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Conversations With...
Actors and other amazing people (including scholars, directors, and teachers)
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.
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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