ACTING
Michael Cadman
NTI ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
A Graduate of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and before that a leading member of Britain's National Youth Theatre, Michael Cadman has enjoyed a long career in British theatre, television and film. He began teaching at The National Theater Institute in 1994 after close to five years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has also taught at De Trap, one of Amsterdam's foremost theatre schools, and The London Centre for Theatre
Studies.
Joseph Urla
Since graduating from the Yale School of Drama, Joe has spent 20 years making his living exclusively as an actor. His theatre credits include 11 seasons at the National Playwrights Conference, Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, directed by Mark Lamos at Yale Rep, Prince Hal at Williamstown, directed by Austin Pendleton, and leading roles at Second Stage, New York Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, and Actors Theatre of Louisville, among others. He has performed extensively on television and film, including the critically acclaimed film Indictment, for HBO, and is frequently pestered about his 6 episodes on Seinfeld.
DESIGN
G.W. Mercier
On Broadway, G.W. Mercier designed Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass by Julie Taymor and Elliott Goldenthal at the Vivian Beaumont, for which he received a Tony Nomination for Scenery and two Drama Desk Nominations for both Scenery and Costumes. Off-Broadway, at the Vineyard Theatre, Dream True by Tina Landau and Ricky Ian Gordon and Bed and Sofa by Polly Pen and Lawrence Klavan, procured him two additional Drama Desk Nominations. After completing his training at Yale over 280 of his designs for theater, opera, dance, film and television have been realized. He works frequently on Broadway and in major Regional Theaters throughout the United States with notable directors. From 1984-2004 Mr. Mercier was a key figure at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, helping writers visualize a world for their work. He relishes participation in the creation of new work, and derives creative sustenance in exciting collaborations.
PLAYWRITING
Donna DiNovelli
An O'Neill Music Theater Conference participant; a Manhattan Theatre Club Fellow. Work performed at the New York City Opera, Joseph Papp Public Theater, Mark Taper Forum. Commissioned by the BBC and Chanticleer to write radio plays; residencies at Mabou Mines, Atlantic Center for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, Millay Colony, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; 2001-2002 Resident Artist at Mabou Mines. She has taught at Brown University MFA program now on faculty at NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.
DIRECTING
Under the guidance of Michael Cadman, a rotation of guest faculty and guest artists teach and mentor the directing class. Spring 2007 faculty and guests include Rebecca Taichman, Director of the off-Broadway run of Theresa Rebeck's The Scene, Kim Rubinstein, Associate Artistic Director at The Long Wharf Theatre, and Jeremy Cohen, Associate Artistic Director of Hartford Stage Company.
MOVEMENT
David Chandler
TAI CHI AND STAGE COMBAT
Teaching credits include the Ensemble Studio Theatre, INTAR Theater and Omega Institute, G.A.T.E.(Gregory Abels Training Ensemble, NYC), Connecticut College. Fight choreographer for Yale Shakespeare Club; Wellesley Shakespeare Club. Director of Eagle's Quest Tai Chi Center. Author of Overcoming Clumsiness.
Annmarie Davis
ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
Certified teacher with The Alexander Foundation. Teaching and choreography credits include: Shakespeare & Company, Playmakers of Baton Rouge, Swine Palace Productions, Tulane Shakespeare Festival, Louisiana State University and The Hartt School - Theatre Division. She has worked as an actress on stage, film and television. Annmarie studied movement and mask at Ecole Jacques Lecoq with Mons. Lecoq in Paris and The Alexander Technique with first generation teacher Elizabeth Walker in Oxford, UK.
Rachel Jett
DROZNIN METHOD (formerly Russian Movement)
Former member of the Synetic Theater and the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio in Washington, DC. Trained at the Schukin College of Theater Arts, Vakhtangov Theatre, Russia. Certified by Andrei Droznin, Master Teacher of Movement at the Vakhtangov Theatre.
Marya Ursin
YOGA AND MASK MAKING
Marya Christina Ursin began dancing at the age of 3. She danced while pre-med and political at Swarthmore College (BA), and while in grad school at Columbia University (psychoneuroendocrinology). While in NYC at a Graham intensive, she began her study of yoga at Swami Satchidananda's studio on West 13th Street. She finished her BA in art history, went to Paris to study at L'Ecole de Mime Marcel Marceau, and returned to NYC to train under Merce Cunningham, in whose studio she taught for eight years. Through the '70s and '80s, Marya performed as a dancer and mime in NYC and out with Laura Dean, Mimika, Bryan Hayes, Brynar Mehl, Mitchell Rose, Elaine Shipman, Sally Bowden, among others, performed as a dancer/singer off broadway, worked as a chef, architectural aide, model, third grade teacher, museum teacher, ran a dance studio in New London, Ct., performed as a solo dancer, trained as a yoga teacher, trained as a massage therapist, and taught (and continues to teach) yoga and dance at Connecticut College for the Dance Dept. and for the Community, at the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Centre, and at Dragon's Egg. She has taught yoga workshops throughout Connecticut. In 1989, Marya joined the Mystic Paper Beasts, of which she is now the Artistic Director. She writes, directs, and dances in the plays performed by the Beasts, and is involved in the design of the masks sculpted by Dan. She is the managing director for the Mystic Paper Beasts' rehearsal space, Dragon's Egg, a space designed by Dan and Marya. Together, Dan and Marya explore the inner and outer worlds of story and imagination. Marya takes dance at the Cunningham Studio and at Conn. College, and studies yoga on her own, in NYC, at Kripalu, in LA, and in Providence. She is currently enrolled in a graduate program at Wesleyan University. Marya has an amazing and gorgeous daughter, Ana.
VOICE
Robert Davis
LINKLATER TECHNIQUE
Certification as a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, 1993. Voice and dialect coaching for Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Swine Palace Productions, Shakespeare Festival at Tulane, Louisiana State University Theatre. Currently on the faculty at the Hartt School-Theatre Division. Member of the Voice & Speech Trainers Association.
Gillian Lane-Plescia
VOICE, SPEECH AND DIALECT
Dialect coach for Goodman, Guthrie, Steppenwolf, Alley, McCarter, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf and Seattle Repertory. Guest faculty at Juilliard and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Due to professional obligations, faculty may vary each semester.
SPECIAL WORKSHOPS
offerings may vary, depending upon the availability of the instructor
J. Ed Araiza
DIRECTING
SITI Company credits include: Midsummer Night's Dream, Systems/Layers, bobrauschenbergamerica, Culture of Desire, The Medium, Small Lives/Big Dreams, War of the Worlds and War of the Worlds/The Radio Play, at San Jose Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New York Theatre Workshop, Walker Arts Center, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Wexner Center, Theatre Artaud in San Francisco, Krannert Arts Center,Dublin Theatre Festival, Toga Arts Festival, Olympic Arts festival, The Public Theatre, The Kennedy Center and Edinburgh International Festival, BONN Biennial, Bobigny Festival in Paris and other venues. Regional Theater: The Cure at Troy, Yale Rep.(American Premier) ; Santos and Santos, Mixed Blood Theatre; Keely and Du (original cast), Hartford Stage and ATL; 1969 and Picnic, ATL; Yerma, Arena Stage; Principia Scriptoria, A Contemporary Theatre, Seattle; Charley Bacon, South Coast Rep.; King Lear, Macbeth, La Victima, Los Angeles Theatre Center. Off Broadway: Orestes, Occasional Grace, En Garde Arts; Words Divine, Intar; Eastern Standards, Duo Theatre; Body Game, Theatre for the New City; Raft of the Medusa, Minetta Lane Theatre. He has written the original plays Medeastories, C/O The Grove and The House all of which he directed in Austin, Texas. He wrote and directed The Lost Project at the University of Minnesota and directed Ladyleeroy and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Mary Moody Northern Theatre in Texas. J. Ed has been movement consultant on several productions at the Julliard School. Last spring he directed his original play Where Do I Begin at Naropa in Boulder Colorado and this summer worked as movement consultant to the Latino Theatre Company in Los Angeles on their production of Melancholia. Next spring he will write and direct an original production as the Coastal Center Artist-In-Residence at Bowdoin College. J. Ed was a member of El Teatro de la Esperanza and is a member of the Dramatist Guild and Austin Script Works. He teaches and studies with The SITI Company.
Kathleen Baum
BIOMECHANICS
A professional actress and teacher at Syracuse University. Studied with Gennadi Bogdanov, one of Russia's leading inheritors of the legacy of Meyerhold's Biomechanics. Recipient of The Meredith Award for excellence in teaching.
Adam Bock
PLAYWRIGHT'S WEEK
Second Stage produced Adam Bock's Swimming in the Shallows as part of its 2005 Uptown Series - the New York Times called the sold out production "a screwy little jewel." Shotgun Players' production of Swimming won the 2000 Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Awards for Best Original Script, Best Production, and Best Ensemble. The play was a Clauder Competition Award-winner, an L. Arnold Weissberger Award nominee,
and
a LA Weekly nominee.
These and other plays have been read or workshopped at New York Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, NYC's Vineyard Theater, Soho Rep, Underwood Theater, Rude Mechanicals NYC, the JAW/West Festival at Portland Center Stage, Printer's Devil, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theater, Salt Lake Actors Company, Southwark Theater, and Clubbed Thumb. Bock is an artistic associate at Shotgun Players and Encore Theater, and is a member of MCC's Writers Coalition, and has received commissions from Playwrights Horizons, the Kitchen Theater in Ithaca, and Salt Lake Acting Company.
Per Brahe
BALINESE MASK
Most recently has conducted extended workshops at the International Michael Chekhov Conference and the Actors Center in NYC. Faculty member at The Yale School of Drama, Juilliard School, and NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Founder of Denmark's Michael Chekhov Studio.
Jacqueline Brogan
AUDITION TECHNIQUE
As a writer/performer, Ms. Brogan has written Nixon's Daughters, a one woman show. This fall, Ms. Brogan performed an excerpt from the show at the First Fig Artists for Artists Benefit. She has appeared at HERE/Lincoln Center Directors' Lab in Joyce Carol Oates's Tone Clusters and at Access Theatre where she originated the role of Lucy in Caroline Case's Cages, directed by Abigail Deser. She can be heard in the UK on BBC radio in Edith Wharton's The Journey as part of the BBC's Radio Play series and on PBS as narrator of the upcoming documentary series Reasons for Hope. Most recently, Ms. Brogan was seen in Jose Rivera's Sonnets for an Old Century at HERE Arts Center with Velocity Theatre Company. Ms. Brogan also wrote On the Brink, a solo show, which was work-shopped at Manhattan Theatre Source and Access Theatre, and was directed by Jennifer Gibbs.
She is on the faculty of The National Theater Institute at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and the Michael Howard Studios, has taught at The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, SUNY/Purchase, The Actors Center, and works as a private acting coach. She trained as a coach and teacher at The American Repertory Theatre at Harvard.
Elaine Bromka
ACTING WITH THE CAMERA
Has been a professional actress for over thirty years. Film: Cindy, the mom in Uncle Buck; Without a Trace. T.V.: E.R., The Sopranos, Providence, Dharma & Greg, Sisters, L.A. Law, Law and Order, Law and Order: Special Victims' Unit, L&O: Criminal Intent, Stella Lombard on Days of Our Lives, the Emmy Award-winning Playing for Time with Vanessa Redgrave and Catch a Rainbow, for which Ms. Bromka herself won an Emmy. She has appeared on Broadway (The Rose Tattoo, I'm Not Rappaport, Macbeth) and off-Broadway (Cloud 9 at the Lucille Lortel, Roundabout's Inadmissible Evidence with Nicol Williamson, the world premiere of Michael Weller's Split at E.S.T. and Candide with the National Theatre of the Deaf.) She has played leads at regional theaters across the country; including Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, ACT/Seattle, O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Shakespeare and Company, McCarter Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, George Street Playhouse, and the Folger Theatre Group, in roles ranging from Much Ado's Beatrice to Shirley Valentine, cited as the outstanding solo performance in New Jersey in 1997 by the Star Ledger. Starring opposite Rich Little in The Presidents for P.B.S., she impersonated the last eight First Ladies. A member of the Actors Studio and a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College, she returned to Smith as a faculty member to teach Acting for the Media. Ms. Bromka has taught her one-day Acting for the Camera workshop at more than thirty colleges and prep schools across the country, and has been on the faculty of NTI for five years. Visit www.teaforthreetheplay.com.
Beth Falcone
ACCOMPANIST
Has been mentioned in The Chicago Sun Times for her "fiery piano playing." She was musical director for the BMI showcase last year and teaches voice privately in Manhattan. Beth is also a composer/lyricist in the advanced class of the BMI workshop, and last year she was chosen as a Jonathan Larson memorial Musical Theater Fellow. Her "tween" musical Wanda's World (Book by Eric Weinberger) had a workshop production in Toronto last summer and will have another reading this November at BMI. Beth holds a double masters degree from Northwestern University in piano performance/conducting. She is thrilled to be the O'Neill this summer! Thanks so much to Michael Bush for this great opportunity.
Michael Hackett
GREEK THEATER
Has directed for the Royal Opera; Covent Garden; the Royal Theater at the Hague and two of the State Theatres in Warsaw. Taught for three years at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Professor of Directing and Theatre History at the School of Theatre, Film and Television at UCLA.
Rebecca Bayla Taichman
FOUND TEXT IN PERFORMANCE
Rebecca is currently Associate Artistic Director at The Woolly Mammoth Theater through a grant from TCG's New Generations Program. She won the Barrymore/Harold Prince Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her production of Green Violin (which she also co-created) starring Raul Esparza at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia. She also directed/co-created the Obie award-winning Menopausal Gentleman. Rebecca has directed at Yale Repertory Theater, NY Stage and Film, The Market Theater, and The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, among others. She recently directed the Helen Hayes Award winning Anne Frank at Roundhouse Theater and the critically acclaimed Clean House by Sarah Ruhl at Woolly Mammoth. Next year she will be directing Velvet Sky by Roberto Aguire Sacassa at Woolly, The Scene by Theresa Rebeck at The Humana Festival, A Body of Water by Lee Blessing at Roundhouse, and Green Violin in St. Petersburg, Russia. She is currently teaching at University of Maryland, has taught at Yale University and the National Theater Institute, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
O'NEILL NATIONAL THEATER INSTITUTE STAFF
Michael Cadman
Artistic Director
Jean Routt
Executive Administrator
Helga Twomey
Administrative Assistant
