Home / / Blog / / Announcements / / The Antaeus Academy Announces Spring Moderators!
At Antaeus, we believe mastering the acting challenges of great classics takes a lifetime and that the desire to take on these challenges is central to achieving great acting. Here, we’re constantly putting young artists-in-training together with seasoned professionals – in the classroom, in readings, workshops and in full productions – so that skills, work ethics and inspiration are not just taught but ‘passed down.’
JEANIE HACKETT (Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg & American Classics) has been part of the artistic leadership team of Antaeus for the past 8 years. She has been a professional actress for over 20 years and has appeared in classical and new plays on Broadway (including Stella n A Streetcar Named Desire with Blythe Danner), as well as many Off-Broadway productions. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, at Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York and is a graduate of NYU’s Acting Program. She appeared at the Williamstown Theatre Festival with legendary actors Rosemary Harris, Frank Langella, Colleen Dewhurst and Christopher Reeve among many others. Her TV work includes Guest Stars 0n The West Wing, The L Word and Criminal Minds. Film work includes: King Of California and Kids In America with Topher Grace. LA Theater: she has played leading roles at South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, The Cannon Theatre (Vagina Monologues), The Matrix Theatre (The Seagull: Ovation Award – Best Ensemble). At the Odyssey Theatre she played Clytemnestra in the 8-hour marathon play The Greeks, which she also co-directed with Ron Sossi. She is the former Artistic Director of LA’s Classical Theatre Lab where she directed Tennessee Williams: A Celebration, a theatre piece which she originally conceived with renowned director Nikos Psacharopoulos for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She is the founder and director of the Antaeus Company’s Academy, a classical theatre training program for emerging young actors. With John Apicella, she creatively oversaw Antaeus’ acclaimed mainstage productions, as well as creating a series of Antaeus events called CLASSICSFEST — a gathering of over 100 actors in the summer for the presentation of readings and workshop productions of classical plays and new plays with classical themes. Jeanie is the author of two books on acting: The Actor’s Chekhov and Toward Mastery, both based on the work of director Nikos Psacharopoulos.
KATE BURTON (Ibsen) appeared on Broadway in The Elephant Man, for which she received a Tony nomination and in the same season as Hedda Gabler, for which she received the Callaway Award, an Outer Critics Circle nomination and another Tony nomination. She made her NYSF debut in Boston Marriage and her London debut in Three Sisters at The Playhouse. Roundabout: The Constant Wife, Give Me Your Answer, Do!, Company, The Playboy of the Western World and Winners. Other Broadway: Present Laughter (Theatre World Award), Alice in Wonderland, Doonesbury, Wild Honey, Some Americans Abroad (Drama Desk nom.), An American Daughter (Lincoln Center Theater), Jake’s Women and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (also UK and Ireland). Television: recurred on The Practice and Law & Order, Ellis Grey on Grey’s Anatomy; Emmy Award for Notes for My Daughter,Cindy Whiting in HBO’s Empire Falls, and Rose on Rescue Me. Film: Big Trouble in Little China, Life With Mikey, First Wives Club, The Ice Storm, Celebrity, August, Unfaithful, Swimfan, Stay, Some Kind of Heaven and The Night Listener. Many times at Bay Street and Williamstown. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and on the Board of Trustees for BC/EFA. Graduate of Brown and Yale.
STEPHEN COLLINS (Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg) His Broadway credits include his 2008 role as King Arthur in Spamalot and prior appearances in Moonchildren, The Ritz, The Loves of Anatol, and No Sex Please, We’re British; off-Broadway he appeared opposite Sigourney Weaver in Christopher Durang‘s Beyond Therapy, as Macduff to Christopher Walken‘s Macbeth at Lincoln Center, and as husband to Julie Andrews (with whom he shares a birthday) in the Stephen Sondheim revue, Putting It Together at Manhattan Theatre Club in 1993.
Collins, probably, is best known for his role as the Reverend Eric Camden in more than 200 episodes of the television series 7th Heaven, though he also notably portrayed Captain/Commander Willard Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Additional television credits include starring roles in Tales of the Gold Monkey and Tattingers, as well as guest appearances in The Waltons, Barnaby Jones, Charlie’s Angels, and numerous mini-series and made-for-television movies. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work opposite Ann-Margret in the minseries The Two Mrs. Grenvilles and he played John F. Kennedy in the miniseries A Woman Named Jackie, which won the Emmy for Best Miniseries.
ROBERT W. GOLDSBY (Moliere) began his professional work in the theater in a touring version of Three Men On a Horse for the troops in the Philippines in 1945 who were sitting in the mud waiting to go home after the war. Directed 153 Equity and University theater productions (including eleven plays by Moliere, forty-six classical plays from Aristophanes to Shakespeare to Giradoux, and ninety-eight plays from the modern repertory to Ibsen to Innaurato) in New York, Paris, Marseille and San Francisco. Served on the faculties of UC Berkeley, Columbia, UCLA, Washington, USC and did several master classes on Moliere for Antaeus. Professor and Chairman Emeritus, UC Berkeley. He is currently finishing a book called Moliere on Stage: A Director’s Story. He has translated Sardou’s Divorcons for the West End in London (Comedy Theater), three plays by Moliere and one by Feydeau.
ART MANKE (Restoration Movement Master Class & Moliere) is an award-winning director whose work has been seen locally at South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum and Laguna Playhouse. Mr. Manke is a co-founder of A Noise Within, Los Angeles’s acclaimed classical theatre company, where he served as Artistic Director for the first ten seasons (1991-2001). He is the recipient of numerous L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards, is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conservatories throughout the country, and frequently directs for television. Originally from Chicago, Mr. Manke holds a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theatre.
LARRY BIEDERMAN (Chekhov, Ibsen & Strindberg) At Antaeus: CLASSICSFEST 2008 and the upcoming The Autumn Garden. Acclaimed productions include Eric Overmyer’s Dark Rapture at the Evidence Room, and the World Premiere of Sheila Callaghan’s Crumble at LATC. Both enjoyed extended runs and wide critical praise, including Critics’ Choice from the L.A. Times. Other world premieres include Keith Josef Adkin’s Farwell Miss Cotton, The Black Dahlia and David Rock’s Grand Delusion at the Lost Studio. He’s directed throughout Los Angeles including Theatre of NOTE, Theatre @ Boston Court, The Blank, The Road Theatre and ASK Theater Projects. His staging of Bryan Davidson’s Death’s Messengers at the MET Theatre earned them two LA Weekly Theater Award nominations for writing and direction. Biederman spent seven seasons with San Francisco’s ACT, directing and serving in many senior capacities on the artistic staff and as Associate Director of their M.F.A. Program. Bay Area productions include Peter Barnes’ Red Noses (Critic’s Choice and named one of the year’s 10 best productions), the acclaimed West Coast premiere of Constance Congdon’s No Mercy, which he recently directed again for the 24th Street Theatre in Los Angeles. Biederman teaches both privately and for many reputable training programs throughout the country from the Williamstown Theatre Festival to The Old Globe and locally at Cal State Fullerton where he served three years as their Head of Directing. Most recently, Biederman brought his innovative staging of Schnitzler’s La Ronde to the New York International Fringe Festival. He is set to direct The Autumn Garden for Antaeus Company and then the Los Angeles premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s A Clean House at The Odyssey Theatre.
TONY AMENDOLA (Monsieur Crevel) Antaeus: Phaedra, Chekhov x4, and others. He has worked at theaters across the country, including ten years at Berkeley Rep (actor and director), ACT, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, South Coast Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Center Stage, Seattle Rep and Disney Hall. Credits include Cyrano, Uncle Vanya, Iago, Jack Abbot, Leontes, Malvolio, Teach, Lopakhin and Domenico. FILM: Blow, Mask Of Zorro, Legend of Zorro, Lone Star. TV: Dexter, CSI, Raising the Bar, Sarah Connor Chronicles, West Wing, Alias, Seinfeld, 26 Miles, and Stargate SG1. He is a founding member of Antaeus.
GEOFFREY WADE (Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, American Classics, Moliere & Restoration Comedy) Just back from three months playing the title role in the world premier of Lincoln: Upon the Altar of Freedom. He has performed on and off-Broadway and continues to work extensively in regional theater, including several seasons at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Rep Theatre of St. Louis, also Pennsylvania Stage, Center Stage, GeVa, The Guthrie, Denver Center, Carbonell nominated performances at the Caldwell and a long association with Vermont’s Weston Playhouse. His LA theatre credits include Heathen Valley and The Savannah Option, as well as award winning productions of The Man Who Had All The Luck, Mercadet and Mother Courage along with numerous other Antaeus shows. He works in episodic television, in radio and on tour with LA Theatre Works. He trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama in London. He has taught at the Antaeus Academy since 2001.
© 2023 All rights reserved
Sign up for the Antaeus Newsletter