Merry Conway

Merry Conway was trained in the US and London, and since the 1970s has pursued her love of physical expression through teaching, performing and coaching.  The legendary teacher Trish Arnold was her primary mentor and Merry produced a documentary movie about her, with classroom exercises and commentary, titled Tea with Trish.  The workshops she took with Jacques LeCoq in Paris and her subsequent work with Tina Packer and Kristin Linklater at Shakespeare and Company also influenced Merry deeply.

For the past 20 years she has been Co-Artistic Director of Conway & Pratt Projects, creating large-scale performance/installations with Noni Pratt and Gregor Paslawsky. She is a permanent faculty member of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA and served as its Clownmaster for several years. Through the NEA she received a grant to study Fool and Shakespeare, developing a basic lexicon for actors.  She has worked with LA Women’s Shakespeare, Stratford Festival Theater, and Denver Theater Center.  Merry has taught at a number of institutions including Carnegie Mellon, Emerson, Brandeis, NYU, Cal Arts, and The Guildhall School and Drama Studio in London.  She was part of a team with Kristin Linklater and Andrea Haring, teaching the World Economic Forum Global Fellows at Columbia University School of the Arts.