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Daniel Stein Biography

Abridged Biography

Curriculum Vitae

Actor/Director/Teacher

Born in Milwaukee Wis. Daniel lived and worked for twenty years in Paris, France. Since leaving his position as an actor with the French National Theatre, he has been creating, directing and performing non-verbal and verbal plays. Performing these plays and the teaching that often accompanies them have taken him to more than thirty countries. TIMEPIECE, Daniel's first solo play opened off off Broadway in New York to this review: "Perhaps a handful of times can a critic sit in a theatre and in the space of a mere hour see a performer change the entire course of an established art form, but that is precisely what happened when Daniel Stein opened the Dance Theatre Workshop's 'New Mime Series'" (Barton Wimble, New York Daily News). Since the premiere of TIMEPIECE, he has held no alternative 'job' outside of the professional theatre. His work has been seen at some of the world's largest theatre festivals such as Singapore, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Budapest and London, and has had the distinction of playing extended runs and performing at Lincoln Center. His work also continues to elicit kudos such as: Thomas Leabhart's book, Modern and Post-Modern Mime, as described by Journalist Dominique Paul Noth: "There are artists who seem a culmination of what has gone before and a direction for what will come after. Their creations have influence well beyond their lifetime or place of performance. With this work, Stein stands out as a prime hope for many explorers of modern theatre who have long seen the vague outline of a door but needed someone else to open it" (p. 131). Or simply put by the Los Angeles Times: "One of those rare revelatory experiences one waits for in the theatre." Daniel's work was also described by the late Erick Hawkins as "the most imaginative work I've ever seen".

At the founding conference of the National Movement Theatre Association he was elected, by his peers, as that organizations first president and continues to serve on its board of directors. He was chosen for a National Endowment for the Arts/ United States/ Japan Exchange Fellowship where, for six months, in Japan he studied Noh Drama, Bunraku, Tea Ceremony, Sumo and many other aspects of Japanese art and culture. Daniel has taught master classes throughout the world at institutions such as Juilliard School of Drama, New York and The Institute of Dramatic Arts, Tokyo, also at international festivals, and at his own studio. He has collaborated with and been directed by such renowned artists as Fred Curchack and Marcel Marechal. More recently he has been commissioned to write and direct for the resident acting companies of several regional theaters including the BLUE RIBBON series for the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles as well as performing lead roles in main stage productions.

Much of his training came from Etienne Decroux, Paris, in movement for actors,- Suzanne Oussov, Paris, in classical ballet, and also his years at Carnegie-Mellon University in the Professional Actors Training Program working with Jewel Walker. He was named a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and most recently the recipient of a National Theatre Artist Residency Grant, offered by The Pew Charitable Trust, and administered by Theatre Communications Group. He has received numerous grants from the NEA, and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City M.F.A. Program. Upon moving back to the US Daniel served first for five years as Dean of Students and then another five years as School Director, of The Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre, in Blue Lake CA. During those ten years he was a principal instructor there. In the fall of '05 he taught full time at Sarah Lawrence College. 2006 - 2009 saw him creating with and directing original works for the Berkeley Rep. and Touchstone Theatre, as well as Directing STILL. GOING FORWARD BACKWARD (also written by Stein) in Kentucky. On stage he created the role of Bruno Shultz in CLOWN SHOW FOR BRUNO, a new play by Murray Mednick, produced by the Padua Playwrights of Los Angeles and directed by Guy Zimmerman in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Since Fall 2009 Daniel has taken on the position of Director of Movement and Physical Theatre for the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Theatre MFA Professional Actor Training Program, teaching in the Brown University MFA acting program and in charge of curriculum and faculty for their movement dept. Other duties include both coaching and acting with the Trinity Rep. Co. He is now also the Director of theatre for the Accademia Dell'Arte Summer institute in Arezzo Italy. "The Actor Fast Forward" is a five week intensive in Generating New Performance Material, culminating in a performance of original material in the Arezzo Summer Festival.

dell-arte.org

BOOKS PUBLISHED THAT TALK ABOUT HIS WORK

LE THEATRE DU GESTE

By Jacques Lecoq, Bordas - Paris

MODERN AND POST MODERN MIME

By Thomas Leabhart, Modern Dramatists

THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ART OF MIME

By Annette Lust, Scarecrow Press

New works include:

Directed-Pomp Duck and Circumstance, Berlin Germany Opened Aug. 23 2001 and still running.

Measuring Man - The Leonardo Project
Written, and performed by Robert Smythe and Daniel Stein, Directed by Fred Curchack.

Still Going Forward Backward
Created and Directed by Daniel Stein. A play for 6 actors about gender, relationships and fun.

WINDOWSPEAK
Created by Daniel Stein, Directed by Fred Curchack and Daniel Stein A Travelogue of the soul.