Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships
Round 4 Recipients
Extraordinary Potential:
CHRISTINA APATHY, Perseverance Theatre, Douglas AK
Christina plans to attend Theatre Mitu’s South India Artist Intensive to explore an artist’s personal mythology as citizen of the world in 2010. In 2011 Christina will participate in the Teacher Development Program at the Actors Center. In 2012 she will take a course in The Moving Body at the London International School of Performing Arts to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic forces at the core of the artist’s existence, attend a puppetry festival in Portugal the Sibiu Theatre Festival in Romania, and spend time at the Kneehigh Theatre in Cornwall, UK.
HEATHER SIMMS, McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton NJ
Heather will travel to Jamaica to audit courses on Caribbean Dialectology, the socio-historical background of Caribbean Language and women’s narrative in the African Diaspora. She will also study Afro-Caribbean dance. She will then travel to London for additional voice training, and to observe the Jamaican-founded Talawa theatre company. She will then travel to Ghana to participate in the African Culture Through Arts program to explore Ghanaian storytelling traditions. In the final phase of her fellowship, Heather will curate a reading series at the McCarter that will introduce the McCarter community as well as other actors and directors to new voices.
J. NICOLE BROOKS, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago IL
In preparation for a role in an opera based on a slave settlement in Colonial Brazil, Nicole will learn Afro Brazilian Samba, Portuguese and Capoeira to prepare for travel to Brazil for a deeper insight into Brazilian culture. She will also develop her circus skills at the Actors Gymnasium, and continue studying with master teachers David Downs of Northwestern University and Mary Ann Thebus of Artistic Home.
Distinguished Achievement:
STEPHANIE BERRY, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York NY
Stephanie will study voice at the Linklater Center for Voice and Language in New York, yoga and meditation at Harlem Holistic Studios and Improvisation classes at HB studios. She will travel to Sierra Leone to study storytelling with village griots and attend storytelling festivals including the Zora Neale Hurston Festival, the Gullah Festival and the Hane Native American Storytelling Festival. She will collect stories from a diverse section of Harlem residents, and present her findings in a production celebrating the living history of West Harlem.
PAULA PLUM, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston MA
Paula will travel to France to study Mask Play, Characters, Melodrama and Characters and Writing at the Ecole Phillipe Gaulier, take two Mask intensives at Dell’Arte International and study at the Ecole Mime in Montreal. She will also develop a new original work based on the life of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and offer master classes on Mask and working with sexuality onstage.
Round 3 Recipients
Extraordinary Potential:
Bill Barclay, Shakespeare & Co, Lenox, MA
Bill will travel with the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre to Bali to study traditional Balinese dance, yoga, Alexander technique, shadow puppetry, mask making and theatrical/religious ritual. In 2009/2010, he will work with actor/composer/playwright Rinde Eckert at the University of Iowa and Irina Brook’s company in Paris. Towards the end of his residency, he will work on his clown with Christopher Bayes. Bill will develop a multi-disciplinary approach to acting Shakespeare and create solo work through syntheses of poetry, music, movement, clown and ritual.
Tami Dixon, City Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
Employing techniques learned from workshops with Keith Johnstone, The Ping Chong Company and actor/writer Lisa Kron, Tami Dixon will embark on a journey towards the development of Slope Stories, a performance piece that will use stories from City Theatre’s neighbouring community members as source material. The fellowship will ultimately advance Tami’s training in innovative approaches to character development.
Hoon Lee, Lark Play Development Center, NY
During his residency at the Lark, Hoon will participate in the Playwrights’ Workshop, Studio Retreats, Barebones productions and the international exchange. With Artistic Director, John Eisner, he will also develop an exploratory Playwright-Actor project with a playwright. Hoon will work closely with Lark artistic advisor Olympia Dukakis, who will mentor him during his fellowship.
Zishan Ugurlu, La MaMa E.T.C., NY
Zishan will travel to Iran, Dubai, London and Los Angeles and will study the three following areas: Muslim women in the world; Muslim women in their home nation and Muslim women and men together in the same space in the context of ritual. Through her experiences abroad and at home, Zishan’s goal is to develop her imagination, voice and body in what she calls a “passionate quest for authenticity.” She will develop a piece about Muslim women with La MaMa’s artistic director, Ellen Stewart.
Distinguished Acheivement:
Ellen Lauren, SITI Company, NY
Ellen Lauren will re-invigorate the link between Suzuki and SITI Company by sharing her knowledge with SITI’s acting company. Her proposed activities are three-fold: advanced study with Tadashi Suzuki in Japan; advance master class culminating in a student production of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters , and the production of a book. Ellen will travel with The Suzuki Company to Seoul, Korea to take part in the BeSeTo Festival; Beijing, China to train with Chinese/Japanese cast of Clytemnestra under the direction of Danny Ho and to the Tanganka Theatre, Moscow to participate in two workshops led by artistic director, Yuri Lyubimov.
Kate Valk, The Wooster Group, NY
Kate’s fellowship activities include singing lessons with Hai-Ting Chinn to support her work in a new opera, La Didone; Noh Theatre lessons with John Oglevee; Spanish language classes at Queen Sofia Institute in preparation for a bilingual production to be developed by The Wooster Group from the work of Federico Garcia Lorca; meditation and yoga classes, and vocal training in the Kristen Linklater method with Natsuko Ohama.
Round 2 Recipients
Extraordinary Potential
Amit Lahav is co-founder of London-based theatre company Gecko, whose productions include The Race (winner of Total Theatre Award) and Taylor’s Dummies (Time Out Critics Choice, Guardian Pick of the Fringe). His Fellowship will partner him with David Farr, Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith in London. With Mr. Farr as his mentor, Mr. Lahav hopes to expand his artistic vision and creative practice, so that he can perform in theatre on a larger scale. Mr. Lahav will spend time in each department of the Lyric Hammersmith to gain a larger understanding of the theatre management process as a whole. His program activity will begin with his performance in The Arab and the Jew in the Lyric Studio, leading towards creating an original work in the Lyric’s Main House.
Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel is founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia, PA. Mr. Bauriedel will use his Fellowship to study with master teachers Giovanni Fusetti and Philippe Gaulier on clown and commedia dell’arte mask training. He also plans to find and create a vocabulary for the expressiveness of the voice through workshops with members of the Roy Hart School. In addition to his intense training, Mr. Bauriedel plans on using his Fellowship to attend numerous theatre festivals including Avignon, Festival du Monde, and Festival d’Automne. With the experience gained from the Fellowship, Mr. Bauriedel will return to the Pig Iron Theatre Company and lead workshops on clown and mask ending in the development of an original work which will become part of Pig Iron’s touring repertory.
Andres Munar is a New York-based actor who was recently seen in Acts of Mercy at Rattlestick Playwright Theater. Mr. Munar will use his Fellowship to become a guest ensemble member of Cornerstone Theatre Company, an honor that has never before been bestowed. Mr. Munar will participate in two Cornerstone Institute Summer Residencies and appear in The Justice Bridge Show, the culminating project of a three- year Justice Cycle, which encompasses five plays exploring how laws shape and divide communities. Mr. Munar will also use his Fellowship towards a month-long residency with Sylvia Pelaez at Teatro La Gruta in Mexico City to immerse himself in Latin American rehearsal and performance techniques.
Distinguished Achievement
Barbra Berlovitz, a co-founder of Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis, MN, has been performing and directing with the company since its inception in 1979. Ms. Berlovitz will use her Fox Fellowship to enrich her acting as well as her approach to teaching acting by shadowing three internationally known theatre masters, Patsy Rodenburg, Philippe Gaulier, and Ariane Mnouchkine. Upon her return from Europe, Ms. Berlovitz plans to bring her skills and inspiration back to Theatre de la Jeune Lune and lead her fellow actors in the creation of an original piece. She will also use her talents to offer workshops and master classes to the cast as well as young professional actors.
Ron Campbell is a west-coast based actor, whose performance awards include the Los Angeles and Bay Area Critic’s Circle Awards, the Helen Hayes and Jeff Award nominations, and four Backstage West Garland Awards. Through his Fox Fellowship, Mr. Campbell will study techniques with theatre companies in Greece, Italy, Japan and finally, Sweden in three specific stages: Mask in Greece and Italy, Body in Japan, and Voice in Sweden. He envisions this Fellowship as a “comprehensive exploration into combining mask work, movement and voice and applying these techniques to classical texts.” Mr. Campbell then plans to hold workshops for California Shakespeare Theater’s Associate Artists to share his findings with the possibility of developing a performance piece marrying Mr. Campbell’s physical work with aspects of Shakespeare.
William McNulty, a long-standing member of Actors Theatre of Louisville’s acting company, will use his Fox Fellowship to attend The Actors Center’s Intensive Teacher Training Program, working with acting teachers such as William Esper and Ron Van Lieu. He will then travel to the Acting School at the Atlantic Theatre Company in NYC to observe and train in the classroom for the duration of the summer program. Upon returning to Louisville, Mr. McNulty will teach classes for Actors Theatre of Louisville’s apprentice company as well as the community at large while continuing to work onstage as a resident actor.
Round 1 Recipients
Extraordinary Potential
Jonathan Broadbent is based in London and has performed at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Great Britain and London’s Gate Theatre. Mr. Broadbent’s host theatre for the Fox Fellowship is the Bristol Old Vic Theatre (Bristol, England). The fellowship will allow Mr. Broadbent to continue his voice training and develop his Shakespearean repertoire, culminating with the portrayal of Orlando in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, directed by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre’s artistic leader, Simon Reade. While in residence, Mr. Broadbent will develop his adaptation of The Late Mr. Shakpeseare, by Robert Nye and serve as liaison between the theatre’s administrative staff and the new, full-time resident acting company.
Juan Rivera Lebron’s Fox Fellowship will focus on vocal and text analysis. He will study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and locations throughout Spain. His studies will include an exploration of the similarities and differences in approaching Shakespearean text, and Spanish classical text in its original language. Mr. Lebron will subsequently offer classes and workshops for the company members and staff of the Fox host theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR), and help develop bilingual curriculum that will focus on Shakespeare and Spanish classical texts in conjunction with the theatre’s education department.
Distinguished Achievement
In 2006-2007, Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham will play in rotating repertory Shylock in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, directed by Darko Tresnjak, and Barabas in The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe, directed by David Herskovits, both to be produced by Theatre for a New Audience (New York, NY). The Merchant of Venice will subsequently tour to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon to be presented in the RSC's Complete Works Festival. Mr. Abraham, who has acted in over 80 films and 90 plays and was last seen Off Broadway in Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted, has been awarded funding that will provide time to prepare for the rigors of repertory performance, including training with internationally acknowledged voice expert Cicely Berry.
Karen Kandel’s acting credits include international tours of productions directed by Ong Ken Sen, JoAnne Akalaitis, Lee Breuer and Peter Sellars. She will study Noh theatre in Japan, improvisational vocal techniques (both Eastern and Western Classical), dance training in Paris and clown and mime training in New York. She is a longtime collaborator of the host theatre, Mabou Mines (New York, NY) and will, with other artists, develop a new piece for the theatre through open work sessions, readings, presentations and residencies.
Joan Schirle has received a Fox Fellowship with Dell'Arte International (Blue Lake, CA), a thirty-year-old, internationally recognized touring ensemble and school, of which she is a co-founder. Her Fox Fellowship work will primarily focus on vocal training. She will study in France with members of the Roy Hart Theatre, at the Banff Center with Richard Armstrong and in New York with Catherine Fitzmaurice and others. Upon completion of her studies, she will lead workshops with Dell’Arte company members. Dell’Arte has also committed to develop one of two projects which will feature Ms. Schirle.
Andrew Weems received a Fox Fellowship with the Intiman Theatre (Seattle, WA). His acting credits include roles on Broadway, with Theatre for New Audience (including at the Royal Shakespeare Company), New York Theatre Workshop and at major regional theatres throughout the U.S. He has worked frequently with director Bartlett Sher, including two productions at the Intiman, where Mr. Sher is artistic director. Mr. Weems will travel to Tamil Nadu, India to study at the Kattaikuttu Sangram and to Kerala, India to study at the Bhasabharathi Center. Upon his return to the U.S., he will continue to develop his play Namaste Man (Lost and Found in Kathmandu), an autobiographical piece based on his travels and his upbringing in Asia and Africa. Members of the Intiman Theatre’s artistic staff will collaborate with Mr. Weems on his play.