While the principles of great acting don't change, the realities of the film and TV business do - continuously. So actors and teachers who don't stay current are quickly left behind. As a student at SFT, you learn in a dynamic, intimate setting from faculty who are more than just knowledgeable and passionate mentors; they're also working professionals - pros who bring their up-to-the-minute knowledge, experience and connections to you in class, every day.

Overall direction flows from seven master teachers who work both as department heads and class instructors. They work closely with the adjunct faculty, whose expertise in specific disciplines transcends acting to include dance, directing, casting and producing. All are available to students, inside and outside the classroom, for personal advice and direction. Because part of our mission is to expose you to the diverse realities of our industry, we also regularly bring in accomplished guest instructors to give seminars. You will have opportunities to meet and learn from industry leaders, including directors, talent agents, casting directors, managers, producers and cinematographers, as well as actors. Recent guest lecturers have included Academy Award winners Alan Ball and Olympia Dukakis.

Administration

Joan See

Artistic Director

Joan graduated from Hofstra University with degrees in English, speech and theatre. Professionally trained by Sanford Meisner, Joan started her acting career over 30 years ago and has appeared in over 300 commercials. She has had the pleasure of working with such distinguished actors as Julia Roberts, Paul Newman and Eva Gabor. Other credits include professional theatre productions onand Off Broadway and daytime drama. Joan has had the honor of serving as Vice President of the Screen Actors Guild in NYC. In 1980 she founded Actors in Advertising, which grew into the School for Film and Television. She also founded Three of Us Studios, which is the largest and most successful casting facility on the East Coast. She is the author of Acting in Commercials, a Guide to Auditioning and Performing On-camera. Esquire magazine quote: “Joan See is the Stanislavski of the 30-second spot.”

Richard Omar

Program Director

Richard Omar received his training at Hofstra University and from Uta Hagen and Bobby Lewis in NYC. New York theatre credits include Dracula in Dance with Me, Harker (New York International Fringe Festival), Rick in the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck’s The First Day, Wes in the NYC premiere of Beth Henley’s Lost (Theatre 4). Richard Loeb in Never the Sinner (The DirectorsCompany), Bunny in The Secret History (The Directors Company), Hastings in Richard III withAustin Pendleton, Sherwood in Fruit Bat Safari Camp with Sally Mayes and Julie Halston. Richard was featured in The Unofficial New York Yale Cabaret’s tribute to Wendy Wasserstein (Wendy’s Words) at the Laurie Beechman Theater. As a ballroom dancer, he appeared on film with Leslie Caron, Patrick Stewart and Jennifer Beals. He has taught at the New Actors Work-shop for Mike Nichols and George Morrison, SUNY Purchase and Hofstra University.

Jay R. Goldenberg

Associate Artistic Director

Jay Goldenberg received his master’s of fine arts in acting from New York University School of the Arts and has worked as an actor, teacher and director. Mr. Goldenberg has coached on the sets of features, mini-series, sitcoms and daytime drama. Some of the projects Mr. Goldenberg has worked on are Say Anything with John Cusack and Ione Skye, the mini-series Elvis and Me, the TV series Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd, and the daytime drama General Hospital. Some of Mr. Goldenberg’s private clients have included Salma Hayek, Cybill Shepherd, Alicia Silverstone, Estelle Getty, Michael Chiklis, Charles Kimbrough, Beth Howland, Ione Skye, Mary Wilson, Eric Close, Allyce Beasley, Trevor St. John, Nicollette Sheridan and several other actors working as principals in both film and television.

David Palmer

Chief Executive

David Palmer has degrees in psychobiology and music from Drew University and has been with SFT since 1985. Before coming to SFT he worked for IBM in their product centers in the fledgling days of the PC. He facilitated the move of SFT into its current space in 1986 and then managed and grew the casting facility, Three of Us Studios. In 1990 he assumed the role of General Manager and ran the day-to-day operations of the organization. This expanded into strategic management of the school as it prepared for and was approved for accreditation in 1994. Since then he has led and directed the administration of the school to provide the highest-quality infrastructure and operational support systems and services, which enables the faculty, students and staff to achieve their academic and artistic goals and objectives.

James Melis

Chief Financial Officer

James Melis has fifteen years of financial experience in four of the most difficult and heavily regulated industries: banking, health services, hospitality and education. As Controller at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, which owns over 20 satellite hospitals, nursing homes and clinics, he was a visionary thinker who set up long-term strategies so that the hospital and its subsidiaries could run seamlessly and meet the standards of federal, state and city regulators. As Controller at Deutsche Bank, he facilitated getting the bank listed on the NYSE. As Controller at Park Avenue Bank, his innovative practices improved the bank’s OCC rating to the top 20% in the United States. At Generale Bank, his resourceful direction increased the bank’s efficiency by cutting costs and streamlining the financial reporting process to regulators. As Accounting Manager at Bank of America, he structured and managed the consolidation process during the merger with Continental Bank.

Steven Chinni

Director of Admission

Steven Chinni has more than twenty years of diverse experience in academic settings. He has led the Financial Aid, Enrollment Management, and Admissions Departments in several schools in the NY area including The French Culinary Institute, where he also trained as a pastry chef. A graduate of Queens College (CUNY), with a degree in Theater and Psychology, he has pursued a Master’s Degree in Education at Hunter College. Since joining the Conservatory in 2003, he has led the effort to introduce and welcome the most talented actors to our Programs. In addition to his administrative accomplishments, he is a trained actor with credits Off-Broadway (Dinner for a Scorched Hero, The Unseen Hand, The Indian Wants the Bronx), film (Operation Film Maker), and TV (Cain and Abel).

Faculty

BARRY McNabb

Barry earned a bachelor of science degree in dance/theatre in 1981. His professional debut was for Bob Fosse as featured soloist and dance captain in Dancin’. Other highlights of his career include being an original Broadway cast member: The Phantom of the Opera and Me and My Girl; and as director and/or choreographer: Broadway (Touch of a Poet, Easter Bonnet Competitions); Off Broadway (Irish Rep, CSC, Lincoln Center, the Public, Circle Rep, etc.); International (Madrid, Barcelona, Seoul, Monte Carlo, etc.); regional (Pittsburgh Public, GEVA, Alley, Seattle 5th, etc.). His work on television includes Late Night with Conan O’Brien (thirteen years), Saturday Night Live (five years), The Howard Stern Show (five years). Awards: Premio (Spain). Nominations: NY Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Connecticut Critic Circle, MAC, Bistro, Barrymore, Emmy, etc.

BECKY London

Becky London earned a BA, magna cum laude, in English language and literature from Yale University, and an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama. Television credits include Conviction, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Third Watch, Quantum Leap and All My Children. Films include Changing Lanes, United 93 and Charles Busch’s directorial debut, A Very Serious Person. Broadway credits in Marlene, at Lincoln Center in Ubu, and Off Broadway in Isn’t It Romantic at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Othello with TFANA, and Last of the Red Hot Lovers at American Jewish Theatre. She is a member of Charles Busch’s Off-Broadway Theatre-in-Limbo Company, with which she has appeared in Shanghai Moon, Pardon My Inquisition, Psycho Beach Party and in New York and Tokyo in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Regional work includes the Old Globe, Trinity Rep, Walnut Street Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, San Jose Rep, Capital Rep, Portland Stage, Tennessee Rep, Caldwell Theatre, Wilma Theatre and many others.

CAROL Kastendieck

Carol Kastendieck has directed over 100 plays, musicals and operas around the country. Most recently she directed Austin Pendleton in Richard III at the New Perspectives Theatre Company and When the World Was Green for the Michael Chekhov Theatre Company’s Sam Shepard Festival, both in NYC. Ms. Kastendieck has taught at Juilliard, Hofstra University, Carnegie Mellon University, Miami University, and the Riverside Shakespeare Company School. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and has studied under Stella Adler, Robert Benedetti, John Houseman, Sonia Moore and Ted Pugh. She is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and Actors Equity Association.

CHARLES Mintz

Charles Mintz has been a voice-over actor for over 20 years, appearing in more than 10,000 commercials. He has been heard as the signature voice in dozens of long-running campaigns for America’s best-known corporations. Charles has appeared as a featured performer in thousands of other commercials for familiar brands from Air Canada to Xerox. He also has narrated hundreds of corporate and educational programs, documentaries and children’s books. Charles has a BS in design, and an MA in speech from the University of Michigan, and for some years prior to performing wrote advertising copy at several advertising agencies, rising to the level of Creative Director.

CONNIE Rotunda

Connie Rotunda, a guild-certified Feldenkrais® practitioner, trained with David Zemach-Bersin and works as the training program practitioner and organizer of the NYC Feldenkrais® Professional Training Program. She holds an MFA from the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. A professional actor and director, she has worked regionally and Off Broadway, created and performed sketch comedy with Alarm Dog Rep, as well as performed and taught as a guest artist. Ms. Rotunda has taught Feldenkrais® workshops and classes in a variety of settings throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, actor movement workshops at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, the Metro Playhouse and the Northeast Theatre Conservatory.

DANA Vance

Dana has been a professional actress for 30 years, working in every medium in show business. She appeared on Broadway with Andy Kaufman and Deborah Harry in the national tour of Laughter on the 23rd Floor, starred in an ABC Television pilot (Hot W.A.C.S.) and performed across the country as part of the comedy act Schiffman and Vance. She also has appeared in numerous commercials and voice-overs. Sheis the winner of the S.C.E. Film Award at NYU for her film The Other Woman (Dana was writer, director and actor). She has taught at The New Playwrights Theatre in Washington, D.C., and at Belvoir Terrace in Lenox, Massachusetts. Dana has a BFA from West Virginia University and a certificate in filmmaking from NYU.

EILEEN Connolly

Eileen is the founder and Artistic Director of Wallis Knot Theatre, where she creates, designs and directs original multimedia productions including Late to the Republique (SFT), Dance with Me, Harker (New York International Fringe Festival), and Seeing Andre Gide (New Actors Workshop). As an actress she has worked Off Broadway and at the Meadow Brook and Birmingham Theatres in Detroit, the Royal George in Chicago, the Walnut Street Theatre and Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia. As a director, she was honored to assist Betty Comden and Adolph Green on their revival of A Doll’s Life (York Theatre). She recently created the movement and combat for Irish Repertory Theatre’s production of Beowulf. For the University of Vermont, she was commissioned to co-author an adaptation of Aristophanes’ The Birds and Don Marquis’ Archy and Mehitabel. She has an MFA in acting from the University of Minnesota, and a BA in theatre and dance from DeSales University.

JAKE Daehler

Jake Daehler is an actor and director who’s been in thousands of television and radio commercials. He’s also authored or co-authored pieces for film, TV and theatre. A graduate of Northwestern University, Jake has taken and taught a variety of strange and unlikely classes, not the least of which was breakdancing.

JANICE Orlandi

Janice Orlandi, a movement specialist, is a certified teacher of Williamson Physical Technique for Actors, including period/style character, movement and period dance. She has taught Movement for Actors and period style for over fifteen years at educational institutions in the United States and Europe, including Mason Gross School of the Arts; Rutgers State University; Williamstown Theatre Festival; de Lindenberg Centrum voor de Kunsten, Netherlands; State Theatre School in Odense, Denmark, and Ophelia Theatre School in Copenhagen; New York State Summer School of the Arts (NYSSSA). Movement and style coach for Mirror Repertory Company, Princeton Repertory Shakespeare Festival, Sonnet Rep, Players Theater, Act One, Williamstown WTF. She recently worked with Mercedes Ruehl as movement coach for her portrayal of Frida Kahlo in the Bay Street Theatre production of Viva La Vida! Former students: Tom Pelphrey, Guiding Light, Emmy Award winner 2006; and Micah Alberti, All My Children, Guiding Light and Wildfire Fox Five.

JOE Perce

Joe Perce was the 1987 CLIO Award Winner as Best Male Actor in a Commercial (Pontiac’s Trans Am). He has appeared in dozens of commercials. Joe’s credits include improvisational comedy with such groups as The First Amendment, Chicago City Limits, Comedy Mind Spill, and producing his own comedy troupe, Assorted Nuts. He was voted Best Improvisational Comic of 1989 by Backstage magazine and has been involved with such movies as Black Rain, The Hidden, Bum Rap, B-movie classic Don’t Mess with My Sister and the Sundance award-winning short Kings Day Out. TV credits include the ABC pilot The Bodyguards with rappers Kid & Play, Law & Order, The Equalizer, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, The David Susskind Show and ABC’s After-School Special.

JOHN Jamiel

John Jamiel has been a professional director and actor in New York City for the past 30 years. He recently directed Three Sisters at the Guilford School of Acting Conservatoire in Surrey, England. Directing credits include Raised in Captivity, In Fireworks Lie Secret Codes, Icarus’s Mother, Bash, The Sea Gull, Uncle Vanya, The Normal Heart, A Grand Night for Singing and The Man Who Came to Dinner. Acting credits include Voynitsky in The Wood Demon at the American Theatre of Actors, Dostoyevsky in Circus at Theatre for the New City and Sganarelle at the Van Dam Theatre. Regionally he was the guest artist at Buffalo Studio Arena Theatre School in The Man Who Came to Dinner, in the role of Sheridan Whiteside. He has trained with Slava Dolgachev of the Moscow Art Theatre, Uta Hagen, Austin Pendleton and F. Murray Abraham, and holds his MFA from Brooklyn College.

JOHN Tyrrell

John Tyrrell is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse, where he studied with Sanford Meisner. His Broadway credits include Equus, The Merchant and Stephen Porter’s production of The Miser. John appeared in the national company of The Elephant Man as well as regional theatres: Bell Book and Candle (S.J.R.T.), You Touched Me (John Drew Theatre) and, most recently, Conversations with My Father at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. John has appeared on television in Loving and Guiding Light.

JUDITH Searcy

Judith Searcy is the co-founder of Creative Training Systems, a company created to use improvisation as a corporate training tool. She is the head of the Improv Department at SFT and was a principal in the main company of Chicago City Limits New York Company from 1985 to 1995. Recent performance credits include radio and TV appearances and scores of industrial shows, both live and taped, many of which involved writing and directing. She has directed several plays in New York and played the title role in the independent film Marge, which won Best Comedy Short in the 1994 New Orleans Film Festival. She recently played Betty on the television pilot Off the Cuff and has an MFA in acting and directing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

JULIA Carey

Julia Carey is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She has extensive acting and directing credits both in the United States and her native Britain. Her on-camera credits include leading roles in television drama series, notably Wings, A Bunch of Fives and General Hospital. While in New York she has focused on the development of new work with her company Theater M and in the creating of her unique method of training actors for camera, both at the School for Film and Television and in the Graduate Film Program at NYU. Julia divides her time between London and NYC as the Executive Director of Final Reel at SFT and Head of Acting at the Guildford Conservatoire in London.

LARKIN Malloy

After attending Iona College, Larkin started working as a professional actor in 1974 on the New York stage. After playing featured roles at the Arena Stage in Washington and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, he did a season of classics at the famed Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. Returning to New York, he played at the Manhattan Theatre Club, while his day job was creating the role of Sky Whitney on ABC’s Edge of Night, a role that earned him an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Actor. Next, he moved on to CBS’s Guiding Light to create the role of Kyle Sampson. Two years later, he came to work opposite Susan Lucci on ABC’s All My Children, where he played the role for which he is best known, Travis Montgomery. After a year as Clay on ABC’s Loving, he returned to his first love, the stage, working in regional theatre across the United States. Larkin went on to direct on NBC’s Another World. For eight years he was the on-site acting coach at CBS’s As the World Turns. Nine of his students at ATWT were nominated for Best Acting Emmys during this time. Larkin can be heard as the announcer on As the World Turns.

LISA Jacobson

Lisa Jacobson has been an accomplished actress, director, choreographer and acting coach for the past 25 years. She has appeared in and directed numerous plays on and Off Broadway. Two of Ms. Jacobson’s many acting credits are playing Jackie in the original company of Hot L Baltimore and Joann in Frederick Zollo’s production of Vanities. In New York she has directed and choreographed for the Circle Repertory Company, the Cubiculo, the Open Space, the Conservatory Theatre and the Amas Theatre. She has also appeared in numerous national television commercials. She is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Ohio University. Ms. Jacobson taught at the National Shakespeare Conservatory for fifteen years.

LYNNE Lipton

Lynne’s stage credits include Second City in Chicago, the Committee in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the Goodman Theatre and other regionals. Broadway credits include Boom Boom Room at Lincoln Center, Sherlock Holmes and Tom Stoppard’s Travesties with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has appeared in countless Off-Broadway shows, from Brecht to Wedekind, having written and performed in the original show Commercial Interruptions Off–Broadway as well. TV credits include Law & Order, recurring roles on the soap As the World Turns, Conan O’Brien sketch comedy, David Frost series regular, after-school specials and numerous TV pilots. She has written and performed in thousands of commercials and voice-overs.

MARGARET Reed

Margaret Reed plays the recurring role of Felicia Chatham on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and has guest starred on Seinfeld, Star Trek TNG, Spin City, The Young Riders, Empty Nest, The Golden Girls, Blossom and Knots Landing, to name a few. Off Broadway, she was Vivien Leigh in the highly acclaimed production of Austin Pendleton’s Orson’s Shadow at the Barrow Street Theatre. Ms. Reed was named Best Featured Actress for Dinner with Friends by the New Jersey Press Association and romped through Central Park in Triumph of Love in the summer of the same year. For eight years Ms. Reed starred as Shannon O’Hara McKechnie on As the World Turns. Some of her film credits include Dress Rehearsal, Shelter Island, IMAX: The Journey Within, Quicksand and The Eiger Sanction. She received an MFA from Cornell University and a BA from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

MARY ELAINE Monti

Mary Elaine Monti is a Meisner-trained actor, having been fortunate to study with William Esper. Her life as a New York actor has been most diverse; from Shakespeare at the Public Theatre to guest roles on Law & Order, from productions at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Ensemble Studio Theatre to The Tonight Show with the improvisational comedy group the Ace Trucking Co. and appearances at Standup NY and the Improv with the House Band. She has worked with re-nowned theatre directors Doug Hughes and Carole Rothman and film directors Oliver Stone and Woody Allen, and appeared in plays by Michael Weller, William Hauptman and Martin Sherman. Mary Elaine has worked extensively for over 30 years in film, theatre, television, animation, improvisation, on-camera commercials, voice-overs and radio commercials. She is a member of AFTRA, Equity and SAG.

MOLLIE O’Mara

Mollie O’Mara, a founding member of the critically acclaimed and award-winning downtown theatre company Cucaracha, originated roles in over 35 productions while directing and designing over ten, most notably Crowbar (The Old Victory Theater) on 42nd Street, which won the New York Outer Critics Circle and OBIE awards. Also in NYC she appeared in productions with the Public Theater, New Georges and SOHO Rep. Mollie appeared in a recurring role on All My Children for over thirteen years. Other TV credits include One Life to Live, Another World, Guiding Light, Law & Order, The Jon Stewart Show, and Help 911. Film includes work with Hal Hartley, Merchant Ivory, Vestron and Sony. She received her BFA from CUA in Washington, D.C.

NEAL Lerner

Performed Off Broadway in Julius Caesar at the New York Shakespeare Festival; Fuddy Meers at Manhattan Theatre Club; Hurrah at Last at the Roundabout Theatre Company; Carol Churchill’s Serious Money at the Public Theatre; and Hyde in Hollywood and Gus and Al at Playwrights Horizons. Regional theatres include Yale Rep, Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theatre of Louisville and George Street Playhouse. In addition to co-authoring the Mike and Neal Show, Neal, along with Mike, also was a finalist in the 2003 Humana Festival 10-Minute Play Contest. Other writing includes the short film Because of You as well as the full-length play Pressure. Television guest appearances include Reba, The War at Home, It’s All Relative, Ed, Frasier, Law & Order, Third Watch, Ally McBeal, Seinfeld, Caroline in the City, NewsRadio, Married with Children, Murphy Brown, Cheers and others. Film: Boiler Room, Batman Returns, Demolition Man, The Visitor and And the Band Played On, among others.

PETER Mattaliano

Peter Mattaliano has a master’s in theatre from Villanova University. As an actor and a founding member of the Philadelphia Company, he originated the roles of “Big Al Royce” in David Rabe’s In the Boom Boom Room, and “Billy” in Rabe’s Streamers. Other roles include “Oberon” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Caliban” in The Tempest, the leader player in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, “Morty” in Steambath and the title role in Euripides’ Orestes. He has taught at NYU, the Philadelphia Company and Villanova University. He wrote and directed The Green Death at the Actor’s Outlet Theatre in New York and was commissioned to write and direct an adaptation of Dorothy Parker’s Big Blonde for the Art & Work Ensemble. He received the American College Theatre Festival’s Excellence in Directing Award for his production of Moll Flanders at Villanova University as a part of their sesquicentennial Celebration Playwrights Festival in 1993.

PETER Ratray

Peter Ratray—actor, director and teacher—is known to television viewers from his frequent guest appearances on Law & Order, as well as being seen on Sex and the City, E.R., Third Watch and many more. Peter has been in long-running roles on All My Children, Another World, Ryan’s Hope and Search for Tomorrow. His films include James Cameron’s The Abyss and Stonewall. On Broadway, he co-starred in the Tony Award-winning Torch Song Trilogy and at the famed Public Theatre in the prize-winning play Stuff Happens. He has directed plays by emerging writers for the OBIE-winning New Group, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Los Angeles’ Blank Theatre company and many others.

POLLY Adams

Film: recent featured roles include United 93; People I Know, with Al Pacino; The Juror, with Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin; New York Crossing, with Giancarlo Giannini; Celebrity, directed by Woody Allen; Uptown Girls, with Brittany Murphy. TV: featured roles on Law and Order (six times), New York News, with Mary Tyler Moore; The Wright Verdicts, with Tom Conti; Now and Again; Players. Principal roles in The Edge of Night, Search for Tomorrow, All My Children. Various comic sketches: Late Night with Conan O’Brien; Late Show with David Letterman. Theatre, Broadway: Zalmen or The Madness of God (by Elie Wiesel, lead), Lost in Yonkers (first national tour, Gert) and leads in numerous Off-Off-Broadway productions. Polly is a founding member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre. She has appeared in over 1,000 TV and radio commercials, industrials, narrations and recorded books for the past 25 years.

QUINN Cassavale

As an actress, Quinn has appeared at many regional theatres and starred in several independent feature films, including Killing Time, a 2002 Sundance Dramatic Feature. She has also worked on all the New York soaps. In addition, Quinn has appeared in numerous national on-camera commercials. Quinn attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating with a BFA in theatre, she studied extensively with Fred Kareman.

RAWLEIGH Moreland

Rawleigh Moreland has worked extensively in New York City in theatre, film, television and commercials. Theatre credits include The Gingerbread House and Last Trace of the Dinosaurs (Play-wrights Horizons), A Family of Five (Theatre for a New Audience) and Birdbath (West Side Arts). Regionally, he has performed leading roles at the Shakespeare Festival of Cincinnati, Showboat Majestic, Seven Stages, Theatrical Outfit, South Georgia Rep., Peanut Butter Children’s Theatre and The Lost Colony. Film and television credits include New York Stories, Mighty Aphrodite, Wolf, Another World, The Equalizer, Texas and Law & Order, to name a few. He has produced a SAG feature film for Suncrest Cinema. Rawleigh holds an MFA in directing from the University of Cincinnati. Rawleigh also works as a producer/director and session director for Stark Naked Productions and Dreamcatcher Casting.

RAY Iannicelli

Ray Iannicelli is a veteran of some 40 Off-Off and Off-Broadway productions. He has also played the provinces with On the Waterfront, Conversations with My Father, Boy Meets Girl and Breaking Legs. Ray has done practically all the New York TV shows, including Law & Order, Remember WENN (guest star) and Oz (recurring role). Some of his movies include The Yards, Rounders, Safe Men, Spike of Bensonhurst and Prizzi’s Honor. Ray has also shot over 75 commercials.

RICHARD Larson

Richard Larson was a singer/dancer on the original Carol Burnett Show and the Julie Andrews Hour. He traveled extensively as the national spokesperson for Chevrolet, GMC Trucks, DuPont, BorgWarner Chemical and IBM. His Broadway debut was in Woman of the Year with Lauren Bacall. He also appeared as Zack in A Chorus Line. Richard’s commercials include Dr. Pepper, Honda, Volvo and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

RICK Crom

Rick Crom has been part of the New York entertainment community for over 25 years as a comedian, actor and songwriter. He came to New York in 1979 as part of the Chicago City Limits Improv Company and began working as a comedian nationwide. As a stand-up comic he’s appeared on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Caroline’s Comedy Hour, MTV Comedy Half-hour, Showtime and Comedy Central. He performs regularly at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan and the Comedy Stops at the Tropicana in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. As an actor he’s appeared on Broadway in the musicals Urinetown, The Goodbye Girl and Footloose; Off Broadway in Merrily We Roll Along, Das Barbecue, Encore’s Fiorello, Li’l Abner and Carnegie Hall’s Louisiana Purchase; television: Ed, The Chris Rock Show, Chappelle’s Show; film: Bad Dog and Caesar Salad. He is the composer/lyricist for several Off-Broadway and cabaret revues: Oh Fine, RSVP, The Subject Was Neurosis, Absolutely Rude, Our Life and Times, What in the World and NEWSical, which ran at Studio 54 and garnered him two Drama Desk nominations for best lyrics and best revue.

ROBERTA Reardon

Roberta Reardon is a veteran commercial actor, appearing in hundreds of on-camera spots, including three years in K-Mart’s “Shopping Families” campaign, as well as performing in voice-overs, radio and industrial films and narrations. A Wynn Handman student, she started in daytime drama and has done extensive theatre work, both regionally and in New York. She recently was elected as National President of AFTRA.

RUTH Nerken

Ruth Nerken received her training from William Esper and the American Conservatory Theatre and has a BA from Yale University. She has guest starred on Law & Order, Kate & Allie and Too Close for Comfort. She’s performed Off Broadway, in regional theatre and in the national touring company of Grease as Frenchy. Ruth also has appeared in over 200 television commercials. She has been a guest speaker at AFTRA, SAG and Yale University.

STEVE Perlmutter

Regional theatre credits include Milt in Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Walnut Street Theatre, American Stage Festival); Chekhov in The Good Doctor (The Schoolhouse Theatre), where Steve was named among Outstanding Performers in Regional Theatre ’98-’99 by the Patent Trader newspaper; Epstein in Biloxi Blues (The New Theatre); Eugene in Broadway Bound (American Stage Festival, depot theatre); Jamie in Filthy Rich (Wayside Theatre); and Marty in Isn’t It Romantic? (Summerfun Theatre). Other credits include Morton Gandhi Jr. on MTV’s Half Hour Comedy Hour and numerous radio and television commercials. Steve is a graduate of Northwestern University.

TESSA Chandler

Tessa Chandler is a guild-certified Feldenkrais® practitioner, performer and teacher. She has taught at the Paul Taylor Summer Dance Intensive, the New York in Naxos festival in Greece, the Trisha Brown Dance Studio, the Feldenkrais Institute and on an ongoing basis at the School for Film and Television and Barnard College (Columbia University), where she has been a faculty member since 2003. She has performed choreography, including her own, in New York City since 1999 and was a member of Molissa Fenley and Dancers from 2003 to 2006. During the 1990s she was a member of the Vienna State Opera Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, and the Dutch National Ballet. Tessa maintains a private practice in Functional Integration® (the hands-on application of the Feldenkrais Method®) and offers movement direction, coaching and master classes to dance and theatre companies, as well as to individuals. She received her BA from Columbia University.