“What makes a great actor?
Don’t act.” Um… what? In an in-depth interview
with East Side FM, NIDA’s Head of Acting, Jeff Janisheski, reveals what this
piece of advice he was given means and the craft of acting.
About Jeff Janisheski
Jeff Janisheski
has been active in theatre and the performing arts as an artist, educator and
creative leader for more than 20years. From 2008‑2012 he was an Artistic
Director at the famed Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, America’s
preeminent company dedicated to the development of new plays and music theatre
across a range of genres.
Prior to joining
The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Jeff spent four years at the Classic Stage
Company (CSC) where he led the development of the a new education program, The
Young Company, and initiated CSC’s On the Verge developmental
program for emerging directors and theatre companies. Jeff also produced main stage
shows featuring prominent actors and directors including Diane Wiest (The
Seagull), Zoe Caldwell, John Turturro (A Spanish Play) and Walter
Bobbie (New Jerusalem), and directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
The Tempest, featuring Tony Award-winning actress Blair Brown, as part
of the CSC’s Shakespeare program.
Throughout his
career, Jeff has taken a keen interest in international theatre, particularly
Japanese culture and performance. He has trained in traditional Japanese dance
and theatre forms, and established New York’s Dome Artist Outreach cultural
program. In 2003 Jeff co-founded and co-directed the New York Butoh Festival,
the first of its kind in the US, showcasing more than fifty international
emerging and established artists from Japan, Germany, France, Colombia, Mexico,
San Francisco and New York.
Among Jeff’s many
theatre directing credits are Transformations (Anne Sexton), Apocalypse
and/or Metamorphosis (Charles Mee), Uncle Vanya (Anton Chekov), Lie
of the Mind and Forensic and the Navigators (Sam Shepard), The
Man in the Elevator (Heiner Muller). His writing credits include Electria
(2004), 2 Josh (2003) and Dream Stone Dance (1997).
He has received
multiple awards and grants for his contributions to theatre performance and
education, including a Japan Foundation grant (2000), a Columbia Graduate Arts
Council Award (2004), two Schubert Foundation Fellowships (2004, 2005) and a
Theatre Communications Group New Generations Fellowship (2006).
