Naomi Bailis

I am passionate about unleashing the creative potential of established theater artists, aspiring theater students, and organizations. I inspire through collaboration.

Naomi Bailis joined the Conservatory in 2022 as an associate professor of dance, teaching physical theater, acting for dancers, clowning, and masks in the contemporary and commercial dance programs and the circus arts minor. She also teaches acting in the Theater Division for both contemporary theater and musical theater students. 

Bailis is an award-winning theater teacher, director, and actor. She enjoyed a 20-year career on the theater faculty at Walnut Hill School for the Arts. She was a versatile, innovative, and difference-making member of the theater program who taught theater games, the Michael Chekhov technique, masks, clowning, beginning to advanced scene study, Meisner technique, and musical theater/acting the song. She has directed close to 30 full-scale theatrical productions. She was awarded the EE Ford Excellence in Teaching Award (2009) and was a nominee for that award five additional times.

Bailis also taught acting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Boston University, University of Cincinnati (Clermont), and Xavier University. She has taught mask master classes at Boston Conservatory, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Middlesex Community College, NETC, and SETC. She has directed productions at the collegiate and professional levels. As an actor, Bailis has appeared on Broadway and regional theaters across the US, as well as in films and in commercials.

She received her MFA in theater performance from University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM). She also completed the two-year conservatory program at Circle in the Square Theater School. Bailis lives in the Boston area and has her own private studio. 
 

Professional Awards and Recognitions

• Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA), Advanced Teacher Training Workshop, 2014
• Selected for SEED New Leaders Week facilitator training, 2018
• EE Ford Excellence in Teaching Award recipient, 2009
• EE Ford Excellence in Teaching nominee, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007
• EE Ford Grant recipient, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2011
• Awarded City of Cincinnati Individual Artist’s Grant
• Produced and starred in one-woman show, Sabina’s Splendid Brain, by Carol Sinclair, September 1998–January 1999; invited to New York Fringe Festival, January 1999; selected as City Beat’s “highlight” of Off-Center On-Stage season, January 1999

Notable Recent Works

• (A Brat Version of) Clown Bar, (mostly) by Adam Szymkowicz, Ensemble Performance Lab, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, 2024
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Wm. Shakespeare (a lip-sync musical), Walnut Hill School for the Arts, 2021
• Top Girls by Caryl Churchill, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, November 2019 
• Pronoun by Evan Placey, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, November 2017