FACULTY

Emmanuelle Delpech

Emmanuelle Delpech is an award-winning actor, teacher and director. She was classically trained at the École Superieur d'Art Dramatique de la ville de Paris, and then studied physical theatre at l'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. She recently graduated from Temple University and earned an MFA in Directing. With Pig Iron Theatre Company, Emmanuelle has been a performer/co-creator of Gentlemen Volunteers, Flop!, Hell Meets Henry Halfway and James Joyce is Dead and So Is Paris(Barrymore Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical). She has created and performed in various self-devised pieces winning a Best of Philly 2011 Award by the Philadelphia Magazine as Best Theater Artist. She has worked at Second City in Chicago, Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and as a physical theater consultant with New York's acclaimed Civilians theater company.

Emmanuelle has taught at University of the Arts, PA, Swarthmore College and Temple University. She is also on the faculty at the Headlong Performance Institute and of the Pig Iron School of Advanced Training. Emmanuelle's recent production of Tartuffe was called "A production so meticulous, kinetic and aptly modern" by The Philadelphia Enquirer. Emmanuelle is an Assistant Professor at UArts, teaching in the MFA Devised Theater Program. emmanuelledr.squarespace.com

Geoff Sobelle

Geoff Sobelle is a theatre artist dedicated to the "sublime ridiculous." He is the co-artistic director of rainpan 43, a renegade absurdist outfit devoted to creating original actor-driven performance works. Using illusion, film and out-dated mechanics, R43 creates surreal, poetic pieces that look for humanity where you least expect it and find grace where no one is looking. R43's shows include: all wear bowlers (Innovative Theatre Award, Drama Desk nomination), Amnesia Curiosa, machines machines machines machines machines machines machines (OBIE award design), and Elephant Room(commissioned by Center Theatre Group). His independent work includes Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl and the upcoming Object Lesson. He has been a company member of Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre Company since 2001. Pig Iron works include: Gentlemen Volunteers, Mission to Mercury, Shut Eye, James Joyce is Dead and so is Paris, Hell Meets Henry Halfway, Chekhov Lizardbrain and Welcome to Yuba City. All of his work to date has premiered at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. Geoff is a core teacher at the new Pig Iron school in Philadelphia. His work has been supported by the Independence Foundation, the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, the Wyncote Foundation, US Arts International, the Princeton Atelier and the New England Foundation for the Arts. He is a 2006 Pew Fellow and is a 2009 Creative Capital grantee. He is a graduate of Stanford University, and trained in physical theatre at École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France.

Alexandra Posen

Alexandra Posen is a graduate of Brown University and L'Écolecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She studied physical and visual theater with an emphasis on mask making and puppetry, which lead to her performance works in the late nineties. In 2000 she began her ongoing wax drawing series, fields, and soon after co-founded Zac Posen, where as creative director she worked for nearly a decade to establish the label as a global brand. Alexandra's extensive knowledge of couture fabric and technique has translated into a unique formal language in her recent abstract paintings. Posen's work has been exhibited at Lynch Tham, Nycams, Temp Space and the Watermill Center, reviewed in Bullet magazine and featured in numerous blogs. Alexandra lives and works in Red Hook, Brooklyn

VIRGINIA SCOTT

Virginia teaches/taught clown, commedia, bouffon, idiot, le jeu, physical acting, and all that kind of wiggling it around at schools such as The Juilliard School, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU: International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam, ACT, Pace University, Marymount Manhattan College, USC, Movement Theatre Studio, The Michael Howard Studio, Stella Adler Studio, The Clown School, The Idiot Workshops and Berg Studio. She is a co-founder and faculty member of the Funny School of Good Acting where she directs the FSGA Commedia Company. Discovering the Clown: the Funny Book of Good Acting by Christopher Bayes with Virginia Scott comes out this year! Most recently she created a new commedia show with whizbang Jarrod Bates, Jarrod Bates: Out of the Box and Onto Your Face,which is currently touring. Shows Virginia has directed and/or devised have appeared in New York at The Irish Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova Mainstage, 59E59, The Zipper Theatre, UCB, The PIT, The New York Fringe Festival and the International Clown Festival, The US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, The Comedy Central Theatre, The Hollywood Fringe and UCB LA in Los Angeles, and internationally at The Guilded Balloon in Edinburgh, The Centaur Theatre in Montreal and the Grahamstown International Festival in South Africa.

Norman Taylor

Norman Taylor taught at the École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris for 20 years. He teaches with MTS in New York each summer and all over the world giving Master Classes in Lecoq's approach. Prior to this, he was a student of Lecoq's himself, first as an actor and then as a student of his pedagogy. From 1998 - 1999, Norman was the Pedagogical Coordinator at the school. He now teaches Lecoq's techniques throughout Europe and Latin America.

Yuval Boim

Yuval Boim is New York based actor, theatre artist and teacher. He trained at Boston University and at the London International School of Performing Arts under Thomas Prattki, former pedagogical head of the Ecole internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. He is currently on staff at Pace University where he teaches Movement and Improv. He has taught Lecoq based Movement, Improv, Acting, and Ensemble Creation at Pace, SUNY Purchase University, Boston University, London International School of Performing Arts, Val de Loire Festival du Jeune Théâtre, George Street Playhouse, Luna Stage, and Improvolution. He is also a Yoga Alliance certified yoga instructor. His acting work includes Primary Stages, New Group, HERE, Ma-Yi, Culture Project, NYTW, Public Theater, Playwrights Realm, STC (Helen Hayes Award), George Street, Huntington and Premier Stages among others. Film/TV: That Awkward Moment, Norman, Bull, Blue Bloods, Red Oaks, Believe, Law & Order: SVU. Writing: D.I.Y. (Duplass Brothers grant), Sexcurity (Cleveland Public Theatre); Dixon Place, Joyce Soho, IRT Theater, Exit Theatre, and Bebersee Festival in Germany. He is a company member of The Actors Center.

Bhurin Sead

Bhurin Sead is a Queens-based performer, musician, and theater maker exploring interactivity through performance, participation and technology. He has performed, toured and written with Blue Man Group since 2008 and is a current cast member at Astor Place Theater. His recent collaborative work The Society of Historic Sonic Happenings explores the use of wearable and interactive sound devices to uncover site specific history through tiny sounds. He is a songwriter and guitarist for rock quartet Mortars. Bhurin holds a BS in Human Biology from The University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College.

Mary Birnbaum

Mary Birnbaum’s production of La Boheme opened the 2019 season at Santa Fe Opera; she was the first female director to conceive of and direct a new production there for over 20 years. Birnbaum has directed new productions of opera and theater internationally, from Taipei to Tel Aviv to Costa Rica, across the US and in New York City.  Birnbaum is the Associate Director of the Artist Diploma program in Opera Studies at the Juilliard School, where she teaches acting to opera singers. Recent/Upcoming projects directing her own English translation of The Barber of Seville at Opera Columbus and Le Roi Arthus at Bard Summerscape in Summer 2021. www.marybirnbaum.com

Eric Davis

Mr. Davis is a multi-award winning performer & director with over 20 years of teaching experience in clown and bouffon. His critically-acclaimed bouffon show, Red Bastard, won dozens of 5-star reviews as well as awards for Best Theater, Most Outrageous Show, Commitment To Community and multiple Best of Fests across the globe, including Edinburgh International Fringe Festival where it was named Top 5 shows in the UK. To date he has performed for over a million audience members world wide in addition to creating original roles for Cirque du Soleil’s IRIS and ALEGRIA. For more info about the man and the beast, go to:  redbastard.com

Elena Zucker

Elena Zucker is a playwright, screenwriter, theater director and movement coach. She received her MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, her BA from Middlebury College, and graduated from the École Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She has taught playwriting, acting, movement, neutral mask and Commedia dell'Arte at universities and conservatories around New York City. She is currently on faculty at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, as well as teaching at CUNY CSI and LIU Post. She is the Artistic Director of The Vertical Company, a theater company dedicated to the creation of new work. Selected combined writing/directing credits include Thread (NYC and Perth, Australia); O Walter, My Walter (NYC, recipient of the Goldberg Award for Playwriting at NYU) and Imaginary Prisons (Edinburgh Fringe, Fringe First Nomination). Other writing and directing work has been seen in NYC, regionally and internationally. Her feature film The Weathergirl is slated for production by Sundance film director Erin Greenwell.

David Bassuk

David is the Creative Director of White Horse Immersive Studio based in Hangzhao, China. Previously he was the Creative Director for the “Magical Mystery Tree” an immersive theater theme park in the Evergrande Group’s development Ocean Flower Island which is currently under construction in Hainan, China.  He served as Artistic Director of Novel Stages Theater Company and the Arcadia Shakespeare Festival in Philadelphia as well as co- Artistic Director of Ark Theater Company in Los Angeles. Previous artistic administrative positions include positions at the National Endowment for the Arts, Lincoln Center Theater, American Place Theater, and the Pew Foundation.

David served as the Dean of Theater Arts & Film in 2003 before returning to teaching acting, directing and immersive storytelling in transmedia and gameplay in 2007. www.davidbassuk.com

Lake Simons

Lake Simons is a director, designer, puppeteer, physical performer, and a maker of things. She was the Associate Puppetry Director of the Broadway Production of War Horse and has collaborated with many artists creating theatre productions from the ground up utilizing puppetry, movement, & live music. But most importantly Lake relies on make-believe. Lake has received multiple Jim Henson Foundation grants in support of her original puppetry productions.  As an artistic associate with the Hip Pocket Theatre in Texas, Lake participates as a director, performer, and designer. Lake is a co-director for the Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. She teaches in the theatre department at Sarah Lawrence College. Lake attended Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France and North Carolina School of the Arts.

Bill Bowers

As an actor, mime and educator, Bill Bowers has traveled throughout all 50 of the United States, Europe and Asia. His Broadway credits include Zazu The Lion King, and Leggett in The Scarlet Pimpernel, and he has appeared on the stages of Theatre for a New Audience, St. Anne’s Warehouse, EST, Radio City Music Hall, The Kennedy Center, Steppenwolf, LaMaMa, New York Fringe, and HERE. Bill has written and performed his own plays Off Broadway and in theaters around the world. These plays include: ‘Night Sweetheart ‘Night Buttercup at HERE, Under a Montana Moon at Urban Stages and the Kennedy Center, It Goes Without Saying at Rattlestick Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe, Beyond Words at Urban Stages, and All Over the Map at Theatre Row Theatre. Bill has been hailed by critics as “a great American mime”, winning the Grand Prix at the International Thespis Festival, and MonoMafia in Europe, Dallas Ft Worth Critics Award, Best of the Berkshires, Best Performance in the International United Solo Festival and the Fresh Fruit Festival. He is featured in the film TWO WEEKS NOTICE, and on television in Disney’s OUT OF THE BOX, REMEMBER W.E.N.N., ONE LIFE TO LIVE, ALL MY CHILDREN, and the ONION NEWS NETWORK. Bill holds an MFA from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, and an Honorary PhD from Rocky Mountain College. Bill is a student of the legendary Marcel Marceau, and presently serves on the faculties of NYU, Stella Adler Studios, and the William Esper Studio. www.Bill-Bowers.com

Morgan Auld

Morgan is NY based theater maker who blends his background in variety arts, magic, and classical theatre training to create original, devised work and inventive re-imaginings of Shakespeare plays. Morgan assisted MTS founder/director Richard Crawford (Cirque du Soleil, War Horse) in the creation process for a Chinese national tour of One Starry Night, a multi-media 2-character physical theatre piece for young audiences that blends, visual art, music, and magic. He performed in the show for several months and later became Resident Director of OSN, developing additional material and training new cast members. On screen with Keith David and Lamman Rucker, he played the lead character in Service to Man, an independent film that won five Best Narrative Feature awards on the festival circuit. For his performance he was nominated for Best Actor in a Feature Film at the Twister Alley Film Festival. For a full list of credits please go to www.morganauld.com

Justine Williams

Justine Williams is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, director and teacher. As an actor, she has appeared at The Public Theater, Ars Nova, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, NYTW, and many other stages. Her original multi-media performance work has presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, The Rubin Museum, Queens Museum, Queer|Art, Sibiu International Theater Festival, and original experimental and narrative films have screened at film festivals world-wide. A long-time clown performer and teacher, she has collaborated on many original projects and classical re-imaginings with her clown mentor, Christopher Bayes. Justine is on faculty at the Yale School of Drama where she teaches Play and Collaboration, and at Brooklyn College’s Performance and Interactive Media Arts MFA program where she teaches a course on the Histories of Avant-Garde Performance & Media. As a creative coach, Justine works with individual artists to support them through all phases of the creative process and in their artistic careers. 

Trey Lyford

Mr. Lyford is a Philadelphia-based theatre artist and Artistic Director of the physical theatre company - gimmick.   He is also the Co-Artistic Director of rainpan 43 where he has, along with colleague Geoff Sobelle,  created and performed in all of their works to date.  Following a world tour of r43’s first piece all wear bowlers (2005 Drama Desk Nomination, Innovative Theatre Award), r43 followed up with Amnesia Curiosa, the OBIE award-winning kinetic junk sculpture play machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines machines and the much toured absurd magic show Elephant Room.   In 2020 he will premiere the commissioned ZOOM performance work Elephant Room:  Dust From the Stars at the Philadelphia FringeArts Festival.  In addition to his pieces with gimmick and rainpan 43, Mr. Lyford  is an Associate Artist with the Civilians.  Mr. Lyford has performed his original works in four continents including venues across the U.S. such as  LA's Center Theatre Group, Philadelphia FringeArts, St. Ann’s Warehouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Studio Theater, Arena Stage and theaters throughout NYC. He is an alum of the HERE Art’s Center HARP program and the recipient of a Princess Grace Award and the Fabergé Theatre Excellence Award.  Further support for his work include grants from Creative Capital, NEFA, NYSCA and PEW Center for Arts & Heritage.  He is a faculty member at UArts as well as the Pig Iron MFA in Devised Performance.  MFA: UCSD  More info at : www.treylyford.com.

Steve Cuiffo

STEVE CUIFFO is a magician and theater maker who creates solo performance, as well as, collaborative works with other artists and theater companies. His work incorporates aspects of sleight of hand, misdirection, imitation and re-enactment to create unique performance, art, theater and magic.  Cuiffo is the co-founder of SECRET ARTS, a creative company that develops visual effects and illusions for theater, film and special events.

Steve has worked as a consultant on several of David Blaine’s ABC television specials and most recently completed a 40 city U.S. tour as Magic Director on “David Blaine Live”. He co-created ELEPHANT ROOM, an absurdist magic extravaganza with Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford.

Additionally, he has created illusions and magic sequences for theater on and off-Broadway including Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. (Vineyard Theatre); The Thin Place (Playwrights Horizons); Everyday Rapture (Broadway); Old Hats (Signature Theater); Antipodes (Signature Theater & National Theatre London); A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About The Death of Walt Disney (Soho Rep); Geoff Sobelle’s Home (BAM) and The Object Lesson (BAM).

Kaitlin Chin

Kaitlin is the director of Cirque du Nuit, a performance company that specializes in creating art and telling stories in unusual places, and is the showrunner and head developer for THICKETT, an interactive digital quest. She has traveled the world as an aerialist, mermaid, interactive performer, and, briefly, a pro-yo-yo-er. She enjoys excellent coffee and/or fancy cocktails, and has a cat named Loki, Destroyer of Worlds. You can find more information at www.kaitlin-chin.com and www.cirquedunuitnyc.com.