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Chaya Gordon-Bland is an Associate Professor in the Theatre Department at the University of South Dakota, and served as the Founding Artistic Director of the South Dakota Shakespeare Festival for 11 years. Movement specialties include stage combat, Michael Chekhov technique, Commedia dell'Arte, mask training, yoga, and dance.
Chaya holds an MFA in Performance Pedagogy from the University of Pittsburgh, where her thesis work consisted of directing a First Folio production of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.
Chaya’s professional background includes work as an actor, teaching artist, director, fight director, movement coach, and dramaturg at theatre companies and University programs across the country, including the American Shakespeare Center, American Globe Theatre, Inwood Shakespeare Festival, New England Shakespeare Festival, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, Native Voices at the Autry, South Dakota Shakespeare Festival, and the Black Hills Playhouse. Chaya has presented workshops and papers nationally and internationally at the Association of Theatre in Higher Education’s national conferences (2013, 2012), York University’s international conference on Commedia dell’Arte (2012), the British Shakespeare Association’s international conference at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London (2009), among others.
Chaya is an actor-combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors, with proficiencies in unarmed, quarterstaff, broadsword, knife, and rapier and dagger, holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwondo, and is a proud member of the Actors' Equity Association, the Michael Chekhov Association, and the Shakespeare Theatre Association.