The Useless Room is led by Gema Galiana and Anthony Nikolchev, two independent artists whose differences generate just the right amount of tension to provoke immense curiosity through unpacking themes in the form of performative action.
Anthony Nikolchev (Co-founder of The Useless Room and co- director) is a California-born actor, writer, and director in theatre and film. His work has been seen in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and internationally in London, Moscow, India, Spain, Italy, and Germany, etc. He trained with Yuri Kordonsky, Matej Matejka, and Vivien Wood, and was a founding member of The Studio Matejka Physical Theatre Laboratory at the Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw, Poland (2010–2012).
As a writer, he creates compelling and inventive texts that extend his theatrical vision.
As an actor he has received numerous awards.
He teaches Movement at the California Institute of the Arts and has led physical theatre workshops across Europe, India, Mexico, and the USA. He is co-Artistic Director of Galiana & Nikolchev’s The Useless Room.
He studied Bioethics at Wesleyan University and has a profound love for chimpanzees and other creatures. MORE HERE
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Gema Galiana (Co-founder and Co-Director of The Useless Room) is a Spanish-American live art artist. She works in the territory of the body, of actions, creating experiences, images with bodies in relation to a task, not for a purpose, but from a deep need to understand this nonsense. Her work seeks to engage with the truth that emerges from the tension between the impossible task and the beauty of the struggle. In continually failing to capture it, she enjoys the journey itself as destiny.
MFA from CalARTS in Choreography (Valencia- CA)
BFA in Theatre from ESAD ( Murcia -Spain)
Co - Founder of Studio Matejka in Residency at Grotowski Institute - Wroclaw- Poland - 2010-2014.​