The Actor's Insight Series
Artists
David Anzuelo - Combat for Stage, Film & TV
Fight-Director: One Arm; Blood From A Stone; Mourning Becomes Electra; Rafta Rafta (The New Group). Squealer (Lesser America). The Libertine (Playhouse Creatures). Underneathmybed; Post No Bills; Killers & Other Family; War (Rattlestick Theater). Hamlet (Gallery Players). Othello (Shakespeare On The Sound). When Father Comes Home From the War (Public Theater). Guinea Pig Solo; Paradox of the Urban Cliche (LAByrinth). Tight Embrace (Intar). Monstrosity (13P). Passion Play (Irondale Theater). Film: Last Night At Angelo’s; Helen At Risk; The Ribbon; Palladium. Dave is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company and a retired 2nd degree black belt tournament fighter.
Chris Chalk - Audition with Confidence
Theater Credits include - Broadway: Fences. Off-Broadway: Ruined (Manhattan Theatre Club), Unconditional, (The Public, LAByrinth Theater Company), The Overwhelming (Roundabout), Defiance (Manhattan Theatre Club). Theatre: Gem of the Ocean (IRT), Children of Herakles, The Hasty Heart (Keen Company). Film: Burning Blue, Then She Found Me, Before The Devil, Recalled, The Architect, Rent. TV: "Nurse Jackie" (recurring), "The Good Wife," "Law & Order: CI," "Law & Order: SVU," "Law & Order," "Rescue Me," "Six Degrees." Training: University of North Carolina Greensboro. LAByrinth Theater Company Member.
Jill DeArmon - Emotional Accupuncture
Jill DeArmon started teaching theater at public elementary schools
while she was still attending Baltimore School of the Arts. After
studying dance and theater at Philadelphia University of the Arts,
she co-founded the theater department of the still thriving Young
People's Theatre Company (YPTC) in Maryland where she directed
10 shows in four years. Jill moved to New York City in
1995 and has taught
at ps11, Rebels With Applause, and The Lee Strasburg Institute. She was
the Managing Director of LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Directors:
Philip Seymour Hoffman & John Ortiz) from 1999-2002, and is the Artistic Director/Founder of Developing Artists Theater Company. Jill's New York choreography credits include: Stopless (LAByrinth Theater Company), Erin Cressida Wilson's Trail
of Her Inner Thigh (LAByrinth), John Patrick Shanley's first
musical A Winter Party (LAByrinth Theater Company), A
Taste of Honey (Theatre 22), and Vanessa Hidary's Culture
Bandit (Nuyorican Poets Cafe). Jill's Producing credits include;
LAByrinth Theater Company's Stopless, In Arabia, We'd All
Be Kings, and Culture Bandit & Darwaza. Her directing
credits include: David Deblinger's Cockamamie Soup, Developing
Artists' Runaways, Knee High to a Microphone, We Said Out
Loud, These Days, Billy Sleepyhead and LAByrinth Theater
Company's The Fairy Tale Project by Webb Wilcoxen.
Stephen Adly Guirgis - Business of Writing plus Q&A
As a playwright, Stephen Adly Guirgis received a Tony Nomination for his most recent work, Motherf**ker with the Hat (directed by Anna D. Shapiro), now playing on Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Other plays include The Little Flower of East Orange (starring Ellen Burstyn), Our Lady of 121st Street (10 best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Best Play Nominations), Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train (Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, Laurence Olivier Nomination for London's Best New Play), In Arabia, We’d All Be Kings (2007 LA Drama Critics Best Play, Best Writing Award), and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (10 best, Time magazine and Entertainment Weekly), produced by LAByrinth in collaboration with The Public Theater in 2005. On May 10, 2008 Judas Iscariot completed a critically acclaimed run in London at the Almeida Theater. All five plays were originally produced by LAByrinth and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. As an actor, Stephen Adly Guirgis appeared in Guinea Pig Solo, produced by LAByrinth at the Public Theatre, and has leading roles in Todd Solondz's Palindromes, Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait opposite Michael Pitt, and in Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret. Other film credits include Philip Seymour Hoffman's Jack Goes Boating, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, Adam Rapp's Blackbird, Noah Buschel's Neal Cassady, Meet Joe Black, Noise, Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot, and an episode of the long running New York City-based TV series Law & Order.
Russell G. Jones - Physical Zero
Russell G. Jones has been a member of LAByrinth Theatre Company since 1995. He originated the role of Christian in Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Award Winning Play Ruined for which he garnered an Obie Award for Outstanding Performance. Other originating roles include: A View from 151st Street at The Public Theater, Our Lady of 121st Street at Union Square Theater, God, The Crackhouse and The Devil at La Mama, The Death of Don Flagrante Delicto at The Greenwich Street Theater and In Arabia We’d All Be Kings at Center Stage New York. Television: “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: C.I.,” “Spin City.” Film: Traffic (SAG award Best Ensemble), Squeeze, The Saint of Avenue B, Companions, and Turntable (2006 Best Actor, San Diego Noir Festival).
Heidi Miami Marshall - On-Camera Audition Tips
Heidi’s career has spanned several mediums and arts
professions as a casting director, theater and film director, private audition coach, opera director. Heidi was formerly the lead Casting Director for over 70 productions of theater, film, and
commercials while working with Bernard Telsey Casting in New York City. Her casting ranged from Broadway musicals (RENT, Hairspray, Aida, Paul Simon’s The Capeman,
etc.) to Off-Broadway, commercials, regional theaters, and independent
films. She returned full time to directing by invitation from director
Baz
Luhrmann (film director, "Moulin Rouge") to be his Resident Director
on Broadway production of LA BOHEME and at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson
Theater, where she remounted it. Heidi
has received prestigious awards for her directing: the NY Drama League
Director Fellowship and American Film Institute’s (AFI) prestigious
Directing Workshop for Women Fellowship. With AFI support, she directed
the award-winning short film A THROUGH M. For
National TV, Heidi directed a live segment on THE TONY AWARDS and a PSA
with Forrest Whitaker and Jeffrey Tambor. For Broadway, Heidi directed
Fantasia, American Idol winner, into Oprah Winfrey’s production of THE
COLOR PURPLE, for which the NY Times said 'a mega-star is born', and she
was also Associate Director on THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL, starring TONY
AWARD winner Nathan Lane. Currently, Heidi has developed and filmed the
TV docu-series GREEN MAMAS and is developing for production her feature
film debut, THAT WHITE GIRL.
Daphne Rubin-Vega - Finding Your Inner Voice
Daphne Rubin-Vega is a two-time Tony and Drama Desk nominee (1996/2004) and recipient of the Theater World, Obie (1996) and Blockbuster (1998) awards. She has been a member of LAByrinth Theater Company since 1992. Ms. Rubin-Vega is perhaps best known for the roles she originated, including Mimi ("RENT") and Conchita ("Anna in the Tropics"), both Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway shows for which she was nominated for the Tony award.
John Gould Rubin - Business of Theater
John Gould Rubin’s recent directing credits include: Hedda Gabler which he staged in a Town House for 25 people per performance, Little Doc at Rattlestick, The Importance of Being Ernest for Twin Tiers Theatre and In the Daylight at the McGinn Cazale; he was Co-Artistic and Executive Director of LAByrinth Theater Company for which he directed the premieres of Philip Roth in Khartoum and Penalties & Interest (both as part of Public/LAB at The Public Theater); STopless; The Trail of Her Inner Thigh by Erin Cressida Wilson; John Patrick Shanley’s A Winter Party; (and co-created and directed:) Dreaming in Tongues; and Mémoire. He co-created and directed The Erotica Project for the NYSF; Trial By Water for Ma-Yi; A Taste of Honey at Playwrights Horizons; Blood in the Sink at Urban Stages; both A Matter Of Choice and NAMI for Partial Comfort; Rebecca Gilman’s The Land of Little Horses, Frank McGuiness’ Factory Girls, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Three Birds Alighting on a Field and Richard Nelson’s Franny’s Way, for the Stella Adler Studio; Hamlet for Columbia’s MFA Thesis Project, EST’s and Naked Angel’s Marathons; The Fartiste for the NY Fringe Festival (Best Musical.) He wrote (and played Ivan Boesky in) The Predators’ Ball (collaborating with Karole Armitage and David Salle) for the Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy, and at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. He recently directed his first film, Almost Home for Trigger Street Independent, which was presented at The Berkshire Film Festival. (Producer) For LAByrinth he produced Our Lady of 121st Street (and it’s commercial production off-Broadway), and Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train at Center Stage/NY; Off-Broadway (two Drama Desk noms.); at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival (Fringe First Award); at The Donmar Warehouse; and at The Arts Theatre on the West End in London (Olivier Award nom.) Mr. Rubin produced a tour of Macbeth with Stephen Dillane playing all the roles at the Almeida Theater in London, the Sydney Theater in Australia and New Zealand. He also produced John Patrick Shanley’s Dirty Story for LAByrinth at Theater Row.
Nilaja Sun - Flying Solo: Creating Characters
Nilaja Sun is the solo performer and writer of the Off-Broadway smash No Child..., which concluded its run at the Barrow Street Theatre in June 2007. For her creation and performance of No Child... and its subsequent national tour, Nilaja garnered 17 awards including: an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards including the John Gassner playwriting award for Outstanding New American Play, a Theatre World Award, the Helen Hayes Award, and an LA Ovation Award and was named the Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.
