Certification

Certification Opportunities Through NMCA

NMCA understands how valuable a specific certification can be to working professionals. Our programs are available to stage and screen enthusiasts across the world who wish to earn a certification in acting, directing, designing, or teaching. Every student deserves the best possible instruction to ensure their skills and insight are at levels meeting or exceeding professional theater standards. Your certification track begins with you expressing your intention and commitment to what is a very exciting and rigorous undertaking. Upon achieving this certification, you will have undergone deep mentorship and extensive self-evaluation of your capabilities in the field you have chosen. The rigor is intended to strengthen your skills and confidence in bringing the work-out to the world as a spokesperson, modeling the highest standards Mr. Chekhov lays out in his Five Guiding Principles and being able to do so with the embodiment of his Four Brothers of Art: the Feelings of Beauty, Ease, Entirety, and Form through your unique creative individuality. When you commit, we commit to supporting you and cheering you on, providing the guidance and coaching you seek.

Details About Our Certification Process

Whether you wish to earn a certification in acting, designing, directing, or teaching, NMCA has certain criteria for you to meet to complete our program. We have outlined the certification process below so that you understand what we expect of all students:

Request a copy of the full certification requirements and submit a Letter of Intent with registration.
All certification candidates attend the Chekhov Training Intensive (CTI) at least twice.
Certification candidates will have a journal and paperwork to submit for everyday and individual “challenges” to meet on day seven, with feedback from master teachers.
Ten days following the close of the session, candidates submit journals and additional documents to Master teachers for personal feedback on their week’s experience and future applications.
Candidates are expected to immediately begin applying their experience in the classroom, on stage, and in film as they choose.
Candidates maintain quarterly updates with faculty throughout the coming year(s).

Candidates return for their second session to repeat the entire week, having had the time between sessions to develop their experience. They now are given heightened challenges and can study more fully how to refine the materials they are using.
Directing and acting candidates are required to attend an advanced course that includes devising a performance and additional foundational skills in speech, eurythmy movement, and stage combat.
A capstone project with specific challenges appropriate to the area of certification must be completed and presented live at an NMCA CTI. Capstones must be pre-approved by the faculty.
Video documentation and presentation are always required for the completion of the capstone.

Candidate Pause Declaration Procedures

A candidate may request to pause their candidacy for an undetermined period. Once accepted, the candidate must also pause the inclusion of their candidate and membership status verbally and in print promotion. And this pauses a membership and access to membership meetings.

The candidate may apply for reactivation after one year, at which point the terms of continuance will be determined based on NMCA’s purpose to support the highest quality education available for the candidate. This will include a re-evaluation of the candidate's letters of intent and placement in the Certified Program Guides. The candidate agrees to abide by updated new certified requirements for the same certification track or changing tracks, as mutually agreed.

You can continue to list your attendance at the intensive and any NMCA workshops. But not indicating that you are a certified candidate until rejoining the program(s) is approved.

Essential Information for Candidates Everywhere

When you get a certification from NMCA, you genuinely earn it. However, completing the above attendance requirements doesn’t guarantee we will award you a certification from our association. We do certify that those candidates who submit all session documents and whose capstones demonstrate their exemplification of transforming the performing arts culture through Michael Chekhov. We base this on his principles of beauty, ease, entirety, and form, as well as those standards outlined in his lectures on Love in Our Profession. Furthermore, we may give candidates additional challenges to meet final requirements. Completing your candidacy has a maximum time frame ranging from three to four years depending on your track, and you could complete it within one to one-and-a-half years with diligence. Additional documents outlining detailed steps are available upon request.

“The NMCA training program was my choice for in-depth study of Michael Chekhov’s method of acting. I chose to come from Israel several times and complete the certification program and how the choice paid off! This is the clearest and most powerful pedagogy for learning the method. You get clear tools and teaching processes, and thus you become the best teacher you can be. Lisa and Wil’s personal and professional coaching stays with you long after the program ends. This pedagogy led me to teach the method all over Israel. And having experienced a lot of teachers and ways of learning Chekhov, I can say with certainty that the NMCA pedagogy is the basis for my teaching and acting with the Chekhov method.”
– Ofir Duan—an actor and a Michael Chekhov teacher and coach