FACULTY
& GUESTS
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FOUNDING
FACULTY
FELIX IVANOV (Movement/Combat)
Faculty: The Juilliard School, since 1996;
The North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA), 1991-1996; The Stanislavsky
and Nemerovich-Danchenko Drama School of the Moscow Art Theatre, 1985-1991;
The Lunacharsky State Theatre University, 1989-1991; and The Gnesin
College of Fine Arts (Puppet Theatre), Moscow, 1979-1981. Visiting
Instructor: The University of Texas at Austin, College of Fine Arts,
1990; The Academy of Fine Arts School of Drama, Maastricht, Holland,
1989. As an actor, Felix has played in several Moscow Drama Theatres
and toured the former Soviet Republics with folk and puppet theatre
groups. He has also worked as an actor and musician for Russian motion
pictures and television, drama, and music albums and animated features.
His choreography of stage movement, fighting, and dance in Russia
has appeared in over three-hundred drama and puppet theatres and cinema
and TV productions, including the Russian premiers of Jesus Christ
Superstar and M. Butterfly. He has choreographed stage fighting in
New York for productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, and
Henry V. Founder: The Wheel Theatre (Kaleso in Russian), Moscow,
1987; The American Wheel Theatre Company, Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
1992-1996. B.A., The Stasov Musical School, Moscow Russia. M.F.A.,
Moscow Drama School of the Vakhtangov Academy Theatre, Russia.
JAYD McCARTY
(Scene Study) 
Jayd is an actor, director, teacher, and private
coach. He served for the three years as Director of Programs and Conservatories
for The Actors Center where he placed actors in classes and workshops
with some of the most respected names in theater and actor training:
Olympia Dukakis, Dianne Weist, Lloyd Richards, and Chris Bayes, as
well as teachers and directors from Moscow Art Theater, the Royal
Shakespeare Company, Juilliard, Yale School of Drama, NYU, New Moscow
Theatre, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Jayd attributes the
core of his teaching to the training he received from RonVan Lieu
(Chair of Acting, Yale School of Drama), Lloyd Richards (former Artistic
Director, Yale Repertory), and Earle Gister (former Chair of Acting,
Yale School of Drama). Jayd spent two years with Mr. Gister as a teaching
assistant before joining the faculty at The Actors Center in 2004.
While at The Actors Center, Jayd also completed a three year mentorship
with J. Michael Miller (founder of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts)
in Actor Training & Development. He also enjoys a career as a professional
actor. Founder of The Studio / New York.
SITA MANI
(Movement) 
Sita was born in Germany to Indian parents
and grew up in Thailand, Switzerland, and India. She began her movement
training early, studying Tae Kwon Doe in Bangkok. She then began studying
both western dance and classical ballet in Bombay and worked professionally
in India in theatre and music videos. Her interests gravitated towards
modern dance, which lead to her work with Uttara Coorlawalla and in
Compagnie Choreographique De Renne. In 1990, Sita moved to New York
City. She completed the Certificate Program at the Alvin Ailey School
and has spent the last ten years working with companies in New York,
as well as with independent choreographers from India, Europe, South
America, and the United States. In that time she has also studied
other movement modalities, including Iyengar Yoga in Pune, India;
Authentic Voice in London and New York; as well as Lucid Body, Alexander,
Voice, and Feldenkrais. Her unique, eclectic background has lead her
to develop her own form of movement workshops which works to develop
the “body-mind,” giving performers a more refined physical awareness
and emotional authenticity. Sita has worked at all levels of training,
ranging from the Yale School of Drama to kindergartens in the slums
of Mumbai.
BETH McGUIRE (Voice
& Speech) 
Bethis currently on faculty at the Yale School
of Drama, New York University Undergraduate Drama at Playwrights Horizons,
and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. She has been the vocal/dialect
coach for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons,
The Yale Repertory Theater, The Working Theatre, The Cape Playhouse,
and The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. Previously, Beth has taught
voice, speech, acting, movement, and improvisation for Theatre for
a New Audience, Brooklyn College, St. Francis College, The School
for Film and Television, Weist Barron, The National Shakespeare Touring
Company, and Rockland Community College. She coaches corporate clients
in dialect management, vocal production, and presentation skills.
During the course of 25 years of professional acting, she has performed
throughout the United States in classical and contemporary works on
stage and for the camera. Co-creator of KinesPhonetics™, a kinesthetic
exploration of phonetics, Beth is also an Associate Teacher in Fitzmaurice
Voicework. She is a member of VASTA (The Voice and Speech Trainers
Association), EQUITY, SAG, and AFTRA. She received an MFA in acting
from Brandeis University and a BA from Oberlin College.
JANE NICHOLS (Clown)
Jane is an actress, director, and teacher of
Physical Theatre, Clown, and Shakespeare. She has studied with Philippe
Gaulier, Avner Eisenberg, Mike Kennard, Bolek Polivka, and Antonio
Fava, and has been associated for over 20 years with Shakespeare &
Co in Lenox, MA. She was the Founder and Artistic Director of Crosswalk
Theatre in Boston, and served for five years as Artistic Director
of Children's programming for Shakespeare and Company. For seven years
she taught at the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at American
Repertory Theatre, and at Harvard University where she directed Les
Liaisons Dangereux, Feed the Monkey, Noises Off, and A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. She has also taught at American Conservatory Theatre, Stella
Adler Conservatory, Lyric Stage, Emerson College, Lesley College Graduate
School, Simon’s Rock College of Bard, University of Utah, and University
of Washington. NYC directing: A Night at the Trojan Wall - a Clown
version of the Iliad. Acting credits: Off-Broadway - En Garde Arts,
New Georges and Soho Rep; Regional - Dallas Theatre Center, Portland
Stage Company, Gloucester Stage, Shakespeare & Co, Lyric Stage, Nora
Theatre, and Berkshire Public. Film and TV credits: School Ties, Heights,
Law & Order SVU, Ed, America’s Most Wanted, and Rachel’s Dinner with
Olympia Dukakis. She is currently on the faculties of Shakespeare
& Co, The Actors’ Center, Yale School of Drama, and Juilliard.
LUCAS CALEB ROONEY
(Clown) 
Lucas is proud member of The Studio faculty
and also teaches at The Juilliard School, NYU’s Tisch School of the
Arts, and the NYU Meisner Studio. In the past Mr. Rooney taught at
The Actors Center; University of San Diego; The Old Globe Theatre;
The Public Theater Shakespeare Lab; Case Western University; California
State University, Long Beach; and The University of Southern California.
Lucas apprenticed Christopher Bayes in Clown and Physical Comedy,
and received additional training with Phillippe Gaulier in London.
He received his MFA from the Old Globe Theatre's professional actor
training program at University of San Diego. He credits most of who
he is as an artist and actor to the years he spent in The Actors Center, studying
with Chris Bayes, Ron Van Lieu, Per Brah, Frank Deal, Felix Ivanov,
David Bridel, and Catherine Fitzmaurice. Lucas's clown show Creation
had a successful run Off-Broadway at the Mint Theatre. On Broadway,
Lucas played opposite Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand in Mike
Nichols’s production of The Country Girl. He was also strewn among
the dead in Jack O'Brien's Henry IV at Lincoln Center. Other New York
credits include Stuart in Yellow Face at the Pulbic Theater, Diggory
in She Stoops to Conquer at the Irish Repertory Theater; Aaron in
Mimesphobia at the Beckett Theatre, and understudying Father Flynn
in Doubt at Manhattan Theatre Club. Regional credits include Charlie
in Dirty Blonde at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and Trinculo in The
Tempest at the Franklin Stage Company. At the Old Globe Theatre, Lucas
played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, directed by Jack O'Brien;
Bottom in Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Kyle Donnelly; Frank
Lubeyin in All My Sons, directed by Rick Seer; and Thomas Killigrew
in Complete Female Stage Beauty, directed by Mark Lamos. Currently
Lucas can be seen in The Orphans’ Home Cycle at The Signature Theatre
Company.
FAY SIMPSON
(Lucid Body)
Fay has been the Artistic Director and co-founder
of Impact Theatre since its creation in 1990. Informed by her work
in the rehearsal room, the teaching studio and onstage over the last
20 years, Ms. Simpson has developed a unique physical training method
for the actor called The Lucid Body. She currently teaches this technique
at Yale Drama School, Michael Howard Studios, Ensemble Studio Theatre,
and Marymount Manhattan College. Fay has taught movement for actors
in training programs throughout the country and in the UK, exploring
both solo and ensemble physical performance as well as the actor’s
physical response to Shakespearean texts at the NYU Tisch School of
the Arts, The Stella Adler Conservatory, The Stone Street Studios,
Colorado College, The University of the South, Sewanee, and The Globe
International Centre in London. With Impact Theatre, Ms. Simpson conceived,
directed, and produced several original physical theatre productions
at Manhattan Class Company: D-Train, Take Me Home, Degas’ Little Dancer,
and Research & Development. Other Off-Broadway and International productions
include Raging Women and One Bad Man; Kurt's Wife: A Story of Lotte
Lenya; The Marital Bliss of Francis & Maxine, Better, Triptych; and
a solo performance piece entitled Trapped In Seven, for which she
was honored with “Best Female Performer” in the Spotlight On awards
of 2000. In 1999, Ms. Simpson was awarded a Fox Foundation Fellowship,
which enabled her to serve as an Assistant Director at the New Globe
Theatre in London under the artistic directorship of Mark Rylance
for the 1999 - 2000 London theatrical season, collaborating with Mr.
Rylance on productions of Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra. She
was awarded a Tennessee Williams Fellowship from The University of
the South, Sewanee, and has worked in collaboration with actor/director
Joseph Siravo presenting Shakespeare works in development at the Cherry
Lane Alternative Theatre and The Actors Center, NYC. Ms. Simpson is
the recipient of the Amy and Eric Berger National Theatre Essay Award
for development of her new book, The Lucid Body. Fay Simpson received
her B.F.A. in Theatre & Dance from Colorado College and her M.A. from
NYU.
CHARLES TUTHILL (Scene
Study & On-Camera)
Charles has taught for the last ten years at
the Atlantic Theater Company, The Actors Center, Purchase College
Conservatory, Caymichael Patten Studios, and NYU. As an actor he has
played leading roles in New York at Manhattan Theater Club, Lincoln
Center Directors LAB, Revelation Theater Company, Theater for a New
Audience, Worth Street Theater, and the WPA. Regionally, he has appeared
at Actors Theater of Louisville, Alliance Theater, Arena Stage, Berkeley
Repertory Theater, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Repertory Theater
of St Louis, Trinity Repertory, and the Williamstown Theater Festival.
Film and Television credits include Law & Order, Law & Order: Special
Victims Unit, all the New York-based daytime dramas, and many short
films including the Academy Award-Nominated Speed for Thespians based
on Chekhov’s The Bear. As a director, he has staged Picasso at the
Lapin Agile and The Laramie Project for AMDA, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
for Seaside Repertory Theater, and recently assisted Maria Aikten
on Terrence Rattigan’s Man and Boy starring David Suchet. His students
have appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in many film and television
shows including: The Village, Pirates of the Caribbean, Guess Who,
MR3000, Center Stage, Miracle, CSI, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me,
Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Unscripted, and all the Law & Orders.
GRACE ZANDARSKI (Voice)
Grace has been teaching Fitzmaurice Voicework for several years in
New York City at the recently closed Actors Center and at Fordham
University, and has also recently taught in Moscow. She is a lecturer
at Yale School of Drama, and has previously taught at the American
Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University, Fordham University,
NYU's Cap 21, and Queens College. Recent coaching credits include
the Off-Broadway production of Little Eyolf. Grace does private coaching
and consulting with actors, broadcasters, and business people from
a wide variety of disciplines. She is a working actor, recently starring
in Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink at the Wilma Theater, for which she was
nominated for an award. MFA, American Conservatory Theatre; BA, Princeton
University.
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