Joe Olivieri is an Associate Professor with tenure at UCLA, where he teaches acting and also directed many productions including Two Shakespearian Actors (2005), The Beaux Stratagem (2005), and Millennium Approaches from Angels in America (1997). Prior to joining UCLA, he was head of the BFA and MFA Acting Programs at West Virginia University. He won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Season Director in 1999-2000.

Marsha Mason has been nominated for four Academy Awards: Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two and Only When I Laugh. She has starred in many Broadway productions including The Good Doctor, Richard III, Night of the Iguana and Steel Magnolias. Recently she starred in The Prisoner of Second Avenue in London and Hecuba at the Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago. She has taught for the British American Drama Academy in England and Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. She is President of the Flying Swan Acting Program.

Penny Cherns is a member of the faculty at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). She most recently directed The Odd Couple at York Theatre Royal, A Doll’s House in Harrogate, and Birth of Pleasure and Wolf Road in London. She was Associate Director at both Watford Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse and has worked for The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court Theatre. She has taught in America at Yale University, Brandeis University and the Julliard School, and in England at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Henry Goodman was voted British Actor of the Year in 2002 for his performance as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice for the National Theatre. He has starred in many West End productions, including Hysteria and Broken Glass, and in the musicals Follies, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof and Assassins, for which he was voted Best Actor in a musical. He won the Best Supporting Actor Award for Angels in America and recently starred in the title role of Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in The Miser on Broadway and in The Birthday Party in London. He has taught at many of Britain’s and America’s foremost drama schools, including Yale School of Drama, UCLA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British American Drama Academy (BADA).

Nancy Keystone teaches at UCLA, from which she also graduated in 1985. She has directed extensively, including: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf for Portland Center Stage (2003), A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (1998), and The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden (Circle Rep. New York 1988). She was given a TCG (Theatre Communications Group) Alan Schneider Director Award in 2003 and won the L.A. Drama League Award for Directing in 1992.

Gary Kline is a member of the faculty at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, where he has taught Voice since 1990. He also gives Musical Theatre classes. His students have included Christian Borie (Spamolot/Thoroughly Modern Millie), Megan Hilty (Wicked), Patrick Wilson (Full Monty/Oklahoma), Bradley Dean (Man of La Mancha/Jane Eyre), and Donna Lynne Champlin (Sweeney Todd). At Carnegie Mellon he has directed Jacques Brel and Carousel. He has taught for the Broadway Theater Project in Tampa and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Australia.

Annamaria Pileggi, is an actor and director whose career has included collaborations with writers Theresa Rebeck and Barbara Damashek, directors Barney Simon of the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa, and David Wheeler of the American and Trinity Repertory Theatres. Pileggi is a Senior Lecturer at Washington University in St. Louis and has been on the faculty in the Performing Arts Department since 1991. She directs and teaches courses in Acting, Movement for the Actor, and Musical Theatre. She also serves as an administrator and acting instructor for the department’s Shakespeare Globe Program in London. Pileggi has an MFA in acting from Brandeis University.

James Goodwin Rice is currently a Senior Lecturer in Theater and has taught at Dartmouth College since 1997. Mr. Rice’s teaching background includes Skidmore College, Vassar/Powerhouse Theater Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Emerson College and the University of Pittsburgh MFA Program. He is a member of Shakespeare and Company, where he teaches, coaches voice and regularly acts. Appearances include the O’Neill Theater Center, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Intiman Theater. His most recent work includes playing SALTER in Caryl Churchill’s A Number, and directing Neil LaBute’s The Distance from Here.

Omar Sangare teaches acting at Williams College and received his Ph.D. from the Theater Academy in Warsaw, Poland, where he studied with the great film director Andrzej Wajda. He has many film, television and theater credits. Since moving to the United States, he has won the New York International Fringe Festival Best Actor Award for True Theater Critic and was acclaimed for his performance in the title role of Othello for the Arena Players Repertory Theater. He has taught at UCLA, UC−Santa Barbara, UC−San Diego and the Edinburgh Theatre Festival.

Tony Branch is an English theater training administrator and producer, who came to New Mexico in 1977 to run the Taos Art Association and the 1980 D.H. Lawrence Festival. He brought the National Theatre to Santa Fe and San Francisco in 1982. In 1983, he founded the British American Drama Academy (BADA) in London with Carolyn Sands, remaining director until 2004, when he returned to America to research the Flying Swan Acting Program.

For general program information contact: Sue Birch >>