Resident Artists

Arin Arbus is a resident director at TFANA, where she directed Waiting for Godot, Denis Johnson’s Des Moines, The Merchant of Venice starring John Douglas Thompson as Shylock (also at The Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC and The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), Winter’s Tale, Skin of Our Teeth (Obie), repertory productions of Strindberg’s The Father and Ibsen’s Doll’s House, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, and Othello. She directed Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nom. for best revival) with Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon on Broadway and Abe Koogler’s Deep Blue Sound for Clubbed Thumb. She has also directed at Canadian Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric, Woodbourne Correctional Facility in association with Rehabilitation Through the Arts, and at Ristona Refugee Camp for The Campfire Project.

Cicely Berry (Deceased; Former Distinguished Resident Artist) was the Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She was invited by Trevor Nunn to take over voice work with the actors in 1960. This work has developed considerably, and there is now a four-member voice team working in the Company. Cicely worked with major theatre companies all over the world: she worked regularly with Nos Do Morro, a company based in Viidigal, one of Rio’s favellas. She made a series of videos, Working Shakespeare, with top English and American actors. She had a very close and happy association with TFANA over many years. Cicely was awarded the CBE, Commander of the British Empire, in 2009 for her pioneering work in theatre.

JONATHAN KALB is TFANA’s resident dramaturg and professor of theatre at Hunter College, CUNY. The author of five books on theatre, he has worked for more than three decades as a theatre scholar, critic, journalist, and dramaturg. He has twice won the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and has also won the George Freedley Award for an outstanding theatre book from the Theatre Library Association. He often writes about theatre on his TheaterMatters blog at www.jonathankalb.com.

John Douglas Thompson (Distinguished Artist in Residence) Broadway: Jitney (Tony nomination), Carousel, A Time to Kill, Julius Caesar. Off-Broadway: The Merchant of Venice, The Father, A Doll’s House, Tamburlaine, Macbeth, Othello (Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel and AUDELCO Awards), Antony and Cleopatra, Oroonoko (TFANA); Julius Caesar (NYSF); The Iceman Cometh (Obie, Drama Desk Awards; BAM); Satchmo at the Waldorf (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, NAACP Award; Westside Theater); The Emperor Jones (Drama League, Drama Desk nominations; Irish Rep), Hedda Gabler (NYTW). Regional: The Tempest (Commonwealth Shakespeare); Man in the Ring (Elliot Norton Award; Huntington Theater); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Mark Taper Forum); Antony and Cleopatra (Hartford Stage); Red Velvet, Othello, Richard III (Shakespeare & Co.). Television: “The Gilded Age,” “Mare of Easttown,” “For Life.” Film: 355, The Letter Room, 21 Bridges, Let Them All Talk.

Andrew Wade (Resident Voice and Text Director) For Theatre for a New Audience: Notes from Underground, Hamlet and Chair. Head of Voice, RSC, 1990–2003. Assistant Voice Director, RSC, 1987–1990. Co-directed/devised “Journeys,” “Words, Words, Words,” “More Words” and “Lifespan” with Cicely Berry for BBCWorld Service, awarded Bronze Medal, International Radio Festival, New York, 2000. Verse Consultant, Shakespeare in Love. Andrew teaches, lectures and voice coaches internationally with particular associations with Stella Adler Studio, Delaware University, NTS Canada and Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis where he’s coached Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V, Antony and Cleopatra, Comedy of Errors, Othello, As You Like It, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Toronto/London: The Lord of the Rings. TV: “Triple Sensation,” 2007/2008. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2008: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Clay Cart.