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      Stewart Solomon

STEWART SOLOMON (Acting, Speech, Improvisation) is a professional acting teacher and educator with twenty years performing and broad film & television production experience.

In New York City, Stewart was an executive producer of multi-media productions, industrials, and new product launches for major corporations. He supervised all phases of production, including casting of talent, photography and video (location and studio shoots), scripting, layout and design, art preparation, film and video editing and sound track recording and direction for over one-hundred and twenty presentations.

A partial client list includes:

AT&T, Airwick Industries, Bristol-Myers, CBS, Campbell Foods, CitiBank, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Del-Monte, General Electric, General Foods, General Motors, Hartz-Mountain, HBO, Hyatt International, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Lever Brothers, Eli Lily, Nabisco, Pepsico, Proctor & Gamble, RCA, Ralston-Purina, Seagram, Upjohn, Volkswagen, and  Welch's.

Stewart is a founding member of the National Improvisational Theater in New York City where he developed and directed their Improvised I-Act Play Workshop and the comedy ensemble Present Company. He is a founding member of NIT's premiere performing company Interplay, which was honored with Best Director and Musical Director awards and nominated for Best Comedy Group by the National Association for Concert and Cabaret Artists in 1985. To name just a few, he has performed at Lincoln Center, The New York Shakespeare Festival, The Chelsea Westside Theater, Palsson's, Ted Hook's On-Stage & Backstage, The Ballroom, The Bottom Line, The Waldorf-Astoria, The Grand Finalé, The West Bank Café, The Comic Strip, and The Improvisation. In Los Angeles, he has performed at the Comedy Store and the Shrine Auditorium.

Television and radio credits include appearances on NBC, CBS, PBS, BRAVO, WNBC, WABC, and WLRN Stewart provided voice-overs for the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour's Poking Fun at the Pols, which was nominated for a Peabody Award in 1986. His Miller Time segment for Saturday Night Live can still be seen on Comedy Central.

Roles in Regional Theater include Stanley in The Birthday Party, Treplev in The Seagulll, a Horse in Equus, Matt in The Threepenny Opera, Hector in Thieves' Carnival, and in Savage Love by Sam Shepard.

Stewart was a member of the New World School of the Arts speech and theater faculties for four years. He has also taught workshops at the Coral Springs City Center, Integrated Arts Inc., the Mental Floss Theater and National Improvisational Theater.

Stewart has taught Introduction to Theater and Improvisation at the University of Miami and, as their resident Equity actor in 1994-1995, performed with the Senior Touring Company.

At The Shores Arts Academy, Stewart conducted classes in Acting Skills for Film & Stage, Improvisation, Monologue & Scene Study, Characterization, Speech & Diction, Dialects, Audition Techniques for Film & Stage, and Acting For Commercials.

He is a member of Actors' Equity Association and the American Society for Training & Development. In addition, Stewart holds a Bachelor of Science in Broadcasting (Film & Television) and a Master of Science in Education.

In June of 1994, his project at Nova University, The Improvement of Creative Thinking Through the Use of Improvisational Theater, was awarded the Alumni Practicum Honors Award.

For the past three years Stewart has served as consultant for Gulfstream's & Calder Race Track's innovative presentation The Inside Track and in  the spring of 2000 is conducting a series of workshops designed expressly for the actors of the Renaissance Historical Society.

Stewart's service to the community is extensive. He is a member of the Theatre League of South Florida, the Cultural Arts Committee for the Miami Coalition and is vice-president of Integrated Arts, Inc. in Coral Springs.

He was instrumental in securing the South Florida license for Plays for Living® which gives dramatic voice to compelling social problems about critical family, community, health and work-related issues. He also helped develop and teach creative dramatics for at-risk teens for Miami's 1995 D.A.R.E. program.

Stewart is the founder and president of Creative WorkShops. This is his sixteenth year teaching acting and speech in South Florida.

View a video clip of a News Segment on Creative Workshops

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      T.R. Durphy
T.R. DURPHY (Guest Speaker) of AuditioningForCommercials.com is considered one of South Florida's most respected casting directors. Joining the Screen Actors Guild at the age of twelve, Mr. Durphy is also a professional actor and has appeared in over one-hundred-fifty commercials, numerous feature films, music videos, industrial films, print ads and voice-overs. Mr. Durphy has served as a Governing Council member and served on several committees for the Screen Actors Guild. 

 A partial list of commercials he has cast since 1988 include:

Coca Cola, McDonalds, BP Oil, DuPont, Gulf Oil, Pepsi Cola, Hawaiian Tropic, General Rent a Car, Huggies Diapers, Budweiser Beer, Levis Jeans, Glade Air Freshener, Kenny Rogers Roasters, Florida Citrus, Howard Johnson Hotels, V8, LaBatt Beer, Umbro Soccer, Cadillac, The Home Club, RC Cola, MCI, Barcardi Rum, Taco Johns, Martin Senour Paints, Carnival Cruise Lines, Costa Cruise Lines, Dolphin Cruise Lines, BioGuard Pool Supplies, Saturn Car Company, PCA Qualicare, CBS, NBC, The Real Yellow Pages, Pac Bell, BellSouth, Bell South Mobility, Ralph's Super Markets, Publix Supermarkets, Circle K Convenient Marts, Barnett Bank, First Union Bank, Miami Grand Prix, Benson & Hedges, John Alden Life Insurance, National Heart & Lung Association, Discover Credit Cards, The Bay Club, Pollo Tropical, Office Depot, Pan Am Airlines, Bank Of Omaha, AT&T, Baquacil Pool Treatments, Hechinger Hardware Stores, Kentucky Lottery, Kentucky Utilities Company, Stihl Chainsaws, Casio Watches, L'Oreal Hair, Panadol Pain Relief, Nivea Skin Care, Burma Shave, Shells Seafood, Discount Auto Parts, Mr. CIean, The United States Post Office (next day service), The Phone Stores, Empire Toys, Bryan Foods, Festival Flea Markets, Dobbs Tires, Lanier Copiers, Sonic Burgers, Olympic Paints, Ameritech Phones, Yikes Pencils, Danka Office Copiers, Honda, Dollar Rent A Car, Clopay Garage Doors, General Electric (GE), Florida Tourism, PSA-Take Stock in Children, Florida Orange Juice, Baptist Hospital East, BellSouth (Hispanic), The Real Yellow Pages (Hispanic), Home Depot, Florida Lottery, Pepsi Cola, George Strait-GPC Video, Sprint, Yellowpages, Chevrolet, Tampa Tribune, BlueCross & Blueshield, Premier Cruiselines, Murray's Auto Parts, Volvo, Mitsubishi, The Farmstores, Terminix, Gulden's Mustard, Marriott Hotels, The Florida Panthers, General Power Company, Polaner All-Fruit, Chase Tel Mobile Phones, Detrol, Anti-smoking "Truth" spots, National Diabetes Association, National Consumer Protection, Wendy's Hamburgers...PLUS MANY MORE!

T.R. Durphy says he does not claim to be a teacher of acting. He does not have any "Method" to teach. What T.R. brings to his classes is his twenty-five years of experience doing commercials as a SAG actor and his sixteen years as a Casting Director.

T.R. Durphy's many years in both fields offers the student the opportunity to understand and see the entire process of auditioning for commercials from a very different view—that of the actors and the Casting Director.

For more information about T.R., visit his website at AuditioningForCommercials.com.

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      Katherine Farnham

KATHERINE FARNHAM (Basics of Singing) is a recording artist, vocalist, songwriter, pianist, producer and teacher. Her multi-octave voice has been compared to Sarah McLachlan and Celine Dion and her piano-playing to Tori Amos. Brazil's Shopping Music Magazine hails her as "The New Voice of America...she has all the requirements to be one of the top names in American Pop Music."

Katherine's performing career began at the age of five. Born into an impressive lineage of musicians, her father was a trombonist who played under Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith and Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops and her mother was a concert pianist. Under her mother's intensive training, Katherine received a strong classical background in both piano and voice. Her professional career as a vocalist/pianist began at the age of fourteen and soon afterwards she was chosen world-wide as one of thirty-two pianists for the Tanglewood Institute's highly competitive Young Artists Piano Program.

Katherine studied on scholarship at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (piano) and at Boston's famed Berklee College of Music (Voice/Songwriting), where she holds a Bachelor of Music degree with highest honors. While a student, she was honored with several awards, including the Mortar Board Scholarship for Leadership as well as academic awards.

Katherine has appeared on numerous radio and TV shows including Good Morning America, and has performed on countless nightclub, hotel and concert stages along the East Coast. She has also sung National Anthems for several major teams, including the Florida Marlins. In addition to a large catalog of original songs, her repertoire includes many pop, musical theatre, R&B, blues and jazz standards. For the Love of it All, her self-produced debut CD, was released to a full house at Boston's Hard Rock Cafe. An independent success, it went on to receive national and international airplay, several CMJ chart positions and acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Northeast Performer Magazine called her "a complete and gifted talent." and The Clarion Call proclaimed, "very artsy Sarah McLachlan, only Farnham may quite possibly have a better set of pipes than the pop diva." Invitations to perform in the US and South America followed. Her newest release, Songs from the Troubadour is a rare collection of live studio and concert performances that showcase the purity of her artistry.

Katherine is also active as a community volunteer. Recently, she was singled out by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas to perform her song Mosaic at his Mosaic 2000 Convention in May. The song has been endorsed as the Mayor's official theme song and will be produced by Katherine as a pop/dance single in both English and Spanish. Using music as a medium to communicate to today's youth, its inspirational message will be played on local radio stations to help unite Miami's diverse ethnic groups. She also initiated and sponsored Miami's Tibetan Freedom Concert 2000, which raised funds for the International Campaign for Tibet.

Katherine has taught voice, piano and composition/songwriting at private schools in Cincinnati, Boston and Miami and is the president of Voice Inside Productions, an independent record company, production company and music teaching studio. She also produces album and demo recordings for up-and-coming local artists.

Her teaching style is fresh and fun yet demanding and incorporates elements of posture, technique and breath support, eliminating register breaks and increasing the vocal range, repertoire, performance/audition preparation and improvisation. She is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammy Foundation).

For more information about Katherine, visit her website at www.katherinefarnham.com

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      Tiza Garland

TIZA GARLAND (Movement for Actors, Combat for Film & Stage) earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre, Spanish, and Asian Studies from Western Michigan University. She earned her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Theatre Pedagogy with a focus in Movement and Fight Direction. While at VCU she was the resident movement consultant for all of the VCU main stage productions and the instructor for Advanced Movement for the Actor classes. Additionally, she was head of the Speech Department as well as a speech instructor at VCU.

Tiza is a recognized Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. She has taught several movement and stage combat workshops at the Virginia Theatre Association Conference and the Southeast Theatre Conference.

Tiza was the Fight Director for the critically acclaimed Playing For Time at Hodges Theatre in Richmond as well as Theatre IV's successful run of Treasure Island. A few of Ms. Garland's favorite shows that she did the Fight Direction and movement coaching for include Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Equus, Marisol, Suburbia, The Stand-Up Tragedy, Cyrano DeBergerac, Royal Hunt of the Sun, Camelot , and an original and innovative show that explored the aspects of stage combat entitled Violent Delights. A representative list of stage credits include Hippolyta/Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Duke Frederick in As You Like It, Con Carne in The Lady Dick, Devery in Born Yesterday, Rootie in Graceland, Angel in Marisol, Marta in El Resguardo, and The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.

For the past three years Tiza has been the Assistant Fight Director along side renowned Fight Directors David Leong and BH Barry at America's longest running historical drama, The Lost Colony. Along with the responsibility of Assistant Fight Director she also was the Fight Captain, played the role of "Agona", and performed as a dancer at The Lost Colony. Most recently, Tiza has been hired to join the Universal Stunt Team in Orlando.

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      Lorenzo Dunoyer
LORENZO DUNOYER (...In Spanish Series ) is a producer, director, teacher and actor. He holds a Master's degree in Television Broadcasting Management from Ohio University, a Bachelor of Science in Television, Film & Radio from the University of Texas at Austin and a Music and Acting Degree from the National University in Bogota, Colombia. He is currently a Senior Producer for Primer Impacto at Univision Television Network.

For the past fifteen years, Mr. Dunoyer has worked on a wide range of television projects as executive producer, production manager or director. Before coming to Miami, he worked for the NBC News Channel in Charlotte, North Carolina and created and produced numerous TV series, soap operas (telenovelas), comedies and journalism productions in his native Colombia. Some of his programs have won awards such as the bronze medal at the New York Film Festival for Imagining and an honorable mention for the children's program Everyone's Happy, the "TV and Novelas Award" for best soap opera for The Secret Life of Adriano Espeleta and the comedy Secret Flight, as well as the "Simon Bolivar Award," (the most coveted television honor in Columbia) for best soap opera for The Secret Life of Adriano Espeleta. He also worked on projects for PBS such as Austin City Limits, and has been nominated for various Emmy Awards for documentaries and news projects that he has written and produced. As a writer, Mr. Dunoyer has worked on film scripts, as well as television series, and is currently adapting a true life story for the screen. His credits as director include soap operas, comedies, mini series, documentaries, music videos and many television commercials. He has been a fellowship student at Ohio University and he has been recognized by various organizations such as the Cancer Foundation for Children and the Children's Hospital in Colombia for his contribution in the field of communication.

At the age of sixteen, Mr. Dunoyer won the award for best new actor on a soap opera and won a scholarship to attend the National Academy of Dramatic Arts in Columbia. He also studied drama at the University of Texas at Austin, with Mona Fultz at the Acting Studio in Austin, Texas and attended classes at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York where he was a student of Stella Adler. As an actor, he has played numerous roles in theater, films, TV series, soap operas and a wide variety of commercials.

Mr. Dunoyer has developed television seminars for industry professionals and conducted numerous workshops for aspiring actors. He is a trained musician and has also played with various symphony orchestras.

View a video clip of the Acting For Film & TV in Spanish Class

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      Bruce Miller
BRUCE MILLER (Acting, Scene Study and Script Analysis) is a professional actor and director. He has a BA in English with teaching certification from Pennsylvania State University, and an MFA in Acting from Temple University. He is currently the Head of Performance for the BFA Theatre Program at the University of Miami where he teaches acting, directing and script analysis.

For the previous seven years, he chaired the Theatre Department and taught acting at the prestigious Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Boston. His productions have received many citations including the Moss Hart Award for "most outstanding production overall" by the New England Theatre Conference in 1992. Mr. Miller's students have won honors in the National Arts Recognition and Talent Search multiple times. He has been recipient of the E.E. Ford Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, and has been recognized three times by Who's Who Among America's Teachers.

Mr. Miller has conducted workshops for the Educational Theatre Conference most recently in New York and Minneapolis, for the New England Theatre Conference convention; for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education convention (where he was given the AATE designation of "Master Teacher"); for the Florida Association of Theatre Educators Conference, and for the Florida Theatre Association convention.

His articles appear regularly in Dramatics Magazine and Teaching Theatre. Mr. Miller has been working on two books on the subject of acting: The Actor As Storyteller, which was released in the summer of 1999 by Mayfield Publishing and Building Acting Craft which will be published shortly.

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      Darby Hayes
DARBY HAYES (Voice & Movement for Actors, Physical Characterization, "Block" Buster, MimeShop), actress, human development trainer, educator and drama specialist, is founder and director of The Power of Performance and the Inter-National Foundation for the Living Arts.

After spending ten years in human resource development, Ms. Hayes cultivated a twenty-year career in the performing arts, specializing in character acting and movement theater. She is a Master Artist who has presented numerous showcases nationally and internationally, reaching audiences of over 600,000. Ms. Hayes is recognized as a Florida Arts Council AIE Juried Artist.

Her in-depth knowledge of physical movement and body language was born out of her extensive training with Marcel Marceau, the Goldston Johnson School for Mimes and Living Stage. She is certified in both performance and instruction of classical mime. Ms. Hayes developed Harmonic Movement®, a methodology that realizes the cybernetic link between body language and inner thought and feeling. She uses an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates the styles and techniques of Viola Spolin (Mother of Improvisation) Peter Brook (Theatre Realism) and Uta Hagen (Presentational Acting), Etienne Decroux (Father of Classical Mime), Feldenkrais and Alexander Body Alignment, Yoga, Dance and Martial Arts.

Ms. Hayes has taught mime and creative dramatics throughout Dade & Broward County Public Schools and body mechanics, movement theater and physical characterization at the National Movement Training Lab, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Broward Community College and the New World School of the Arts (opera and theater majors). Ms Hayes' diverse curriculum of creative and interactive techniques draw from the theater and movement arts, the psychology of human development, and creative imagery. Her interactive workshops reach into and tap the strengths of each participant, helping them to build on their abilities.

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      Bruce Lecure
BRUCE LECURE (Combat 2004©, Movement With Style©, Combat for Film & Stage, MaskShop©) is a tenured member of the Acting Faculty and is the Movement Specialist for the Theatre Arts Department and the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre at the University of Miami where he teaches basic movement skills for the actor, physical characterization, unarmed combat, weapons, period style movement, and mask work for the actor. Mr. Lecure's varied career as an actor, teacher, movement coach, fight director and stage director have taken him to New York City and throughout the United States.

Mr. Lecure is a Certified Teacher and a Certified Fight Director (the only one in the state of Florida) of the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD), the national stage combat organization. Mr. Lecure has directed fights for the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Florida Grand Opera, the Caldwell Theatre Company as well as numerous theatres throughout the country.

Locally, Mr. Lecure has directed plays and musicals for the Caldwell Theatre Company, Florida Stage, City Theatre, the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre and New Theatre. Recently, he directed the critically acclaimed Orphans for the Caldwell Theatre Company during their 2001 Season and served as Assistant Fight Director on The Shakespeare Theatre's production of Romeo and Juliet (Washington, DC), directed by Rachel Cavanaugh of England's Royal Shakespeare Company.

Mr. Lecure is a member of the Actors Equity Association (AEA) and has performed professionally on stage throughout the United States. He is also a member of the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), having appeared in numerous national and regional commercials, industrial films and voice-overs.

Mr. Lecure is a Past President of the Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME), the national theatre movement organization, having served as president in 1998 thru 1999. Mr. Lecure has published articles on theatre movement in Teaching Theatre, Stage Directions, Southern Theatre, the ATME Newsletter, The Fight Master and Theatre Topics.

He has also taught at Southern Methodist University, University of Kentucky, Interlochen Arts Academy, Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, Mountain View College, and in the Kentucky's Governor's Scholars Program. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) from Southern Methodist University's Professional Actors Training Program in Dallas, TX where he studied under Jim Hancock. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri - Kansas City.


View a video clip of Combat for Film & Stage

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