STC Faculty
Not all students will receive direct training with each of these faculty members.
Faculty
Letitia Bartlett
Clowning
Biography
Letitia Bartlett has been teaching and performing Mime, Clowning and Circus Arts since the 1970’s. She has studied in mime with Samuel Avital, Leonard Pitt and Jacques Lecoq. She has been a member of the Kite Tails Mime Duet, the Tandy Beal Dance Company, and for 10 years, a director and performer for San Francisco's Make*A*Circus. For 25 years, Letitia has been one half of the clown and circus duet "Julietta and Jeremy", performing at schools, corporate events, and internationally in Mexico and Taiwan. Letitia has been on the faculty at American Conservatory Theater since 1988. Letitia is an Iyengar Yoga instructor and has studied at the Iyengar Institute in Pune, India. Since 2004, she has also taught Mime at the Clown Conservatory at the San Francisco Circus Center.
Jessica Berman
Speaking Text | Voice
Biography
Jessica Berman is a dialect coach and teaches acting, voice, speech, and text at UC Berkeley, A.C.T. (Summer Training Congress and San Francisco Semester), and Academy of Art University. Recent dialect and vocal coaching credits include Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, What the Constitution Means to Me, Monsoon Wedding, An Octoroon, Watch on the Rhine, and Hand to God (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); An American in Paris (2017 North American tour); The Eva Trilogy, The Baltimore Waltz, Sojourners, and runboyrun (Magic Theatre); Shakespeare in Love, The Legend of Georgia McBride, Native Son, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, and August: Osage County (Marin Theatre Company); and Fences (California Shakespeare Theater). In addition to her work in the theater, Berman works with business professionals and private individuals on communication, presence, and presentation skills. She holds an MA from the Birmingham School of Acting and an MFA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Stephanie Hunt
Speaking Text and Voice
Biography
Stephanie Hunt is an actor, director, and teacher. She has acted with Magic Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Campo Santo, among others. As a charter company member of Word for Word Performing Arts Company, she has performed roles in stories by Upton Sinclair, Virginia Woolf, Angela Carter, Andrew Sean Greer, Colm Tóibín, and Tobias Wolff. Hunt also has directed productions of Wolff’s Bullet in the Brain and Lady’s Dream, Cornell Woolrich’s noir thriller Angel Face, and Edward P. Jones' short story All Aunt Hagar's Children. AT USF, she adapted and directed Alice Munro's short story The View from Castle Rock. She has taught the Word for Word approach in numerous workshops and residencies for middle and high school students here and in France, as well as to literature teachers. In addition, Hunt has worked as the dialect and vocal coach for California Shakespeare Theater’s production of John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven by Octavio Solis, and for Word for Word’s award‐winning production of Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. She earned her M.F.A. at American Conservatory Theater and studied voice with Virginia Ness, Cynthia Bassham, and Catherine Fitzmaurice, and speech and text with Deborah Hecht, Lynne Soffer, Mary Braaten, and Deborah Sussel. In 2010, Hunt was certified as an instructor of Fitzmaurice Voicework. She has taught acting and voice at Chabot College, San Francisco State University, and Sonoma State University. Currently, she teaches acting and speech at the University of San Francisco, and acting and voice at Stanford University. This summer, she is teaching voice at A.C.T.’s Summer Training Congress.
Mark Jackson
Movement
Biography
Mark Jackson is an award-winning theater maker whose work in theater, dance, and performance has been seen in the Bay Area at American Conservatory Theater’s M.F.A. Program, Art Street Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, The Cutting Ball Theater, Encore Theatre Company, EXIT Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, Potrzebie Dance Project, San Francisco International Arts Festival, San Francisco State University, Shotgun Players, and Z Space; nationally at Studio Theatre (Washington, DC), The Catamounts (Denver), and Hunger & Thirst Theatre (New York City); and internationally at Arts International Festival IV (Japan), Edinburgh Festival Fringe and The Bread & Roses Theatre Company (UK), and English Theatre Berlin and Deutsches Theater Berlin (Germany). Jackson teaches regularly in the M.F.A., Summer Training Congress, and Studio A.C.T. programs, and is the director of Studio A.C.T. He has taught a variety of theater courses at schools and theaters in California and Berlin, Germany.
Warren David Keith
Acting
Biography
Warren David Keith has been an esteemed stage and film actor (SAG-AFTRA, AEA) and director for 25 years. Keith has acted in many highly acclaimed movies including Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, A Serious Man (Coen brothers), and Haiku Tunnel (Josh Kornbluth), as well as television shows such as Nash Bridges, The Equalizer, and Trauma. He played the lead in the feature-film Moonlight Sonata (by Celik Kayalar). He regularly acts and directs plays at A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, and Aurora Theatre Company in the Bay Area. For over 15 years, Keith has been a much sought-after teacher of graduate and master classes in prestigious acting schools including A.C.T., UC Davis, The New School for Social Research, and Barnard College. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Yale School of Drama.
Domenique Lozano
Acting
Biography
Domenique Lozano is a Bay Area based Director, Actress and Educator. She was a Resident Artist with A.C.T. for 15 years, where she served as a core faculty member and director in the MFA Program, and the Young Conservatory Program, and as the resident director of the main stage production of A Christmas Carol. Directing work at ACT includes MFA Productions of Fuente Ovejuna, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Sueno, The Skin of Our Teeth, Happy to Stand, and Saved, as well as the world premieres of Staying Wild book by Janet Allard, music and lyrics by Creighton Irons; and Home Front book by Craig Slaight, music and lyrics by Creighton Irons. Ms. Lozano currently serves on the Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies faculty at UC Berkeley, where she serves as both a teacher of acting and as a director. Directing credits there include Tartuffe, Curly Fries- a webisode series, and Men on Boats. Acting credits include work with California Shakespeare Theater, A.C.T., Berkeley Repertory Theatre, CenterRep, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Translation work includes Schiller’s Don Carlos, which premiered in the 2018 New Strands Festival at ACT, and Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which premiered at the American Conservatory Theater in 2010.
Kimberly MacLean
Improvisation
Biography
Kimberly MacLean is an actor, director, and teacher of scripted, musical, & improvised arts. She spent 18 years as a mainstage company member of the SF’s oldest & largest improv theater BATS Improv. Kimberly applies her 20 years of teaching & M.Ed. as the founder of a decades-old organization that uses improv techniques, growth mindset, and best practices of education to bring leadership training, diversity, equity, and restorative justice to companies around the world. As a producer of the San Francisco Improv Festival since 2010 she gets to support & build improv community. Kimberly was a founding member of the improv & sketch group The Last Laugh, SF and performs throughout the area as a guest with improv troupes and in a duo with the legendary Rachel Hamilton, aptly named Hamilton & MacLean. She was most recently seen on the big screen as Tina in All the Others Were Practice. In 2015 she was nominated by students & colleagues for The Excellence in Theatre Education Award sponsored by the Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University. Kimberly holds a BA in Theater and a Masters of Educational Best Practice.
Leyla Modizadeh
Acting
Biography
Leyla Modirzadeh has performed professionally across the country for over thirty years including at The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, A Contemporary Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, and La Mama ETC. She is best known for her original solo shows and also tours and collaborations with Obie Award–winning theater artist Ping Chong as performer, writer, and director. She received her BA in Humanities from UC Berkeley, and an MFA in Acting from University of Washington. She has taught acting for over 25 years at various institutions including Baruch College (NYC), University of Mississippi, Texas Tech University, UC Berkeley and currently SUNY New Paltz in New York. www.leylamodirzadeh.com
Patrick Russell
Acting
Biography
Patrick Russell received his BFA in acting from UC Santa Barbara and is a graduate of A.C.T.’s Master of Fine Arts Program. He has performed in theaters across the Bay Area, including A.C.T. (King Charles III, Once in a Lifetime, and A Christmas Carol), California Shakespeare Theater (As You Like It), Aurora Theatre Company (A Bright New Boise, Wilder Times, Body Awareness, Trouble in Mind, and Awake and Sing!), San Francisco Playhouse (Noises Off, Red Velvet, Seminar, reasons to be pretty, and the world premieres of 77% and Trouble Cometh), Magic Theatre (Fool for Love and The Other Place), Marin Theatre Company (Othello), Marin Shakespeare Company (Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Three Musketeers, and The Comedy of Errors), Center REPertory Company (Old Wicked Songs), and Shotgun Players (Care of Trees). Film credits include the feature film Being Us, the web series SanFranLand, and the award-winning animated short film Rapunzel’s Etymology of Zero. His voice-over work can be heard in numerous radio and internet ads. As a teaching artist, Russell has worked with A.C.T.'s Young Conservatory, California Shakespeare Theater, Academy of Art University, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Currently, Russell is also an instructor for A.C.T.’s Professional Development Training Program, San Francisco Semester Program, and Studio A.C.T. (acting, movement, and clown). He conducts audition workshops and information seminars at universities across the country as a recruiter for A.C.T. Most recently, he was the movement instructor for the BFA in acting program at Southern Oregon University. Russell is a member of Actors' Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA.
M. Graham Smith
Acting | Movement
Biography
M. Graham Smith is a San Francisco-based Director, Educator and Producer. He is an O’Neill/NNPN National Directing Fellow, an Oregon Shakespeare Festival FAIR Fellow and a proud Resident Artist at SF’s Crowded Fire. He grew up outside of New York City and has been based in San Francisco since 2004. He spent five years as Producer of Aurora Theater’s new play development program and festival The Global Age Project. He’s directed in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Portland Oregon, Washington DC, and in the San Francisco bay area. He directed the West Coast Premiere of Jerry Springer: The Opera and won Bay Area Critics Circle Best Director for Truffaldino Says No at Shotgun Players. Recent productions include the World Premiere of Obie winner Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion, Kevin Rolston’s Deal with the Dragon at ACT & Edinburgh Fringe, Mia Chung’s You for Me for You at Crowded Fire, James Ijames’ White at Shotgun, and Kait Kerrigan's Father/Daughter at Aurora. During pandemic he directed his first full length film, a hip-hop musical adaptation of As You Like It with music and lyrics by Ryan Nicole Austin produced by ACT as well as “hold me the forgotten way’ audio cycle by Harrison David Rivers and produced by Tigerbear. His latest project is a new musical The Mortification of Fovea Munson at The Kennedy Center. You can find him online at www.mgrahamsmith.com
Laura Wayth
Speaking Text | Audition | Voice
Biography
Laura Wayth received her MFA from the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University and the Moscow Art Theatre School Institute in Russia. Prof. Wayth has taught and coached contemporary and classical acting, voice, and musical theatre at Tufts University, the College of the Holycross, the University of Miami, the University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire and Florida Atlantic University. She was a 2019-2020 Fulbright Senior Scholar to Poland, a 2011-2012 Senior Fulbright Scholar to Romania, and a 2002-2003 Fulbright Fellow to Russia. She has worked internationally as an acting teacher and coach in Italy, Morocco, China, Poland, and London. Prof. Wayth is the author of three books on Acting: A Field Guide to Actor Training, The Shakespeare Audition (Applause Books) and Breaking Down Your Script: A Step-by-Step Process for the Actor (Nick Hern Books). She is Professor of Acting and Coordinator of Actor Training at San Francisco State University and a guest acting instructor at the American Conservatory Theatre’s STC and Studio ACT.
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Administrative Staff
Peter J. Kuo
Director of Conservatory
Fran Astorga
Conservatory Manager
Jerry Lopez
Director of Financial Aid
