Instructors
Pamela Christian |
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Pamela Christian, Ph.D. is Graduate Advisor and Associate Professor of Voice and Speech for Performance in the Department of Theatre and Dance. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses and coaches main stage productions for the department season. She also works professionally as a dialect coach for film and stage. Recent credits include productions with Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Alley Theatre, Actors Repertory of Texas, Focus Films, Mutiny Films and Screen Gems.
Dr. Christian is an Associate Editor for IDEA International Dialects of English Archive where she publishes sound samples and voice analysis for on-line access. Her research includes on-site documentation of voice and dialects for performance, the study of voice as cultural practice and the use of performance as a research method. |
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This work has been explored through diverse projects in South Africa, Australia, the Northwest Territories of Canada, South Korea, and the Russian Federation where she was a Fulbright Scholar in 2004.
As an instructor in the College of Fine Arts, Dr. Christian has received the College of Fine Arts Teaching Excellence Award 2003 and the Department of Theatre and Dance Teaching Excellence Award 2005. She is a member of AEA Actors' Equity Association and has performed a number of leading roles in productions that include The Chairs, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Mirandolina, A Threepenny Opera, Dangerous Liaisons, Dancing at Lughnasa and her own solo script Anne Sexton: The Excitable Gift, developed through use of the Sexton archives at the Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin. Education: |
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Amber Dupuy |
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Amber DuPuy started performing at an early age as a junior ballet dancer with Austin Ballet Theater. She studied theater at Pomona College in California, and then moved to New York City where she became a founding member of The Actors Theatre Workshop, Inc. As a company member, Ms. DuPuy continued working on her craft as an actress, taught acting classes to underprivileged children, wrote one-act plays, and helped run the business. Upon her return to Texas, Ms. DuPuy joined the Live Oak Theatre company, where she played parts in such plays/musicals as The Crucible, Nine, A Little Night Music, and Cabaret, in which she received an ACOT nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for the part of Sally Bowles. It was during this time that she began teaching acting. Presently, Ms. DuPuy is finishing her Radio, Television, Film degree from the University of Texas as well as completing her Master’s in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. [Video] |
Brian Fahey |
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Brian C. Fahey is entering his final year of the MFA Drama and Theatre for Youth program at the University of Texas at Austin. Brian came to Austin from Boston where he was the Artistic Director of Gurnet Theatre Project, a Boston based theatre company he co-founded. For GTP he has directed The Illusion, Miss Julie (MA Cultural Council Gold Star Nomination), This Is Our Youth (IRNE Independent Reviewers of New England Award Nomination, Best Play), and the Boston premieres of Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Adam Rapp’s Essential Self-Defense. Brian recently completed an observership at the Seattle Children’s Theatre, working with David Saar on his production of Tomás and the Library Lady, and was an Assistant Dramaturg at the 2009 Bonderman Symposium at the Indiana Repertory Theatre working on the team for Laura Schelldhardt’s play Air Guitar High. |
| At UT Brian teaches Introduction to Improv, and serves as a Drama Specialist for Drama for Schools in Victoria, TX and for the 2008 residency in Galena, Alaska. Brian appeared as Memory Mender in UT’s production of Still Life with Iris, and General Yepanchin in The Idiot. Recently he directed Wendy Bable’s play/ballet for young audiences, Funky Snowman for the 2009 David Mark Cohen New Works Festival and will direct Louis Sachar’s There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom for the UT ‘09/’10 season. Brian holds a BA in Theatre from Northeastern University and has trained at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland. | |
Gabriel Folse |
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Gabriel Folse, Associate Instructor, State Theatre School of Acting, has performed on stage and in television series, movies of the week and major motion pictures. His acting experience includes work in Los Angeles for ABC, Universal and Metromedia, work in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas on a variety of film and television projects. His directorial work includes the award winning, experimental short film: In God We Trust. It received the Bronze Award at Worldfest West in Flagstaff, Arizona, one of only three awards given in the experimental category. Over 800 films were accepted at the festival and approximately 40 were in the experimental short category. He wrote, produced, directed, edited, and appeared as an actor in the project.
His television appearances include Walker Texas Ranger, Gideon Oliver and The Young Riders. His feature film appearances include Miss Congeniality, A Perfect World and Wyatt Earp. |
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His writing experience includes, one act plays, three feature length scripts and a novel. He has been involved in many aspects of filmmaking including casting, producing, directing, writing, editing, acting and cinematography.
He has also appeared in national and regional commercials and was given the Singular Performance nomination by Robert Fairies, theater critic for the Austin Chronicle, for originating the role of Garland in Ellsworth Schave's A Texas Romance. He has served on the Austin Arts Commission, Theater Panel and is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and The American Federation of Television and Radio Announcers. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. Gabriel Folse has taught thousands of students in the course of 20 years. He has taught continually since 1984. Students have been from all walks of life- from business and medical professionals to housewives to full time students. Gabriel Folse, Acting teacher since 1984, professional actor since 1981. Currently appearing in the film God In the Machine. The production completed shooting in May 2002. Films currently in release and on replay are highlighted on the film website imdb.com. His background includes study from a variety of film acting methods including Meisner, Stanislavsky, and Charles Conrad, and with a variety of instructors from California, New York, Texas and New Mexico. Gabriel has developed a unique teaching style. This style incorporates experience of 34 years in the martial arts, the study of psychology, philosophy, religion, and real world experience of film, television and stage work. Some of the most appreciated and formative learning came from the University of Texas' own Bob Foshko. Gabriel has had the pleasure of working with and learning from Bob since he first arrived at the RTF Department. And the process continues to this day. His first film acting teacher was Edward Dmytryk. The classes were held at a school known as "The Austin Community Movie Company." This school was begun as a film specific program which featured classes including lighting, acting, and theory. The theory class was taught by Tom Schatz, another University of Texas teacher and author. After three years of working and studying, that same company asked that Gabriel teach their beginning acting program. As an interesting note, the first film Gabriel appeared in was a graduate thesis film from the University of Texas at Austin, based upon a Stephen King short story entitled The Children of the Corn. The short film, directed by John Woodward, went on to win the Dramatic Merit Award at the Student Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Several years later the short story was made as a feature film by a major studio. "I feel it is important to note that if not for my early exposure to the professional manner, courtesy, and gentleness of men like Bob Foshko and Ed Dmytryk, my choice of careers may have been far different. The real world of the film industry is not filled with men like them, and can use more good men at all levels." - Gabriel Folse Additional information: In addition to teaching and acting, he has also written and produced and directed several short films and have completed several feature length film scripts. He has also been a casting assistant to Jo Edna Boldin and has participated in casting films and movies of the week. He worked as her "reader" and was a part of discussions at the first interview stage and later at the callback stage with the directors. This gives his take on the audition process valuable insight, both to the requirements for the actor and also to the tools required, namely headshots and resumes. Additionally, Gabriel's diverse professional experiences include a year with a comedy improv troupe, and producing and directing commercial marketing videos for local business professionals and for Ballet Austin. He has also worked as a professional headshot photographer for four years. [Video] |
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Babs George |
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Babs George founded The State Theatre School of Acting in 1993 and has been the Director since its inception. She is a professional actress and has been a member of AEA and SAG, (stage and screen actors' unions), for 25 years. Babs graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in Performance from the University of Utah. She has worked in regional theaters across the country, and recently played Lady Macbeth in Scotland at the world renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has studied with such prestigious teachers as Uta Hagen, Charles Conrad, teacher of 40 years in Los Angeles, (CEC Studio in Burbank), Tad Danielesvsky (ABC Studios, L.A. & NYC), Ann Bogart & S.I.T.I. Co. members, (NY based, training in L.A., Viewpoints & Suzuki), and Tina Packer and Dennis Krausnick, (Shakespeare and Co., Lennox, MA). |
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In Los Angeles she worked on Days of our Lives, and co-starred in the series, Trapper John, M.D. She moved to Austin from Los Angeles and has worked steadily in film, TV, commercials and industrials, and most particularly in the theater. She is a company member of Austin Playhouse and Austin Shakespeare Festival (both professional theaters).
Ms. George has been nominated numerous times for her work on Austin stages, receiving the Austin Critics Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards, and the Austin Chronicle's "Best Actor/Actress in Austin" Award and Best Acting Teacher. She has been teaching for 15 years. In addition to teaching at The State Theatre School, she is also an instructor at St. Edward's University's in their Acting Program. "Teaching acting is an individual discovery process," she says. "It really is a journey which keeps me constantly surprised, both as a teacher and as a performer and thus, dedicated to its artistry." Ms. George teaches from many different perspectives but is personally intrigued by the intuitive responses in the acting environment that seemingly emerge from somewhere deeper than ego, personality and learned behavior. She endeavors to help students open themselves up to that profoundly knowledgeable, creative and inspired response by using physical movement from Ann Bogart's Viewpoints as a springboard, and a method of approaching scene work based on her training with Charles Conrad of CEC Studios in Los Angeles. Ms. George will be training this year, (2004-2005) in Washington D.C. under the Master Teacher and famed director, Michael Kahn at the Academy of Classical Acting, affiliated with The Shakespeare Theatre and George Washington University. There she will garner an M.F.A. in Acting with comprehensive advanced training in Jacobean and Shakespearean texts. She will return to Austin to resume her position at The State Theatre School of Acting as well as at St. Edward's University. |
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Carrie Marks |
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Carrie Marks is thrilled to be back working at the State after interning as an assistant teacher at the State Theatre School of Acting summer programs from 2001-2005. She graduated in May 2005 with a degree in Theatre Arts from St. Edward’s University where she worked on many shows, in several different capacities from actress to assistant director to costume designer. Her time at St. Edward’s provided her with a well rounded education as well as an AEA (Actors Equity Association) candidate status. Upon graduation, she backpacked across Europe, and is happy to be back in Austin where she has been working as a Teaching Artist for Theater Action Project for the last year. She plans on starting graduate school in the next year to obtain a MA in Teaching with an emphasis in Theatre. |
Shana Merlin |
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Awarded “The Best Improv Teacher in Austin” by the Austin Improv Collective in 2006 and 2008 and “Best Female Improviser” in 2008, Shana Merlin has been a professional comedienne since 1995, performing from Calgary to San Francisco to Atlanta to Las Vegas to London. You can see Shana perform in Austin in the improv duo Get Up and the winner of “Best Improv Troupe” in Austin Chronicle Readers Poll, Girls Girls Girls Improvised Musicals. Through her own company, Merlin Works, Shana uses tools from the world of improvisation to provide custom training, interactive presentations, and comedy shows to businesses, organizations, and individuals. |
| Shana has studied extensively with internationally recognized authority on improvisation, Keith Johnstone, author of Impro. For beginning improvisers, she emphasizes getting the spirit of improv first by encouraging people to take risks and embrace failures. Then she underscores that playful attitude with techniques to help people build on each other’s ideas to create satisfying spontaneous stories and scenes. [Video] | |
Patricia Percy |
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Patricia Pearcy has been a member of Actors Equity and Screen Actors Guild, the stage and film actors' unions for twenty-five years. She performed in Solitaire / Double Solitaire on Broadway, at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. Besides performing major roles for three years at the LWT, she played a season at Actors' Theatre of Louisville, a season at the Dallas Theater Center, Baltimore Center Stage, the Alley in Houston and Washington Theatre Club. For television Patricia had starring roles in All My Children, One Life To Live, Little House On The Prairie Christmas Special, Charleston (an NBC Movie of the Week), The Rockford Files, and T.J. Hooker. Film Credits include Cockfighter, Delusion, The Goodbye Girl, and Squirm. Mid-career Patricia returned home to Austin to raise her son David (now a senior at Cornell) and earned her MFA at the University of Texas. |
| While raising David as a single mom, she performed in Equity productions in Austin. Patricia is one of Austin Shakespeare Festival’s leading actresses and has appeared as Tamora in Titus Adronicas, Nell/Alice/Chorus in Henry V, Titania in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gertrude in Hamlet, and Margaret in Richard III. Other favorite Austin roles include Arkadina in The Seagull (twice...once directed by Guy Roberts, and again for Don Toner and Austin Playhouse), First Witch in Macbeth, and Anton in Show Business (The State Theatre), Molly in Leonard’s Car (Frontera Long Fringe), Lubov in The Cherry Orchard, Hannah in The Night Of The Iguana, Judith in Hayfever, Charlotte in Approaching Zanzibar, and Kitty in The Time Of Your Life (St. Edward's Mary Moody Northen Theater guest artist). Recently, Patricia played Ruby in the film, Revolver. Patricia has taught at St. Edward's and U.T. and has coached actors privately for 15 years. Ms. Pearcy says, "Listening is everything, as is the spontaneous response. I see many actors 'acting' up a storm on stage, performing in a vacuum. The challenge is to be a person, no matter what the style or period. Rather than self-conscious performance as the goal, I try to help students allow themselves to be vulnerable to their own instincts and emotions, without judgment. The key is getting out of one's own way; it's not easy to be a real actor." | |
Matt Radford |
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Matt Radford was a professional actor and director in Britain for fifteen years. As well as numerous television and film appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, his theater credits range from the classics to award-winning premieres (he was recipient of national acting awards for two new works, Our Boys and Misconceptions).
As a Shakespearean, Matt co-adapted, directed and starred in Venus and Adonis for the renowned Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow, and has taken title/lead roles in Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (twice), Macbeth, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (twice) and Measure for Measure. Matt is an associate director of Actors From the London Stage, a company formed by Patrick Stewart, which for the past thirty-five years has toured colleges across America. |
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For Austin Shakespeare Matt has performed Claudius in Hamlet, Buckingham in Richard III (Austin Critics Award), Jack Absolute in The Rivals, and Benedick in last summer’s Zilker Park production of Much Ado About Nothing, for which he won the B. Iden Payne for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy. He was Trigorin in Broken String’s production of The Seagull by Chekhov and tackled King Lear with the nationally acclaimed UT program, Shakespeare at Winedale. He was last seen as Clive/Martin in Caryl Churchill’s Cloud 9 at the Mary Moody Northen Theater, St. Edward’s University.
He recently directed Much Ado About Nothing for Baker Shakespeare at Rice University in Houston, and was the Director of Text on Love’s Labour’s Lost and Moliere’s The Learned Ladies for the Summer Shakespeare company at Notre Dame, Indiana. Since 2004, Matt had been enrolled in the Ph.D program in Renaissance Drama in the English Department at the University of Texas, Austin. He teaches upper division Shakespeare through Performance, as well as text workshops for Austin Shakespeare. |
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Paula Russell |
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Paula Russell recently moved to Austin after several guest-teaching visits and directing the successful, full-length original play, “Shards” in the new Long Center Rollins Theatre.
As a member of Actors Equity Association, SAG, and AFTRA for 30 years, Paula acted in theatre, film and television and directed critically well-received theater in Los Angeles at The Cast, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, Actors Playhouse and independent venues. She interned by invitation as director-in-training on “Taxi,” “Cheers,” "WKRP" and Newhart” under James Brooks, James Burroughs, Will McKenzie, Joan Darling and others. |
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Paula has been teaching and directing non-stop for 28 years, offering workshop intensives, classes, private and production coaching for both professionals and community groups. She taught acting and directing professionally for 15 years in association with the Directors Guild and Emmy Award-winner, Joan Darling.
She taught weekend Actor/Director Intensive Seminars: “You Can Never Get It Neat” at UCSB Extension, Monterey City College, Orcas Center Theater, Actors Theatre of Orcas Island, Alleywood Studios, Old Pueblo Players, Tucson, and at venues in Santa Barbara, Tucson, Austin and Hollywood. She taught acting & on-camera commercial classes at SAG franchised La Belle Agency in Santa Barbara for 3 years, two-year ongoing weekly class for Orcas Center Theatre, annual Six-Week Scene Performance Workshop at Actors Theatre (in 5th year), Directing and acting intensives for Orcas Conservatory, and Theatre at Orcas High School. She created the syllabus and taught Conflict Resolution Through Theatre Games at elementary schools and to faculties throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Paula facilitated the training of law enforcement officers in domestic dispute mediation through filmed improvisation for the Burbank, California Police Department. She has coached political candidates, diplomats, mayors, lawyers & public speakers. Most recent professional work as an actor includes three SAG commercials in 2006-7, the title role in "Always, Patsy Cline" under an Equity contract and a special appearance in The Vagina Monologues. Paula has been on stage or back-stage since the age of two. She studied acting with Paul Rebillot, at San Francisco State University, where she had her own radio show, and at The College of Marin before moving to Los Angeles. Her first mentor/teacher there was the late, great Francis Lederer who trained with Eva Le Gallienne and founded the American National Theatre and Academy. For several years, Paula studied and did plays with Stella Adler and Sandy Meisner teacher, Mary Carver from whom she learned a solid working craft. She was accepted into Sherman Mark’s advanced scene-work master class. Other influences include working-out at Off-the-Wall improvisation group, several years performing Shakespeare at Ellen & Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, working on Tennessee Williams with Brando’s “Streetcar Named Desire” understudy, actor/coach, Clark Gordon and acting under the direction of his wife, Eve McVeagh, voice: Robert Edwards, Tae Kwon Do: Jun Chong, and Alexander Technique with Pam Hartman. The fierce, brilliant musical performance teacher, David Craig’s unparalleled work with precision, focus, timing and back-story still influences Paula’s work as a teacher, director, actor and singer. Commercial workshops with the wonderful Carolyne Barry still influence Paula’s teaching, especially in camera and cold-reading/audition technique. Whether one has years of experience or is a novice, there is an astonishing gift that Joan Darling offered to artists through a unique combination of deep and playful exercises, analysis, sensory work and philosophy. It’s a privilege to pass this gift on to those who seek a joyful place of disciplined, passionate purpose in which to work, experiment and grow. |
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M.J. Vandivier |
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M.J. Vandivier most recently appeared in Enchanted April (Mrs. Graves), and Always Patsy Cline (Louise) in Austin, TX. Her thirty year television career includes Marijane’s Majicastle and Happy Hollow with KPRC-TV, talk shows including the long-running Wake-up Houston with KHTV and radio and television commercials. Her feature films include Angel Of Light, Paradise Texas and Dot. Her acting roles consist of regional work with Theatre Under the Stars, Houston Music Theater and the Alley Theater. Favorites include Gwendolyn's Easter, A Little Night Music, A...My Name Is Alice, Steel Magnolias, Radio Gals, Follies, The Winslow Boy and Ring Round The Moon. Nationally, she played in Late Arrival Off-Broadway in New York cith where she also studied at the American Theatre Wing. She currently is freelancing as an actress and teacher in both Houston and Austin. [Video] |
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