More recently, he has focused on the concept of ‘bodyworld’ to highlight human–non-human relationalities in the work of performers. His various publications on performer training, theatre as a laboratory, and practice as research reflect the theatre work he has been developing since 1989. Camilleri is the author of Performer Training Reconfigured: Post-Psychophysical Perspectives for the Twenty-first Century (Methuen, 2019) and Performer Training for Actors and Athletes (Methuen, 2023). He has co-edited (with Paul Allain) Milestones in Actor Training (Routledge, 2025) and is Associate Editor of Performance Research, for whom he as co-edited the issues ‘On Hybridity’ (2020) and ‘On Habit’ (2023). Earlier this year he was awarded the first edition of the International Prize for Sport and Theatre in Education and Training (University of Urbino, 2025). Camilleri is a long-distance runner.
Andrei Malaev-Babel is the Director and Head of Acting at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training and the world’s leading authority on the Demidov School of Acting. A pioneering scholar-practitioner, he introduced Demidov’s legacy to international theatre through ground breaking research, publications, and pedagogy. His books include The Vakhtangov Sourcebook and Yevgeny Vakhtangov: A Critical Portrait, and he is the editor and translator of Becoming an Actor-Creator (Routledge). In recognition of his contribution to global theatre education, he received a Fulbright Specialist Award from the U.S. Department of State in 2023.
Malaev-Babel is the founding head of the International Demidov Association. His directing work has been presented at The Kennedy Center and The National Theater in Washington, D.C., where he served as Producing Artistic Director of the award-winning Stanislavsky Theatre Studio. He was also nominated for the Helen Hayes Award as Outstanding Director.
An internationally sought-after speaker and teacher, he has presented at institutions including Stanford University, the Smithsonian, the Shanghai Theatre Academy, RADA, Polish National Film, Television and Theater School, and the University of Rome. He serves on the advisory board of the Stanislavsky Research Centre (UK) and on the International Scientific Committee of Arti dello Spettacolo – Performing Arts (Italy).
Bella Merlin is an actor, writer and Distinguished Professor of Acting and Directing at the University of California, Riverside. With over thirty years on stage, screen and radio, she is a leading proponent of practice-as-research, interweaving acting experiences with scholarship. Performances include seasons at the National Theatre (UK) and Shakespeare & Company (USA), the award-winning film Mente Revolver by Alejandro Ramirez, and most recently the fact-based solo play Tilly No-Body directed by Miles Anderson (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Daejeon International Play Festival in South Korea). Books include The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit (NHB), Facing the Fear: An Actor's Guide to Overcoming Stage Fright (NHB) and Shakespeare & Company: When Action is Eloquence with Tina Packer (Routledge). Current research includes BODY-WORD-VOICE with Dr. Annika Speer (using acting-based tools and performance vocabulary to frame experiences of domestic violence) and If You Will with Miles Anderson (an iteration of Tina Packer's Women of Will, combining Shakespeare's portrayal of marriage with Stanislavsky's ‘Magic If’). Trained at Moscow's State Institute of Cinematography and with a PhD from University of Birmingham, UK, Merlin has led actor-training workshops across the world, from Australia to Zimbabwe. Access more information
Richard Gough is Artistic Director of the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) and Professor of Music & Performance at the University of South Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK. He has dedicated the last fifty years to developing and exploring interdisciplinary, experimental performance work. As Artistic Director of CPR and its predecessor, Cardiff Laboratory Theatre, he has curated and organised numerous international theatre projects, including conferences, summer schools and workshop festivals, and he has produced nationwide tours of experimental theatre and traditional dance/theatre ensembles from around the world. He has directed over seventy productions, many of which have toured Europe, and he has lectured and led workshops throughout Europe and in China, Japan, USA, Colombia and Brazil. He was the founding President (1997-2001) of Performance Studies international (PSi). He is the General Editor and co-founder of Performance Research (The Journal of Performance Arts published eight issues annually by Routledge), and is the publisher and series editor of Performance Research Books.
