Bella Merlin
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FALL 2020
Shakespeare & Company: When Action is Eloquence audio book forthcoming with Routledge
​Actor training workshops for Royal Central School of Speech and Drama 

SPRING 2020

April: Shakespeare & Company: When Action is Eloquence co-authored with S&Co.'s founding artistic director Tina Packer, to be published by Routledge.
Directing Stu Krieger's new comedy At the Pass​ at University of California, Riverside.

SUMMER 2019
Third season at Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Massachusetts: Maria in Twelfth Night (dir. Allyn Burrows), Sir Hugh Evans in The Merry Wives of Windsor (dir. Kevin G. Coleman)

FALL 2018
November: Opening the presentation of papers at the 2nd International Actor Training Forum at the Shanghai Theatre Academy: 'The Creation of the Living Word: An Anglo-Russian-American Perspective'
Mente Revolver (Revolver Mind) released on Amazon Prime.
Keynote at the Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association at Washington University, Bellingham: 'The Creation of the Living Word: Stanislavsky, Shakespeare and the Words of Wise Women'
September: Acting: The Basics second revised edition released.

SUMMER 2018
June: Mente Revolver by Alejandro Ramirez wins the first prize Alhambra del Oro at the Granada Cine del Sur International Film Festival.
May: Second revised edition of Konstantin Stanislavsky: Routledge Performance Practitioners released.

SPRING 2018
April: Hosted The S Word: A Practical Acting Laboratory at University of California, Riverside: 3rd in an international series co-created with Dr. Paul Fryer
February: Mente Revolver by Alejandro Ramirez officially selected for the Guadalajara International Film Festival.

FALL 2017
October: Second revised edition of Acting: The Basics goes to press.

SUMMER 2017
May-September: Performing with Shakespeare & Company, Lenox, Massachusetts as The Queen and Arviragus in Cymbeline directed by Tina Packer & Trinculo in The Tempest directed by Allyn Burrows.

WINTER 2016
June: Launch event for her latest book Facing the Fear at the National Theatre, London.
May-September: Appearing in the Summer Festival at Shakespeare and Company, Lenox, Massachusetts, with acclaimed director, Tina Packer.
March: Publication of Facing the Fear: An Actor's Guide to Overcoming Stage Fright with Nick Hern Books, London
Co-hosting of "THE S WORD: STANISLAVSKI IN THE 21st CENTURY" at Rose  Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, UK 
February-March: Shooting the lead role of Jenny in Mente Revolver with award-winning filmmaker Alejandro Corona Ramirez from Latin America's leading film school, Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematograficos.

FALL 2015
October: Chairing National Theatre In Context session on Our Country's Good and The Theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker
Stanislavsky Workshop at Central School of Speech and Drama for the MA in Actor-Training

SUMMER 2015
June: Critical acclaim for NELL GWYNNE: A DRAMATICK ESSAYE IN ACTING AND PROSTITUTION at the Ruby Theatre at the Complex, Hollywood Row in the Hollywood Fringe 2015 - http://hff15.org/2162 including an ENCORE! PRODUCERS' AWARD, Platinum Medal on The TVolution critics' website along with Best Performance by An Actress, and nomination for BEST FEMALE PERFORMER in 'The Spirit of the Fringe' Awards.

SPRING 2015
March: Directed MRS PACKARD by Emily Mann at UC Riverside Department of Theatre, Film and Digital Production

FALL 2014
November: National Theatre, London: presenting at one day symposium on verbatim theatre and acting with facts
October: Begin appointment as Professor of Acting and Directing in the Theatre, Film and Digital Production department at the University of Riverside

SUMMER 2014
August: Research and Development with National Theatre of Wales on Lucy Gough's new play about Welsh artist-writer, Brenda Chamberlain 
July: The Hecabe Project with Andy Lavender, University of Surrey
June: Collaboration with University of Exeter and Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance on 'Affectivity, Emotion, Acting' with Phillip B. Zarrilli.

WINTER 2014
March: Bella directed The Merchant of Venice with Shakespeare-On-a-Shoestring at UC Davis.

FALL 2013
November: Bella appeared with conductor Matilda Hoffman and the Diablo Symphony in the Lesher Centre, Walnut Creek, California, performing narratives from Peter Grimes, and texts from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Byron's Childe Harold in Italy.
October: Bella led a series of Stanislavsky events at the National Theatre, including a recorded interview for the archive and workshops for the Five Truths Conference and Professional Development.
October:  Bella was honored with the first Jean Benedetti Senior Fellowship at the Stanislavski Centre/Rose Bruford College, UK

WINTER 2013
March: Bella directed Richard III
at UC Davis as the debut production of the troupe she initiated, Shakespeare-On-a-Shoestring (SOS). 
February: Bella appeared at the Mondavi Centre for the Performing Arts in Stranger, Beware... a night of European cabaret, as part of the Art of Migration interdisciplinary festival.
January: Bella was one of the keynote panelists at the Stanislavski Centre's retrospective of Jean Benedetti's work on Stanislavsky at the Pushkin House, London. This was part of the 150th anniversary celebrations across the world of the birth of Stanislavsky.

AUTUMN 2012
October: Bella was invited by the Moscow Art Theatre to participate in their festival, OPEN LESSON, celebrating 150 years since Stanislavsky's birth.
A video of her Stanislavski Centre/Routledge Annual Lecture was been selected for inclusion on the acclaimed online Routledge Performance Archive.

SUMMER 2012

June-August: Bella appeared as Margaret in Richard III at Colorado Shakespeare Festival directed by the astonishing Tina Packer, co-founder with Kristin Linklater of Shakespeare and Company in Massachussetts. Described by the Denver Post as 'impressively vivid', Bella's performance is described by the Boulder Weekly to have 'captivated the audience each and every time she took the stage with her raving yet laser-focused Margaret'.
Bella also appeared as Mary Read, the real-life pirate, in an adaptation of Treasure Island directed by Carolyn Howarth, featuring her original song, No Fear Buchaneer!


SPRING 2012
April: Bella gave the Annual Routledge/Stanislavski Lecture at the international Stanislavsky Centre, UK: 'Here, Today, Now: Stanislavsky for the 21st-Century Actor', at the Rose Theatre, Rose Bruford College for the Performing Arts, which was received with great acclaim. This was particularly touching as the lecture was in memory of Stanislavsky veteran scholar, Jean Benedetti.
February: Bella's songs were aired on ukcountryradio.com - the 'hottest country radio station' in the UK!!! Its broadest fan-base is American!
February-March: Bella appeared at Maria Josefa in The House of Bernarda Alba by Lorca, with LA-based director, Juliette Carrillo at the Main Theatre, UC Davis.

January: Bella filmed Regression, directed by Collin Davey, due for release 2013.