Acting School in New York City - New Actors Workshop

Nina D’Abbracci (Alexander Technique, Kinetic Awareness) is a choreographer, dancer, actor and a certified teacher of both The Alexander Technique and Kinetic Awareness. She has taught at NYU and the Ensemble Studio Theater where she directed projects for their Summer Conference. She maintains a private practice on the Upper West Side and is a faculty member of the Kinetic Awareness Teacher Training Program. Nina teaches at Columbia University, The Linklater Center for Voice and Language and is also a teaching member of Alexander Technique International. She has studied extensively with George Morrison.

Aditi Das (Administration) is an actor, writer and stage technician. Her most recent acting credits include the short film A Tryst With Destiny, which has collected accolades at several international film festivals. Aditi has appeared in or assisted in the production of over 30 plays in the city. Off-Broadway credits include her starring role in the world premiere of The Nature of Man. She holds a BA in Communications, Psychology and English Literature from Jyoti Nivas College in Bangalore, India, and is a graduate of The Workshop.

Jason Hale (Sense Memory, Improvisation) is an actor, director and producer. He has performed across the United States with many regional theaters and ensembles including the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and was a resident actor with the Pennsylvania Stage Co. Jason has acted, directed and produced Off- and off-off- Broadway with several companies including The Theatre Project Ensemble, an Off Broadway company he founded and directed from 2000- 2004. Jason is a graduate of the New Actors Workshop and has studied privately with co-founder Paul Sills since 1991. In addition to being a faculty member at the New Actors Workshop he has taught at Stella Adler Studio of Acting, New York University and workshops with the Screen Actors’ Guild, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Olusum Drama Institute in Istanbul, Turkey. Jason is Managing Producer with the theatrical development company, Collaborations Limited.

Kathy Hendrickson (Improvisation, Acting Technique, Head Administrator) is a performer, writer and director who has been teaching acting and improvisation for over 15 years both in New York and in Minneapolis. Kathy is currently cofounder/ artistic director for Exhibit A Performance Group, an ensemble company dedicated to investigating the meaning and significance of movement within a theatrical context, Exhibit A bends, blends, and blurs the boundaries between theater, movement, and dance. In addition she is a founding member of the Resident Company with former members of Second City, The Compass and Story Theater. From 2003—2006, Hendrickson was founder and director of Present Elevation, a critically acclaimed New York based transformational improvisation company. She is also a former member of Collision Theory Theatre Company. Most recent directing credits include: 13 Kinds of Desire, Rise Up!, Butterflies Are Free, The Woolgatherer, and Desdemona: A Story About a Handkerchief. Acting credits include: The Curate Shakespeare As You Like It, Dance With Me Harker, Hello from Bertha, As You Like It, Time/Bomb, The Hungry Girls, How I Learned to Drive, as well as a handful of independent films, television pilots and sketch comedy webcasts. She has written five Story Theater scripts produced in New York, and a full-length stage play, Lock 10. Kathy is a graduate of The Workshop and holds a Master of Arts degree in playwriting.

Kathryn Markey (Acting Technique) is an actor, writer, director and comic. She has appeared on Broadway in 3 From Brooklyn and in many New York and regional productions including Rain; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Beau Jest; Isn’t It Romantic?; Sherlock’s Last Case; Story Theater and The Birds. Her work as a comedy writer and performer has been part of the Toyota Comedy Festival, Marshall’s Women in Comedy Festival and numerous clubs and cabarets. As one-third of the celebrated country band, The Chalks, she has appeared in venues from Palm Springs to Dallas, as well as on Premium Blend for Comedy Central and The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon 2004. Kathryn has directed productions in and around New York and has written a sitcom pilot for Lifetime Television. She studied with George Morrison for over 10 years.

Rachel Oakes (Acting Technique, Improvisation, Director of Student Affairs) is a performer and teacher. Rachel has worked with various improvisation troupes around New York, focusing mostly on two companies, Present Elevation and God Freedom Fantastic. Rachel recently worked as Manager of Improvisation at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, FL, where she taught all levels of adult classes, as well as leading teen and children's classes and camps. She also acted as a teaching artist in the Write-A-Play program, which conducts in-school workshops, using improvisational tools to teach children about playwriting. She is a NAW graduate.

Lester Thomas Shane (Speech, Voice) is a director, writer, actor and teacher. Trained by Edith Skinner, he has worked in New York and regional theater. Dialect Coach: Orpheus Descending, Escape From Happiness, (T. Schreiber Studio), New Music (Mint Theater). Speech Coach: Merchant of Venice (w/ Morris Carnovsky). Voice &Movement Master: Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Directing credits include: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Sweet Phoebe, Science Gets Serious (Cleveland Public Theatre); Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest and Hamlet (Theatre Jacksonville); Last Chance For Happiness (T. Schreiber Studio); The White Whore and the Bit Player (Core Group); Hedda Gabler, Summer & Smoke (Manhattan Theatre Club); Pretty Witty Nell, Grit in a Sensitive Instrument (Vineyard). Director in Residence: The Basic Theatre, where he directed Shaviana, Bertolt Brecht: In Dark Times, Santa Monica Threeway and Titus Andronicus. He was nominated for Best Director at the Wonderland Festival in New York for his production of Asylum. His award-winning one-man show, Mortal Coil, continues to tour. He is co-author of Seven Keys to Success Without Struggle and Rupert: Just Being Me. Lester is also on the faculty at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York Film Academy and the TADA! Ensemble. He is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers of America.

K. Tanzer (Movement Improvisation) is an interdisciplinary theatre-maker and director/choreographer. She has been creating original theatre for ensembles since 1994. Tanzer is currently the director for, and co-founder/artistic director of Exhibit A Performance Group. An ensemble company dedicated to investigating the meaning and significance of movement within a theatrical context, Exhibit A bends, blends and blurs the boundaries between theatre, movement and dance. Tanzer is also the director of Pop Up Performance - an ongoing series of site-specific movement inquiries exploring the relationship between movement, the body and the environment, as well as the permeable line between spectator and performer. From 1996-2005 Tanzer served as the co-Artistic Director of Collision Theory, an award winning performance company that created and produced image-saturated physical theatre using the company’s own choreographic style. She has twice been an Artist in Residence with New York Theatre Workshop, and is a proud NYTW Usual Suspect. In addition to her work at the New Actors Workshop, Tanzer is an adjunct faculty member at the Laban Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS). She has given lectures and workshops at New York University/Gallatin School, Towson University, Bennington College, and the School for Film and Television. She is a NAW graduate.

Suzanne Toren (Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement) has appeared on and off Broadway, and in regional theatres throughout the country. She has performed in works by classical authors (Shakespeare & Moliere), contemporary ones (Arthur Miller & Neill Simon), and most recently in Door to Door, off- Broadway. She occasionally appears on Television (Law & Order), and is an award-winning narrator of hundreds of audio books. Suzanne became a certified Feldenkrais teacher in 1991, and has been teaching this wonderful work at NAW ever since.

Noel Wilson (Story Theater Guest Director 2009) has been a director and a teacher of improvisation since 1992. Noel trained for twenty years with Paul Sills in New York city and at the Wisconsin Theater Games Center, and is one of a handful of top Spolin player/coaches uniquely informed by Mr. Sills' refinements and insights, as well as an expert in story-form theater. Directing credits include: The Barrow Group (Drama Desk Award Outstanding Off-Off Broadway Theater Company), Southern Rep/NOLA Project (The Lieutenant of Inishmore, 4 Big Easy awards, including Best Director of a Comedy, 2007). Other directing credits include 27 Wagons Full Of Cotton, The Rainmaker, The Diviners, Story Theater and several original adaptations of folk tales and other stories from around the world, as well as works by new emerging writers. Acting credits include: Changing Lanes with Samuel L. Jackson, multiple Law and Order roles, Third Watch, One Life to Live, Onion News Network and numerous Off and Off-Off Broadway productions. Noel is an inaugural graduate of NAW.

Brian Bedford, Breanna Benjamin, Frank Buxton, Gene Hackman, John Pinchon Holmes, Kevin Kline, David Mamet, Garry Goodrow, Andre Gregory, Doug Jeffers, Charles Marowitz, Elaine May, Gregory Mosher, Richard Schaal, Michael Shurtleff, Bob Smith, Howard Storm, Meryl Streep, Jeffrey Sweet, Stanley Tucci and Arnold Weinstein.

The New Actors Workshop reserves the right to substitute teachers if necessary.