Jayd McCarty
(Scene Study) is an actor, director, teacher, and private coach. He served for three years as Director of Programs and Conservatories for The Actors Center where he placed actors in classes and workshops with some of the most respected names in theater and actor training: Olympia Dukakis, Dianne Weist, Lloyd Richards, and Chris Bayes, as well as teachers and directors from Moscow Art Theater, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Juilliard, Yale School of Drama, NYU, New Moscow Theatre, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Jayd attributes the core of his teaching to the training he received from Ron Van Lieu (Chair of Acting, Yale School of Drama), Lloyd Richards (former Artistic Director, Yale Repertory), and Earle Gister (former Chair of Acting, Yale School of Drama). Jayd spent two years with Mr. Gister as a teaching assistant before joining the faculty at The Actors Center in 2004. While at The Actors Center, Jayd also completed a three-year mentorship with J. Michael Miller (founder of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts) in Actor Training & Development. He also enjoys a career as a professional actor. Founder of The Studio / New York.
Ilse Pfeifer (Fitzmaurice) is a voice teacher, dancer, choreographer, bodyworker and a certified Master Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Born in the southern part of Germany, Ilse F. Pfeifer received her dance and physical theater training in London and the United States. Her teaching credits include the two-year Fitzmaurice Voicework® certificate Teacher Training program, the Atlantic Acting School Spring Comprehensive, NYU, Fordham University, Eastern Connecticut State University, The Actors Center, and The Hagen Summer Intensive program. Internationally she has taught at the Freie Universität Berlin, Institute del Theatre Barcelona, Verband deutscher Musikschulen Sing- und Musikschule Memmingen, Germany. Creative collaborations include work with award-winning director and visual storyteller Glenn Holsten, Dancers of the Pennsylvania Ballet, and Rennie Harris Pure Movement Company. She was an artist-in-residence under the Choreographers Project at the Susan Hess Modern Dance Organization. Ilse was honored with a Pew Fellowship in the Arts Discipline Winner in Choreography & Dance-based Performance Art. She holds graduate diplomas from the Royal Academy of Dancing, Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, and the Desmond Jones School of Mime and Physical Theater. Further Education: The Actors Center Teachers Development Program and advanced studies from the Ohashiatsu® Institute, Touch for Peace where she received advanced study under Master Ohashi. She currently is deepening her own practice of mindfulness meditation and the study of the Chinese Five Element Theory.
Fay Simpson
(Lucid Body) is the Founder of the Lucid Body, a physical process for actors based on the exploration of the seven chakra energy centers. She is an Associate Arts Professor at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program, and has been the Artistic Director and co-founder of Impact Theatre since its creation in 1990 (D-Train, Degas’ Little Dancer, Marital Bliss of Francis and Maxine, Kurt’s Wife: A Story of Lotte Lenya, Grey Gone, and most recently, SCOTTY).
The Lucid Body House opened in March of 2013, in midtown Manhattan. Fay has taught at The Yale School of Drama, The Studio/NY, The New School, Michael Howard Studios, and Marymount Manhattan College. She coaches privately for stage, TV, and film and has brought the work to theatre companies in New York and abroad. She co-founded a Theatre for Social Change summer program in Tanzania for the Yale Drama students, and is now in the midst of The Veterans Project; Homecoming, bringing theatre to VA centers around NY to stimulate dialogue and change. She has a two year teacher training program now in place. Fay has received a Fellowship from the Likhachev Foundation for research in St. Petersburg, Russia, Fox Foundation Fellowship, which enabled her to serve as an Assistant at the New Globe Theatre in London under the artistic directorship of Mark Rylance and is the recipient of the ‘Amy and Eric Berger National Theatre Essay Award’ for development of her book, The Lucid Body; A Guide for the Physical Actor. This book was hailed by Drama Book Shop as “one of the ten most essential books for the actor.” She is a member of the Actor’s Center.
Justin Cimino
(Clown) received his BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, training at the Meisner Studio. He has trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As an actor, he has performed Off-Broadway and in many other productions in NYC. He has workshopped solo work under Austin Pendleton at The Directors Company. He has been a teaching artist for 15 years. He is currently the Education Director and Operations Manager for Zara Aina, a nonprofit organization that brings theater to at-risk communities in Madagascar and the United States. He was hired by UNICEF to use Zara Aina’s theater work to mobilize communities in Madagascar to fight polio. He has devised, written, and directed several original shows based on Malagasy folktales with Zara Aina’s Malagasy Youth Company. He has brought Zara Aina’s work to rural Southern Alabama, building original pageant-style shows with community members ages 4-84. Justin has directed and taught clowning and the devised “moment work” of the Tectonic Theater Project at NYU Tisch, Columbia University, the Studio/NY, and The Public’s Shakespeare Initiative. Recently Justin devised, wrote, and directed documentary theater pieces about a Jackson Heights hoarder, a triple amputee who runs a Hospice Center, and a 90-year-old woman who used to hunt Nazis. In the spring of 2019, Justin received a SU-CASA grant from the Queens Council on the Arts to build an original piece of theater with senior citizens in Queens.
Bradley Teal Ellis
(movement - Contact Improv) is a Brooklyn, New York based dance improviser. He has practiced Contact Improvisation for over 20 years, and frequently collaborates in process and performance with other artists. Bradley currently teaches as adjunct faculty at NYU/Tisch - Experimental Theatre Wing, NYU/Tisch - Dance & The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College. He is also faculty at Movement Research (one of the world’s leading laboratories for Experimental Dance) and Gibney Dance (NYC) and travels to offer workshops in Contact Improvisation. Bradley has been invited as a guest teacher at institutions including: Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, Brown University, New York Live Arts, Interlochen Center for the Arts and more. Recent projects in 2019 include: performing and leading public classes in Contact Improvisation at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, NYC), teaching intensive classes at Festival Encuentro de Contact Improvisación (Havana, Cuba), leading a 6 day workshop at the Moab Contact Jam (Moab, UT) , and joining an esteemed group of international teachers to offer classes at Contact Festival Freiburg (Germany).
Tamala Bakkensen
(movement - Feldenkrais) is a New York based actor, director, Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, movement teacher/ coach, Designated Linklater Voice teacher and speech coach. She has taught courses in movement, acting, Feldenkrais, Shakespeare, voice/speech and public speaking, for Boston University, Trinity College, Lehman College, Pace University, The Feldenkrais Institute of NY, HB Studios, New York Conservatory, Mary Baldwin College MFA, SUNY Purchase Art of Control Studio, and UCSD, as well as classes, workshops and private students throughout NYC. She is on the faculty for The Linklater Center, Lehman College and TheatreForAll, the first actor training program for actors with disabilities. She has trained in Lecoq, clown/commedia and mask work and has studied with renowned performers in Bali. She coaches actors privately as well as on stage and set. A member of Actor’s Equity and SAG, Tamala has performed Off-Broadway, regionally, on national tour, motion capture and network television. She worked with prisoners at Sing Sing Prison as a member of Rehabilitation Through the Arts. Her work with her students is a synthesis of her years of work and training with the The Feldenkrais Method, movement techniques including Lecoq and Viewpoints and Linklater Voice Technique. She is a member of VASTA, ATHE and The Feldenkrais Guild of North America®. Tamala holds an MFA in Acting Performance from UCSD as well as a BFA in Acting with a minor in music from Florida International University in Miami.
Lucas Rooney
(Clown) is an actor and teacher from New York City. He teaches clowning at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, The Juilliard Schools and other programs. As an actor, Lucas has been on Broadway in Bartlett Sher’s GOLDEN BOY opposite Tony Shaloub, Mike Nichols’ production of THE COUNTRY GIRL with Frances McDormand and Morgan Freeman, and Jack O’Brien’s Tony winning revival of HENRY IV. He appeared in the world premiere of Caryl Churchill’s LOVE AND INFORMATION and as Barnadine in MEASURE FOR MEASURE with the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park and starred opposite Jeffrey Demunn in DEATH OF A SALESMAN at The Old Globe Theatre. Lucas won a Drama Desk Award for his work in Michael Wilson’s production of Horton Foote’s ORPHANS HOME CYCLE. His clown show CREATION had a critically acclaimed run Off-Broadway. He most recently played Robin in Classic Stage Company’s production of DOCTOR FAUSTUS with Chris Noth. In addition to his many theatre credits, Lucas has appeared in numerous television and film roles, including BOARDWALK EMPIRE, THE KNICK, THE FOLLOWING, THE GOOD WIFE, and of course the obligatory LAW AND ORDER. He recently finished shooting a role in THE DROP with Tom Hardy and the late, great James Gandofini. He can also be seen in Rob Reiner’s MAGIC OF BELLE ISLE with Morgan Freeman and starred opposite Amy Poehler and Will Arnett in ON BROADWAY.
Thiago Felix
(Lucid Body) is an acting coach, actor, director and certified Lucid Body teacher. He has taught the Lucid Body technique at the Yale School of Drama and is a current faculty member at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City. Thiago is extremely proud to take the Lucid Body process to Rio de Janeiro twice a year, sharing the work with his fellow Brazilian actors. Lucy Body creator Fay Simpson introduced Thiago to the Lucid Body technique at the Michael Howard Studios in 2008. He later assisted Fay at Yale School of Drama and The Studio/New York. As a teacher he understands that acting transcends any fixed idea of reality and reveals the complexity of the human heart. Supporting his teaching skills, he has ten years of experience in Reiki and other energy healing techniques. He is proud to be a co-founder of Group.BR, where he co-directed the company's second season of Infinite While it Lasts, which was nominated for Outstanding Movement and Choreography at the New York Innovative Theater Awards in 2014. For over two years, Thiago has been part of the cast of Leaving Theater, an Impact Theater production surrounding the challenges of war veterans.