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Alfre Woodard
Alfre Woodard is an American actress. Known for portraying strong-willed and dignified roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades, including four Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her as one of "The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century". She is a board member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Woodard began her acting career in theater. After her breakthrough role in the Off-Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1977), she made her film debut in Remember My Name (1978). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in Cross Creek (1983). Woodard starred in films such as Grand Canyon (1991), Passion Fish (1992), Heart and Souls (1993), Crooklyn (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and Down in the Delta (1998). She earned a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination for her role in Clemency (2019). She also acted in 12 Years a Slave (2013), Annabelle (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Juanita (2019), the remake of The Lion King (2019), and The Gray Man (2022).
Woodard gained prominence for her television role as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1986, and for Guest Actress in 1988. She's received four Primetime Emmy Awards for her roles in the NBC drama series Hill Street Blues in 1984, the NBC series L.A. Law in 1987, the HBO film Miss Evers' Boys (1997), and The Practice in 2003. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred as Betty Applewhite in the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) she portrayed the "Black" Mariah Dillard Stokes in the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016–2018).
She is also known for her work as a political activist and producer. Woodard is a founder of Artists for a New South Africa, an organization devoted to advancing democracy and equality in that country.
Woodard began her acting career in theater. After her breakthrough role in the Off-Broadway play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf (1977), she made her film debut in Remember My Name (1978). She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in Cross Creek (1983). Woodard starred in films such as Grand Canyon (1991), Passion Fish (1992), Heart and Souls (1993), Crooklyn (1994), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Primal Fear (1996), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and Down in the Delta (1998). She earned a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination for her role in Clemency (2019). She also acted in 12 Years a Slave (2013), Annabelle (2014), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Juanita (2019), the remake of The Lion King (2019), and The Gray Man (2022).
Woodard gained prominence for her television role as Dr. Roxanne Turner in the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1986, and for Guest Actress in 1988. She's received four Primetime Emmy Awards for her roles in the NBC drama series Hill Street Blues in 1984, the NBC series L.A. Law in 1987, the HBO film Miss Evers' Boys (1997), and The Practice in 2003. From 2005 to 2006, Woodard starred as Betty Applewhite in the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) she portrayed the "Black" Mariah Dillard Stokes in the Netflix series Luke Cage (2016–2018).
She is also known for her work as a political activist and producer. Woodard is a founder of Artists for a New South Africa, an organization devoted to advancing democracy and equality in that country.
BD Wong
Bradley Darryl Wong is an American actor. Wong won a Tony Award for his performance as Song Liling in M. Butterfly, becoming the only actor in Broadway history to receive the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. He was nominated for a Critic's Choice Television Award for his role as Whiterose in Mr. Robot, for which he also earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
Wong is known for such roles as Howard Weinstein in the film Father of the Bride, Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Father Ray Mukada on Oz, Dr. John Lee on Awake, Dr. Henry Wu in the Jurassic Park franchise, Hugo Strange in Gotham, and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme in the film Seven Years in Tibet. Wong is the host of the HLN medical documentary series Something's Killing Me with BD Wong. He has also done extensive voiceover work and stage acting. Wong voiced Captain Li Shang from the Disney animated film Mulan as well as its 2004 direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II, and the 2005 video game Kingdom Hearts II.
Wong is known for such roles as Howard Weinstein in the film Father of the Bride, Dr. George Huang on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Father Ray Mukada on Oz, Dr. John Lee on Awake, Dr. Henry Wu in the Jurassic Park franchise, Hugo Strange in Gotham, and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme in the film Seven Years in Tibet. Wong is the host of the HLN medical documentary series Something's Killing Me with BD Wong. He has also done extensive voiceover work and stage acting. Wong voiced Captain Li Shang from the Disney animated film Mulan as well as its 2004 direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II, and the 2005 video game Kingdom Hearts II.
Cherry Jones
Cherry Jones is an American actress. Having started her career in theater as a founding member of the American Repertory Theater in 1980, she then transitioned into film and television. Celebrated for her dynamic roles on stage and screen, she has received various accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Awards and two Tony Awards, as well as nominations for an Olivier Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Jones made her Broadway debut in the 1987 play Stepping Out. She went on to receive two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for The Heiress in 1995 and Doubt in 2005. Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Our Country's Good in 1991, A Moon for the Misbegotten in 2000, and The Glass Menagerie in 2014. Her most recent Broadway performance was in The Lifespan of a Fact in 2018.
She is also known for her work on television with breakthrough roles as Barbara Layton in The West Wing and President Allison Taylor in 24 the latter of which won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2009. She received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Transparent in 2015 and earned two Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her roles in the Hulu drama series The Handmaid's Tale in 2019 and the HBO drama series Succession in 2020.
Her film appearances include The Horse Whisperer (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004), Amelia (2009), The Beaver (2011), A Rainy Day in New York (2019), and The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021).
Jones made her Broadway debut in the 1987 play Stepping Out. She went on to receive two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play for The Heiress in 1995 and Doubt in 2005. Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Our Country's Good in 1991, A Moon for the Misbegotten in 2000, and The Glass Menagerie in 2014. Her most recent Broadway performance was in The Lifespan of a Fact in 2018.
She is also known for her work on television with breakthrough roles as Barbara Layton in The West Wing and President Allison Taylor in 24 the latter of which won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2009. She received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Transparent in 2015 and earned two Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her roles in the Hulu drama series The Handmaid's Tale in 2019 and the HBO drama series Succession in 2020.
Her film appearances include The Horse Whisperer (1998), Erin Brockovich (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004), Amelia (2009), The Beaver (2011), A Rainy Day in New York (2019), and The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021).
Alan Ruck
Alan Ruck has made over 100 appearances in films and television, and on stage. He is best known for his role as the friend of Matthew Broderick and hopeless hypochondriac Cameron Frye, in John Hughes's Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).
During the 1980s he appeared in films such as Class (1983) with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy and Three for the Road (1987) with Charlie Sheen. The 1990s included Young Guns II (1990) with Emilio Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips, Star Trek: Generations (1994), Speed (1994) with Keanu Reeves and Twister (1996) (the latter two films are directed by Jan de Bont).
Ruck's television appearances include Tales from the Crypt (1989) opposite Lou Diamond Philips, Mad About You (1992) with Helen Hunt (his co-star in Twister), and Spin City (1996) with Michael J. Fox.
Ruck made an appearance in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998) which reunited him with his Twister co-star Cary Elwes.
During the 1980s he appeared in films such as Class (1983) with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy and Three for the Road (1987) with Charlie Sheen. The 1990s included Young Guns II (1990) with Emilio Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips, Star Trek: Generations (1994), Speed (1994) with Keanu Reeves and Twister (1996) (the latter two films are directed by Jan de Bont).
Ruck's television appearances include Tales from the Crypt (1989) opposite Lou Diamond Philips, Mad About You (1992) with Helen Hunt (his co-star in Twister), and Spin City (1996) with Michael J. Fox.
Ruck made an appearance in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998) which reunited him with his Twister co-star Cary Elwes.
Jessica Pimentel
The Brooklyn born and raised native New Yorker is a Latina of mixed heritage. Her parents were immigrants from the Dominican Republic. Jessica is best known as an actress in her role as Maria Ruiz on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, and won 3 Screen Actors Guild Award wins and one nomination. She is a graduate of the High School for the Performing Arts (a.k.a. "Fame") in New York City and the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts, also in New York City, where she holds a degree in Theater Arts where she was awarded the Cleavon Little scholarship and was a member of the professional acting company.
Music Career- Jessica began playing music at a very young age and has traveled around the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Japan as both a classical violinist and Hardcore/ Heavy Metal musician and has played at various notable venues such as CBGB, Landmark's Mayan Theatre and Carnegie Hall. Jessica is the lead vocalist and recording guitarist for the Brooklyn, NY based heavy metal band Alekhine's Gun and featured vocalist, La Bruja Encabronada, in the iconic heavy music band Brujeria. She is a featured vocalist in projects by 'Black Heart Sutra', 'Brick by Brick' and 'Origin' and her violin playing was featured on the track "Ormen's Offer" by Swedish Electrogoth and Valhall and "Love Letter" by Butterbrain. Previously she was the Bassist for NY heavy metal/ Hardcore band Desolate. She is a featured and endorsed artist for Spector basses, Gibson guitars and Darkglass Amps.
Other Interests- Jessica is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, logic, debate and meditation in the Gelugpa Tradition of the Dalai Lama and was trained and studied closely under the former abbot of Sera Mey Monastery, H.E. Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin beginning formal study in 1994.
She is a lover of mathematics and science (cosmology, astronomy, physics and chemistry) having taken classes/lectures with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku.
She is also a student of many styles of dance and martial arts.
Theatre Credits- Some of her theater credits include the American Stage production of the Pulitzer prize winning play 'Anna in the Tropics' and the Shakespeare Theater's production of a 'A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings' adapted by Nilo Cruz. She was also seen in the leading role of Mathilde in the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater's production of 'The Clean House' by Sarah Ruhl and the Seattle Repertory Theater's production of Eduardo Machado's 'The Cook' . In 2008 she played the role of Juliet in an abridged, contemporary version of 'Romeo and Juliet' in a Theatreworks USA production national tour and originated the role of Lupita in the off Broadway show 'Aliens with Extraordinary Skills' by Romanian playwright Saviana Stanescu. She was also featured as Yessenia in the Clubbed Thumb production of 'Enfrascada' by Tanya Saracho and took on the one woman show 'Surfer Girl' by Leslye Headland. Her most recent Role was in Yonder Window theater company's production of 'Jasper' by Grant MacDermot
She considers both New York City and Stockholm, Sweden home.
Music Career- Jessica began playing music at a very young age and has traveled around the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Japan as both a classical violinist and Hardcore/ Heavy Metal musician and has played at various notable venues such as CBGB, Landmark's Mayan Theatre and Carnegie Hall. Jessica is the lead vocalist and recording guitarist for the Brooklyn, NY based heavy metal band Alekhine's Gun and featured vocalist, La Bruja Encabronada, in the iconic heavy music band Brujeria. She is a featured vocalist in projects by 'Black Heart Sutra', 'Brick by Brick' and 'Origin' and her violin playing was featured on the track "Ormen's Offer" by Swedish Electrogoth and Valhall and "Love Letter" by Butterbrain. Previously she was the Bassist for NY heavy metal/ Hardcore band Desolate. She is a featured and endorsed artist for Spector basses, Gibson guitars and Darkglass Amps.
Other Interests- Jessica is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, logic, debate and meditation in the Gelugpa Tradition of the Dalai Lama and was trained and studied closely under the former abbot of Sera Mey Monastery, H.E. Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin beginning formal study in 1994.
She is a lover of mathematics and science (cosmology, astronomy, physics and chemistry) having taken classes/lectures with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Michio Kaku.
She is also a student of many styles of dance and martial arts.
Theatre Credits- Some of her theater credits include the American Stage production of the Pulitzer prize winning play 'Anna in the Tropics' and the Shakespeare Theater's production of a 'A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings' adapted by Nilo Cruz. She was also seen in the leading role of Mathilde in the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater's production of 'The Clean House' by Sarah Ruhl and the Seattle Repertory Theater's production of Eduardo Machado's 'The Cook' . In 2008 she played the role of Juliet in an abridged, contemporary version of 'Romeo and Juliet' in a Theatreworks USA production national tour and originated the role of Lupita in the off Broadway show 'Aliens with Extraordinary Skills' by Romanian playwright Saviana Stanescu. She was also featured as Yessenia in the Clubbed Thumb production of 'Enfrascada' by Tanya Saracho and took on the one woman show 'Surfer Girl' by Leslye Headland. Her most recent Role was in Yonder Window theater company's production of 'Jasper' by Grant MacDermot
She considers both New York City and Stockholm, Sweden home.
Neal Huff
Neal Huff has most recently been working on Broadway in the acclaimed production of To Kill a Mockingbird, in which he originated the role of the town drunk, Link Deas, alongside Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch. After a record-smashing year, Neal switched roles to play the racist Bob Ewell opposite Ed Harris as Atticus. Just before Mockingbird, Neal played the dissolute lawyer Willy Oban in George C. Wolfe’s hit production of The Iceman Cometh starring Denzel Washington.
Neal played clergy abuse survivor/advocate Phil Saviano in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight. His other film credits include Waves, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Meek’s Cutoff.
Neal played Sean Muldoon on the USA series, The Sinner and as Father Dan on HBO’s Mare of Easttown. He also played Michael Steintorf, chief of staff to the mayor, on HBO’s The Wire.
Neal’s other film work includes Split, Beirut, Beyond the Night, Monsters and Men, Lovesong, Nasty Baby, Runoff, Coin Heist, Radium Girls, and The Magnificent Meyersons. Other TV includes Falling Water, The Affair, Girls, Person of Interest, Billions, Genius, The Mist, Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter, Deadbeat, The Abolitionists, Show Me a Hero, Fringe, Starved, Six Degrees and LAW AND ORDER. Neal’s other theatre credits include Take Me Out (Broadway/Donmar Warehouse/Public), The Lion in Winter (Broadway), The Tempest (Broadway/NYSF), Indian Ink (Roundabout), Luce (LCT3) When I Come to Die (LCT3), The Green Book (Summer Shorts), William Inge’s The Killing (Summer Shorts), Trumpery (Atlantic), The Foreigner (Roundabout), Rude Entertainment (Drama Dept.), Blue Window (Barrow Group), and Troilus and Cressida (NYSF). Neal trained at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program.
Neal played clergy abuse survivor/advocate Phil Saviano in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight. His other film credits include Waves, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Meek’s Cutoff.
Neal played Sean Muldoon on the USA series, The Sinner and as Father Dan on HBO’s Mare of Easttown. He also played Michael Steintorf, chief of staff to the mayor, on HBO’s The Wire.
Neal’s other film work includes Split, Beirut, Beyond the Night, Monsters and Men, Lovesong, Nasty Baby, Runoff, Coin Heist, Radium Girls, and The Magnificent Meyersons. Other TV includes Falling Water, The Affair, Girls, Person of Interest, Billions, Genius, The Mist, Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter, Deadbeat, The Abolitionists, Show Me a Hero, Fringe, Starved, Six Degrees and LAW AND ORDER. Neal’s other theatre credits include Take Me Out (Broadway/Donmar Warehouse/Public), The Lion in Winter (Broadway), The Tempest (Broadway/NYSF), Indian Ink (Roundabout), Luce (LCT3) When I Come to Die (LCT3), The Green Book (Summer Shorts), William Inge’s The Killing (Summer Shorts), Trumpery (Atlantic), The Foreigner (Roundabout), Rude Entertainment (Drama Dept.), Blue Window (Barrow Group), and Troilus and Cressida (NYSF). Neal trained at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program.
Laura Esterman
Laura Esterman Recently received Best Actress awards at both the Chelsea and Brooklyn Film Festivals for her portrayal of an eccentric artist in CAN HITLER HAPPEN HERE?. She will appear in HBO’s upcoming series I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE. She recently appeared in David Rabe’s play GOOD FOR OTTO at the New Group and Ain Gordon’s play 217 BOXES at the Baryshnikov Center. Other recent work includes THE OLD BOY at the Keen Company, INTIMACY at the New Group, THE MORINI STRAD at Portland Stage, and CARD AND GIFT at Clubbed Thumb. Broadway: THE SHOW-OFF, TEIBELE AND HER DEMON, and THE SUICIDE, among others. Off-Broadway: Mike Leigh’s TWO THOUSAND YEARS (The New Group), MARVIN’S ROOM (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Obie awards for Outstanding Actress), CRANES, CURTAINS (Obie winner), THE AMERICAN CLOCK, GOOD AS NEW, TWO ROOMS, EDITH STEIN, TRUE LOVE, and DUET as Sarah Bernhardt and many other roles at Public Theatre, BAM, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the American Place Theatre among others. Regional includes: Arena Stage, Goodman, Mark Taper, and Guthrie. Film includes: IRONWEED, THE DOORS, and AWAKENINGS, and the upcoming INDIFFERENT WOMEN. TV: LAW & ORDER, THIRD WATCH, MILDRED PIERCE, and others. She studied with Uta Hagen and at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
David Patrick Kelly
Compact, feisty and fierce character actor David Patrick Kelly was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Margaret Elizabeth (Murphy) and Robert Corby Kelly, Sr., an accountant. He burst onto the acting scene in 1979, playing the devious leader of the leather-clad gang "The Rogues" in Walter Hill's controversial New York City gang film The Warriors (1979). Kelly's tight-lipped expressions and attitude that made him appear like a grenade with the pin pulled, got him plenty of roles playing defiant young men, often in trouble with authority. He locked horns with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in Walter Hill's fast-paced 48 Hrs. (1982), was dropped over a cliff by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the violent Commando (1985), was a member of a trio of killers after Harry Dean Stanton in David Lynch's' Wild at Heart (1990), and played, T Bird, the leader of a gang of arsonist murderers in The Crow (1994). His range of roles in a wide variety of genres has earned him great respect in Hollywood as he is a wonderfully captivating actor. One of his most popular and influential performances came with the unsettling screeching cries of "Warriors, come out to plaaayyy", from his debut on-screen role!
Mary Lou Rosato
Mary Lou Rosato teaches 2nd Year Acting at DGSD at Yale. She is an actress, director, and teacher in New York City whose career has spanned 50 years. She trained at the Juilliard School Drama Division from 1968 to 1972 (in Group 1) under John Houseman and Michel Saint-Denis, and went on to become a founding member of The Acting Company. With them, in a collaboration that continues to this day, she has performed major roles in a wide range of plays including The Three Sisters, The Time of Your Life, Beggars Opera, Measure for Measure, King Lear, The School for Scandal (Drama Desk Award), Women Beware Women, The Lower Depths, The Robber Bridegroom (Drama Desk nomination), Mother Courage, The Cradle Will Rock, Ten By Tennessee, and many others in New York (on and off Broadway), on tour across the US, and around the world.
In New York she has been seen in plays and musicals from The Suicide with Derek Jacobi, to the Broadway revival of Once Upon A Mattress (in the role of Queen Aggravain) starring Sarah Jessica Parker. She was in The Inspector General directed by Liviu Ciulei at Circle in the Square, Henry the Fifth at TFNA starring Mark Rylance in his New York debut, The Misanthrope with Roger Rees and Uma Thurman, and in The Winter’s Tale at the Classic Stage Company. She performed the role The Shadow in the Lincoln Center Festival’s production of My Life as a Fairy Tale with Fiona Shaw as Hans Christian Anderson, directed by Chen Shi Zheng and music by Stephin Merritt.
Outside New York, her musical roles have included the Old Lady in Candide (Guthrie), Madame Arcati in High Spirits (Berkshire Theater Festival), both Meg and Miss Gilchrist in separate productions of The Hostage, and The Peach Blossom Fan (another collaboration with Chen Shi Zheng and Stephin Merritt at REDCAT in Los Angeles).
She has performed in plays at major theaters throughout the US and internationally, among them the Yale Rep (The Alchemist, and Elizabeth: Almost By Chance a Woman), the Guthrie (Candide), American Repertory Theater (The Miser), Shakespeare Theater in Washington (The Witch of Edmonton and King Lear), Seattle Repertory (The Misanthrope), McCarter (Triumph of Love, Changes of Heart, Mirandolina), the Old Globe in San Diego (The Hostage), South Coast Repertory (The Clean House), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (Medea), the Williamstown Theatre Festival (Camino Real), as well as the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, REDCAT, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Old Vic in London, the Taganka Theatre in Moscow, the Aarhus Theatre Festival in Denmark, Teatre Bourgogne in Dijon, France and La Compagnia De’ Colombari in Orvieto and Forli, Italy. She won a Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in The Curse Of An Aching Heart at the St. Nicholas Theater Company, and was nominated for an LA Drama Critics Award for her performance in Changes of Heart at the Mark Taper Forum. She has attended the Playwrights Lab at Sundance. In the course of her career, she has performed in a wide range of classical and modern plays by Shakespeare, Euripides, Middleton, Moliere, Goldoni, Congreve, Marivaux, Chekhov, Shaw, Anouilh, Feydeau, Williams, Wesker, Saroyan, Coward, Wilder, Rhul, Jenkins, and many others.
Her film credits include Quiz Show, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Wedding Banquet, Two Bits, Spike of Bensonhurst, and Illuminata. TV appearances include Warehouse 13, Titus , Law and Order: SVU, Miami Vice, Michael Hayes, Caroline in the City, The Lot, a PBS special – New Actor’s for the Classics, CBS-TV drama Stone Pillow with Lucille Ball, A Festival at Ford’s Theater, and the 51st Annual Tony Awards.
A member of SDC, her directing credits include The Beaux Stratagem (Pearl Theater), As You Like It (The Juilliard School) and her original adaptation of Henry V: Crispian’s Day at the Boars Head (The Acting Company), California Institute of the Arts productions: The House of Bernarda Alba, As You Like It, Il Ventalio (The Fan), Trojan Women, Henry V: Crispian’s Day at the Boars Head (2001), Henry the Fifth, Way of the World, The Time of Your Life, Death of a Poet (her original devised piece using Lorca’s plays and writings), Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s Richard II for the Creative Pulse Company (LA), and Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth, for the Quisqueya Company (NYC).
Since returning to New York in 2016, she has performed in The Skin of Our Teeth (TFNA), in the Government Inspector (Red Bull), in The Bridge of the San Luis Rey (Two River Theater Company), which she reprised at Miami New Drama in the fall of 2019 (Carbonell Award Nomination). In June 2019, she performed in New York downtown in Clubbed Thumb’s new play festival in King Philip’s Head is Still in That Pike Just Down the Road. She also joined the graduating class of 2018 at Juilliard in their fall production of Everybody by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins playing the role of Death directed by Danya Taymor.
Throughout her career, she has taught actors. From 1998 to May 2016 Mary Lou was on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts, in 2009 becoming Co-Head of its BFA Acting Program with Nataki Garrett, a position she held till her return to NYC in 2016.
In New York she has been seen in plays and musicals from The Suicide with Derek Jacobi, to the Broadway revival of Once Upon A Mattress (in the role of Queen Aggravain) starring Sarah Jessica Parker. She was in The Inspector General directed by Liviu Ciulei at Circle in the Square, Henry the Fifth at TFNA starring Mark Rylance in his New York debut, The Misanthrope with Roger Rees and Uma Thurman, and in The Winter’s Tale at the Classic Stage Company. She performed the role The Shadow in the Lincoln Center Festival’s production of My Life as a Fairy Tale with Fiona Shaw as Hans Christian Anderson, directed by Chen Shi Zheng and music by Stephin Merritt.
Outside New York, her musical roles have included the Old Lady in Candide (Guthrie), Madame Arcati in High Spirits (Berkshire Theater Festival), both Meg and Miss Gilchrist in separate productions of The Hostage, and The Peach Blossom Fan (another collaboration with Chen Shi Zheng and Stephin Merritt at REDCAT in Los Angeles).
She has performed in plays at major theaters throughout the US and internationally, among them the Yale Rep (The Alchemist, and Elizabeth: Almost By Chance a Woman), the Guthrie (Candide), American Repertory Theater (The Miser), Shakespeare Theater in Washington (The Witch of Edmonton and King Lear), Seattle Repertory (The Misanthrope), McCarter (Triumph of Love, Changes of Heart, Mirandolina), the Old Globe in San Diego (The Hostage), South Coast Repertory (The Clean House), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (Medea), the Williamstown Theatre Festival (Camino Real), as well as the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, REDCAT, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Old Vic in London, the Taganka Theatre in Moscow, the Aarhus Theatre Festival in Denmark, Teatre Bourgogne in Dijon, France and La Compagnia De’ Colombari in Orvieto and Forli, Italy. She won a Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in The Curse Of An Aching Heart at the St. Nicholas Theater Company, and was nominated for an LA Drama Critics Award for her performance in Changes of Heart at the Mark Taper Forum. She has attended the Playwrights Lab at Sundance. In the course of her career, she has performed in a wide range of classical and modern plays by Shakespeare, Euripides, Middleton, Moliere, Goldoni, Congreve, Marivaux, Chekhov, Shaw, Anouilh, Feydeau, Williams, Wesker, Saroyan, Coward, Wilder, Rhul, Jenkins, and many others.
Her film credits include Quiz Show, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Wedding Banquet, Two Bits, Spike of Bensonhurst, and Illuminata. TV appearances include Warehouse 13, Titus , Law and Order: SVU, Miami Vice, Michael Hayes, Caroline in the City, The Lot, a PBS special – New Actor’s for the Classics, CBS-TV drama Stone Pillow with Lucille Ball, A Festival at Ford’s Theater, and the 51st Annual Tony Awards.
A member of SDC, her directing credits include The Beaux Stratagem (Pearl Theater), As You Like It (The Juilliard School) and her original adaptation of Henry V: Crispian’s Day at the Boars Head (The Acting Company), California Institute of the Arts productions: The House of Bernarda Alba, As You Like It, Il Ventalio (The Fan), Trojan Women, Henry V: Crispian’s Day at the Boars Head (2001), Henry the Fifth, Way of the World, The Time of Your Life, Death of a Poet (her original devised piece using Lorca’s plays and writings), Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare’s Richard II for the Creative Pulse Company (LA), and Shakespeare’s Henry the Fifth, for the Quisqueya Company (NYC).
Since returning to New York in 2016, she has performed in The Skin of Our Teeth (TFNA), in the Government Inspector (Red Bull), in The Bridge of the San Luis Rey (Two River Theater Company), which she reprised at Miami New Drama in the fall of 2019 (Carbonell Award Nomination). In June 2019, she performed in New York downtown in Clubbed Thumb’s new play festival in King Philip’s Head is Still in That Pike Just Down the Road. She also joined the graduating class of 2018 at Juilliard in their fall production of Everybody by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins playing the role of Death directed by Danya Taymor.
Throughout her career, she has taught actors. From 1998 to May 2016 Mary Lou was on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts, in 2009 becoming Co-Head of its BFA Acting Program with Nataki Garrett, a position she held till her return to NYC in 2016.
Michael Cerveris
Michael Cerveris is an American actor, singer, and guitarist. He has performed in many stage musicals and plays, including several Stephen Sondheim musicals: Assassins, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Road Show, and Passion. In 2004, Cerveris won the Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Assassins as John Wilkes Booth. In 2015, he won his second Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for Fun Home as Bruce Bechdel.
He was called, by Playbill.com, "arguably the most versatile leading man on Broadway,"playing roles from Shakespeare's Romeo to The Who's Tommy, from the German transsexual rock diva Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch to the homicidal title character of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.
Cerveris' most visible television role to date has been as the Observer code-named September in the FOX science fiction television series Fringe. His character, a mysterious man seen attending many unusual events, appeared regularly during the series and became one of the main characters to bring the story to its end.
He was called, by Playbill.com, "arguably the most versatile leading man on Broadway,"playing roles from Shakespeare's Romeo to The Who's Tommy, from the German transsexual rock diva Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch to the homicidal title character of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.
Cerveris' most visible television role to date has been as the Observer code-named September in the FOX science fiction television series Fringe. His character, a mysterious man seen attending many unusual events, appeared regularly during the series and became one of the main characters to bring the story to its end.
Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn joined the Juilliard School's faculty in 1968, becoming the head of its drama school. He is an American theater director and drama educator. He has, since 1986, been the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. He retired from the Shakespeare Theatre in 2019. He held the position of Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School from 1992 to 2006.
After beginning his career off-off-Broadway in 1964, directing experimental theater and other works, including Shakespeare, Kahn had both notable failures and successes with Broadway projects, winning acclaim especially for productions of The Royal Family (1975–76) and Show Boat (1983). During his long tenure as artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kahn has overseen its growth, including initiating its Free For All productions. He has also acted as artistic director for several other companies, continued to direct regional theater and opera, and received various awards and honors.
After beginning his career off-off-Broadway in 1964, directing experimental theater and other works, including Shakespeare, Kahn had both notable failures and successes with Broadway projects, winning acclaim especially for productions of The Royal Family (1975–76) and Show Boat (1983). During his long tenure as artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Kahn has overseen its growth, including initiating its Free For All productions. He has also acted as artistic director for several other companies, continued to direct regional theater and opera, and received various awards and honors.
Jacqueline Knapp
Jacqueline Knapp has been a professional actress for over 35 years on Broadway, Off-Broadway, 23 Regional Theaters, film, and television. She’s had the good fortune of working with Al Pacino, Tom Hulce, and John Spencer, among others.
A voice-over artist for many years, Jacqueline was the voice for CBS TV’s public service series, “Reach Out.” She was also the voice for PBS TV’s“Who Is She?” – a short series about women painted and sculpted by famous artists.
She wrote and produced television specials for several years with her then husband, SNL’s Don Roy King. She also had the honor of directing Bing Crosby doing a voice over for a fire prevention campaign she created.
She’s been teaching and coaching for 30 years and is presently teaching acting for the Actors Studio Drama School MFA Graduate Program at Pace University.
Jacqueline has been a member of the Actors Studio for over 30 years where she worked under the amazing tutelage of Lee Strasberg. She was also mentored by Elia Kazan, Arthur Penn, and Ellen Burstyn. She’s been a Board Member for 10 years, and was Associate Artistic Director, along with Elizabeth Kemp, for over 5 years. She has also been a regular session moderator at the Studio.
Jacqueline has been offering her very popular and successful workshop for artists, The Creative Core, for 20 years independently, as well as to the incoming classes at ASDS at Pace University.
A voice-over artist for many years, Jacqueline was the voice for CBS TV’s public service series, “Reach Out.” She was also the voice for PBS TV’s“Who Is She?” – a short series about women painted and sculpted by famous artists.
She wrote and produced television specials for several years with her then husband, SNL’s Don Roy King. She also had the honor of directing Bing Crosby doing a voice over for a fire prevention campaign she created.
She’s been teaching and coaching for 30 years and is presently teaching acting for the Actors Studio Drama School MFA Graduate Program at Pace University.
Jacqueline has been a member of the Actors Studio for over 30 years where she worked under the amazing tutelage of Lee Strasberg. She was also mentored by Elia Kazan, Arthur Penn, and Ellen Burstyn. She’s been a Board Member for 10 years, and was Associate Artistic Director, along with Elizabeth Kemp, for over 5 years. She has also been a regular session moderator at the Studio.
Jacqueline has been offering her very popular and successful workshop for artists, The Creative Core, for 20 years independently, as well as to the incoming classes at ASDS at Pace University.
Isaac Butler
ISAAC BUTLER IS the co-author (with Dan Kois) of The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America, which NPR named one of the best books of 2018. His writing has appeared in New York, The Guardian, American Theatre, and other publications. He has also written for Slate, where he created and hosted Lend Me Your Ears, a podcast about Shakespeare and politics, and currently co-hosts Working, a podcast about the creative process. His work as a director has been seen on stages throughout the United States. He is the co-creator, with Darcy James Argue and Peter Nigrini, of Real Enemies, a multimedia exploration of conspiracy theories in the American psyche, which was named one of the best live events of 2015 by The New York Times and has been adapted into a feature-length film. Butler teaches theater history and performance at The New School and elsewhere, and lives in Brooklyn. His new book, The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act, was published to critical acclaim earlier this year.
The Method is a biography of the acting system that originated in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, and eventually completely changed acting in the United States, across theater, television, and film, through teachers such as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, and the New York City acting school The Actors Studio. Butler weaves together personalities, the theater, Hollywood, and world-changing historical events into, as Alexandra Schwartz put it in The New Yorker, “an entertaining, maximally informative” narrative.
The Method is a biography of the acting system that originated in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, and eventually completely changed acting in the United States, across theater, television, and film, through teachers such as Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler, and the New York City acting school The Actors Studio. Butler weaves together personalities, the theater, Hollywood, and world-changing historical events into, as Alexandra Schwartz put it in The New Yorker, “an entertaining, maximally informative” narrative.
Ellie Heyman
Ellie is the founder and Artistic Director of the New York-based Ellie Heyman Acting Studio whose clients range from Broadway and film actors to executives from Fortune 500 companies. Ellie has taught acting at Franklin & Marshall College, Boston University, Whole Physical Theatre Laboratory, and Pegasus Players, among other notable institutions.
Ellie is the Artistic Director of Neutral Milk Hotel members’ rock band, The Music Tapes. Her production of The Traveling Imaginary, presented by The Orbiting Human Circus, enjoyed a successful world tour in 2012-2013. Ellie also serves as Artistic Director of Helikon Repertory Theatre which is currently developing a new piece about the life and work of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Anne Sexton and a re-imagining of Eugene O’Neil’s Desire Under the Elms.
Ellie works with “actors,” in the most literal sense of the word, meaning someone who takes action; someone who fully commits to speaking his truth within a given circumstance. Since all effective communication is rooted in authenticity, Ellie finds joy in helping corporate executives, professional actors, and public figures express themselves with clarity, freedom, and precision.
Ellie is the Artistic Director of Neutral Milk Hotel members’ rock band, The Music Tapes. Her production of The Traveling Imaginary, presented by The Orbiting Human Circus, enjoyed a successful world tour in 2012-2013. Ellie also serves as Artistic Director of Helikon Repertory Theatre which is currently developing a new piece about the life and work of Pulitzer Prize winning poet Anne Sexton and a re-imagining of Eugene O’Neil’s Desire Under the Elms.
Ellie works with “actors,” in the most literal sense of the word, meaning someone who takes action; someone who fully commits to speaking his truth within a given circumstance. Since all effective communication is rooted in authenticity, Ellie finds joy in helping corporate executives, professional actors, and public figures express themselves with clarity, freedom, and precision.
Jared Sakren
Jared Sakren has had a long and distinguished career in the American Theatre, having performed on Broadway, Off- Broadway, on national tours, in regional theatre, in civic theatres, and in academic programs. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School (Group One), where he received a full-ride scholarship to the acting program as well as the recipient of a Juilliard Fellowship for advanced study. He is a founding member of the Acting Company under John Houseman, where he performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and on national tours.
Jared has extensive experience in Theatre Training and Education. As an internationally-renowned Master Teacher in the use of Masks in training and performance, Jared taught workshops or directed projects at most of the top drama programs in the US and abroad, including at Yale School of Drama, American Conservatory Theatre, Juilliard, NYU Graduate Acting Program, The Old Globe Theatre, The British-American Drama Academy at Oxford University, Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, the National Theatre Conservatory, the North Carolina School of the Arts, Cornell University, and conducted master workshops or served as Mask/Movement Director at many of the nation’s top regional theaters such as The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival where he was the Director of the MFA Professional Actor Training Program and an actor and director with the company.
Other theaters where Mr. Sakren has acted include The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, The Northern Stage Company, The Cleveland Play House, Phoenix Theatre, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Jewish Theatre, Southwest Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Sedona, New York’s Theatre For The New City, and the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles where he was part of the cast of Much Ado About Nothing starring Helen Hunt, David Ogden Stiers, and Lyle Lovett.
He has also been a prolific director and master teacher. Jared has operated on both sides of organizational leadership--- both on the artistic side and the business side. For 15 years he was the Producing Artistic Director of Southwest Shakespeare Company, which operated under a LORT-D LOA with Actors Equity and during which time he helped to quadruple the budget and usher the company into their new home at the $100 million Mesa Arts Center. He directed or produced nearly every title in the Shakespeare canon, new works, as well as many other classical works. Most recently he served as Executive Director, then as Producing Artistic Director, of 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, CA, operating under the Bay Area Theatres contract of Actors Equity during which time the budget doubled in size and the company was able to purchase their building---- the historic former Del Monte Cannery, housing 2 theatres, production offices and shops. During his time there the theatre won many awards, and was voted Best Theatre Company in Sonoma County 7 out of the last 8 years and where he oversaw the creation of over 80 productions, in two venues. Other directing credits include productions at Arizona’s Black Theatre Troupe, The Denver Center Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theatre, Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Sedona, and numerous productions for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
Jared is a Fellow of the Virginia G. Piper Trust and is a recipient of many awards including the Award for Teaching Excellence at The International Training Festival, Milwaukee, WI, as well as receiving a Florence Gould Foundation Grant for Teaching Research in France at the Maison Daste’-Copeau.
Jared has extensive experience in Theatre Training and Education. As an internationally-renowned Master Teacher in the use of Masks in training and performance, Jared taught workshops or directed projects at most of the top drama programs in the US and abroad, including at Yale School of Drama, American Conservatory Theatre, Juilliard, NYU Graduate Acting Program, The Old Globe Theatre, The British-American Drama Academy at Oxford University, Sydney’s National Institute of Dramatic Art, the National Theatre Conservatory, the North Carolina School of the Arts, Cornell University, and conducted master workshops or served as Mask/Movement Director at many of the nation’s top regional theaters such as The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival where he was the Director of the MFA Professional Actor Training Program and an actor and director with the company.
Other theaters where Mr. Sakren has acted include The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, The Northern Stage Company, The Cleveland Play House, Phoenix Theatre, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Arizona Theatre Company, Arizona Jewish Theatre, Southwest Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Sedona, New York’s Theatre For The New City, and the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles where he was part of the cast of Much Ado About Nothing starring Helen Hunt, David Ogden Stiers, and Lyle Lovett.
He has also been a prolific director and master teacher. Jared has operated on both sides of organizational leadership--- both on the artistic side and the business side. For 15 years he was the Producing Artistic Director of Southwest Shakespeare Company, which operated under a LORT-D LOA with Actors Equity and during which time he helped to quadruple the budget and usher the company into their new home at the $100 million Mesa Arts Center. He directed or produced nearly every title in the Shakespeare canon, new works, as well as many other classical works. Most recently he served as Executive Director, then as Producing Artistic Director, of 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, CA, operating under the Bay Area Theatres contract of Actors Equity during which time the budget doubled in size and the company was able to purchase their building---- the historic former Del Monte Cannery, housing 2 theatres, production offices and shops. During his time there the theatre won many awards, and was voted Best Theatre Company in Sonoma County 7 out of the last 8 years and where he oversaw the creation of over 80 productions, in two venues. Other directing credits include productions at Arizona’s Black Theatre Troupe, The Denver Center Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theatre, Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Sedona, and numerous productions for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
Jared is a Fellow of the Virginia G. Piper Trust and is a recipient of many awards including the Award for Teaching Excellence at The International Training Festival, Milwaukee, WI, as well as receiving a Florence Gould Foundation Grant for Teaching Research in France at the Maison Daste’-Copeau.
Joanna Merlin
Joanna Merlin is an actress and casting director who was born in Chicago, Illinois. She made her motion-picture debut in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956). In 1961 she made her Broadway debut as a replacement performer in "A Far Country," a play about Sigmund Freud. Next on Broadway she created the role of Tzeitel in the original production of "Fiddler on the Roof," produced by Harold Prince. Beginning with the original production of "Company," Merlin served as casting director for a now-legendary string of Broadway musical plays on which Prince collaborated with composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, including "Follies," "A Little Night Music," "Pacific Overtures," "Sweeney Todd," and "Merrily We Roll Along." Merlin's other Broadway casting credits include the Prince-directed "On the Twentieth Century," "Evita," "A Doll's Life," "Play Memory," and "End of the World." Since 1975, she has worked regularly as an actress in feature films, counting among her credits such notable motion pictures as Hester Street (1975); All That Jazz (1979); Fame (1980); The Killing Fields (1984); and Mystic Pizza (1988). Merlin appeared in several episodes of Law & Order (1990), and for the past four and one-half years she has appeared in the recurring role of Judge Lena Petrovsky on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).
Wendy Smith
Wendy Smith is a contributing editor at the American Scholar and writes regularly for the book review sections of the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune.
Jonathan Kells Phillips
Jonathan Kells Phillips is an actor and producer, known for Condor, Yellowstone and The Americans. He spent two years studying and working at the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) under Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov. He holds degrees in Slavic Literature & Languages from the University of Michigan, and in Russian & East European Studies from Harvard University.
Evan Yionoulis
Evan Yionoulis is the Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of the Drama Division of the Juilliard School, having formerly been Professor in the Practice of Acting and Directing at Yale School of Drama, where she taught for twenty years.
She is an award-winning director who has directed new plays and classics in New York and across the U.S. She opened Manhattan Theatre Club’s Biltmore Theatre (Broadway) with Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour, directed his Everett Beekin at Lincoln Center Theatre and received an Obie Award for her direction of his Three Days of Rain at Manhattan Theatre Club, having directed their premieres at South Coast Repertory. She directed the critically acclaimed productions of Adrienne Kennedy’s He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box and Ohio State Murders (Lortel Award for Best Revival), as well as the Off-Broadway premiere of Howard Brenton’s Sore Throats, for Theatre for a New Audience. She directed the premieres of Daisy Foote’s Him at Primary Stages and her Bhutan at the Cherry Lane; Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood (starring Kate Burton) at Williamstown Theatre Festival.
As a writer, she adapted Carlo Gozzi’s The King Stag with Mike Yionoulis, who also wrote music and lyrics, and Catherine Sheehy, and directed its premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre. Also with Mike Yionoulis, she adapted Euripides’ Medea (premiere, Muhlenberg College) and collaborated with him on Flights of Angels, a music theatre piece based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet (workshop, Second Stage). Their short film, Lost and Found, premiered at Cleveland International Film Festival. Their most ambitious collaboration is Redhand Guitar, a multi-platform project about five generations of musicians across an American century.
She has been supported at writer’s residencies including Weston Playhouse, 100W in Corsicana, Texas, and Wildacres Retreat.
As a long-time resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, she directed Cymbeline, Richard II, The Master Builder, George F. Walker’s Heaven, Brecht’s Galileo, and numerous other productions including Caryl Churchill’s Owners, Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss, and the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Bossa Nova.
She has directed Seven, a documentary theatre piece about extraordinary women from across the globe who work for human rights, in New York, Boston, Washington, Aspen, London, Deauville, and New Delhi.
Other credits include productions at the Mark Taper Forum, the Huntington, NY Shakespeare Festival, the Vineyard, the Cherry Lane, 2econd Stage, American Music Theatre Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Center, Portland Stage, PlayMakers Rep, and many others, by such playwrights as Warren Leight, Elizabeth Egloff, Nicky Silver, Naomi Iizuka, Keith Reddin, and Dick Beebe.
She received a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship and was subsequently awarded the Foundation’s prestigious statuette. She was awarded a Princess Grace Foundation Works-in-Progress Residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2017 to develop The Dread Pirate Project, about malleability of identity across the digital and natural worlds.
She serves as President of the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
She is an award-winning director who has directed new plays and classics in New York and across the U.S. She opened Manhattan Theatre Club’s Biltmore Theatre (Broadway) with Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour, directed his Everett Beekin at Lincoln Center Theatre and received an Obie Award for her direction of his Three Days of Rain at Manhattan Theatre Club, having directed their premieres at South Coast Repertory. She directed the critically acclaimed productions of Adrienne Kennedy’s He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box and Ohio State Murders (Lortel Award for Best Revival), as well as the Off-Broadway premiere of Howard Brenton’s Sore Throats, for Theatre for a New Audience. She directed the premieres of Daisy Foote’s Him at Primary Stages and her Bhutan at the Cherry Lane; Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood (starring Kate Burton) at Williamstown Theatre Festival.
As a writer, she adapted Carlo Gozzi’s The King Stag with Mike Yionoulis, who also wrote music and lyrics, and Catherine Sheehy, and directed its premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre. Also with Mike Yionoulis, she adapted Euripides’ Medea (premiere, Muhlenberg College) and collaborated with him on Flights of Angels, a music theatre piece based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet (workshop, Second Stage). Their short film, Lost and Found, premiered at Cleveland International Film Festival. Their most ambitious collaboration is Redhand Guitar, a multi-platform project about five generations of musicians across an American century.
She has been supported at writer’s residencies including Weston Playhouse, 100W in Corsicana, Texas, and Wildacres Retreat.
As a long-time resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, she directed Cymbeline, Richard II, The Master Builder, George F. Walker’s Heaven, Brecht’s Galileo, and numerous other productions including Caryl Churchill’s Owners, Guillermo Calderón’s Kiss, and the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Bossa Nova.
She has directed Seven, a documentary theatre piece about extraordinary women from across the globe who work for human rights, in New York, Boston, Washington, Aspen, London, Deauville, and New Delhi.
Other credits include productions at the Mark Taper Forum, the Huntington, NY Shakespeare Festival, the Vineyard, the Cherry Lane, 2econd Stage, American Music Theatre Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Center, Portland Stage, PlayMakers Rep, and many others, by such playwrights as Warren Leight, Elizabeth Egloff, Nicky Silver, Naomi Iizuka, Keith Reddin, and Dick Beebe.
She received a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship and was subsequently awarded the Foundation’s prestigious statuette. She was awarded a Princess Grace Foundation Works-in-Progress Residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2017 to develop The Dread Pirate Project, about malleability of identity across the digital and natural worlds.
She serves as President of the Executive Board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Angela Pietropinto
Upon receiving her Masters from the NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program, Angela Pietropinto
joined with 5 of her classmates under the direction of Andre Gregory to help form The
Manhattan Project Theater Co. During its 8 -year existence, the Company performed on 4
continents and garnered 2 Drama Desk Awards and an Obie Award.
Once the Company disbanded, Ms. Pietropinto went on to perform in leading and featured
roles on and off-Broadway, in Regional Theater, Television and Film. She has enjoyed all of her
40+ year career as an actor but one of the highlights are playing opposite Derek Jacobi in her
Broadway debut in THE SUICIDE (1980) and went on to return to Broadway in EASTERN
STANDARD, TARTUFFE: BORN AGAIN, and THE RITZ.
Ms. Pietropinto has played Off-Broadway at The Public Theater, Shakespeare in the Park, The
Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights Horizons, Theater Four, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab,
Minetta Lane Theater, Cherry Lane Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater and LaMama.
Ms. Pietropinto’s Regional Theater Credits include George Street Playhouse in New Jersey, The
White Barn and The O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference in Connecticut, The Old Globe in California
and the Wilma in Philadephia.
On the little screen Angela Pietropinto has portraited an assortment of Moms, Doctors,
Lawyers, Secretaries, Physcologists, Nuns and Mob Wives on THE SOPRANOS (opposite James
Gandolfini).
She has acting in over 25 films which afforded her the opportunity of working with great
Directors like Martin Scorsesse (GOODFELLAS opposite Paul Sorvino), Mike Nichols
(HEARTBURN), Sidney Lumet (RUNNING ON EMPTY), Robert Benton (NOBODY’S FOOL opposite
Paul Newman), Marc Forster (STAY), John Patrick Shanley (DOUBT), John Singleton (SHAFT
opposite Samuel L. Jackson) and Todd Solandz in WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE which won the
1995 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: she revised her role of Marj Weiner in Mr. Solandz’s film
PALINDROMES.
On the Independent Film Circuit Angela Pietropinto has won multiple awards including:
Audience Favorite at the Sarasota Film Festival
Best Actress in a comedy – New York City International Film Festival
Best Actress in a SCI-FI short (Alchemy) – Venus Film Festival in Las Vegas
Ms. Pietropinto has taught Acting at Yale, The Michael Howard Studios and has been on the
faculty as a Professor of Acting at NYU Tisch School of the Arts for over 25 years.
joined with 5 of her classmates under the direction of Andre Gregory to help form The
Manhattan Project Theater Co. During its 8 -year existence, the Company performed on 4
continents and garnered 2 Drama Desk Awards and an Obie Award.
Once the Company disbanded, Ms. Pietropinto went on to perform in leading and featured
roles on and off-Broadway, in Regional Theater, Television and Film. She has enjoyed all of her
40+ year career as an actor but one of the highlights are playing opposite Derek Jacobi in her
Broadway debut in THE SUICIDE (1980) and went on to return to Broadway in EASTERN
STANDARD, TARTUFFE: BORN AGAIN, and THE RITZ.
Ms. Pietropinto has played Off-Broadway at The Public Theater, Shakespeare in the Park, The
Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights Horizons, Theater Four, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab,
Minetta Lane Theater, Cherry Lane Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater and LaMama.
Ms. Pietropinto’s Regional Theater Credits include George Street Playhouse in New Jersey, The
White Barn and The O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference in Connecticut, The Old Globe in California
and the Wilma in Philadephia.
On the little screen Angela Pietropinto has portraited an assortment of Moms, Doctors,
Lawyers, Secretaries, Physcologists, Nuns and Mob Wives on THE SOPRANOS (opposite James
Gandolfini).
She has acting in over 25 films which afforded her the opportunity of working with great
Directors like Martin Scorsesse (GOODFELLAS opposite Paul Sorvino), Mike Nichols
(HEARTBURN), Sidney Lumet (RUNNING ON EMPTY), Robert Benton (NOBODY’S FOOL opposite
Paul Newman), Marc Forster (STAY), John Patrick Shanley (DOUBT), John Singleton (SHAFT
opposite Samuel L. Jackson) and Todd Solandz in WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE which won the
1995 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: she revised her role of Marj Weiner in Mr. Solandz’s film
PALINDROMES.
On the Independent Film Circuit Angela Pietropinto has won multiple awards including:
Audience Favorite at the Sarasota Film Festival
Best Actress in a comedy – New York City International Film Festival
Best Actress in a SCI-FI short (Alchemy) – Venus Film Festival in Las Vegas
Ms. Pietropinto has taught Acting at Yale, The Michael Howard Studios and has been on the
faculty as a Professor of Acting at NYU Tisch School of the Arts for over 25 years.
Rodrigo Scalari
Rodrigo Cardoso Scalari is actor, researcher and theatre teacher. PhD in Theatre Studies by the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III (FR), with the support of the Full Doctorate Abroad Scholarship from CAPES (Ministry of Education/Brazil). Master in Theatre by the University of Campinas (UNICAMP/Brazil), with the support of the FAPESP Master Scholarship (Government of São Paulo/Brazil). Graduated in Theatre by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS/Brazil). At the École Philippe Gaulier (FR), he studied acting styles: Le Jeu, Neutral Mask, Greek Tragedy, Larval Masks, Commedia dell'Arte, Characters, Melodrama, Shakespeare/Tchekhov, Buffoon and Clown. He is particularly interested in discussions on the education, training and direction of the actor.
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