| Richard Seyd | Bobby Weinapple | Janis Bergman | Cynthia Bassham |
Daniel Gamburg |
Most recently, Richard directed A Reckoning with Jonathan Pryce in London at the SoHo Theatre. Previously, Richard directed a Feast of Fools (with Geoff Hoyle) at the Marines Memorial Theatre and previously at LaJolla Playhouse. Other regional theatre credits include: Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Dinner with Friends (Bay Area Critics Circle Award), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Bay Area Critics Circle Award), Collected Stories (Garland Award from Backstage West), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A View From the Bridge. He has also received Drama-Logue, Backstage West and Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for his direction of Cloud Nine, About Face, Noises Off, Oleanna, A View From the Bridge, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
From 1992 - 1997 he served as Associate Artistic Director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. For ACT, he directed The Learned Ladies, Dario Fo's The Pope And The Witch, Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Oleanna, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Othello, The Matchmaker, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
In the 1980's Richard was Associate Producing Director of the Eureka Theatre, and directed many productions for the company including Cloud Nine, The Wash, Threepenny Opera, and Dario Fo's About Face.
Other directing credits include The Pickle Family Circus (London Tour), King Lear at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, As You Like It for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, A Midsummer Nights Dream for the California Shakespeare Festival, The Lion In Winter at La Mirada Theatre, Present Laughter and The Presentment for the Pasadena Playhouse, and productions at the Classic Stage Company and the Wonderhorse Theatre's in New York. He is the director of an award-winning 35 mm short film entitled Brass Tacks.
Richard attended school at Dartington Hall (England). He received his Theatre Training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and acted with the affiliated Old Vic Company. He became a founding member of Stage Two - a company based on the works of Jersey Grotowski that was begun by James Roose-Evans. He then received his Advance Teaching Degree in Drama from North-Western Polytechnic of London.
In 1968, he co-founded Red Ladder Theatre, Britain's first professional, political theatre collective, now 35 years old. He acted, directed and produced for the company for seven years. Upon moving to San Francisco in 1975, Richard taught at the Cultural Training Center. From here, directing became his main focus as detailed above. In the early 1990's, Richard returned to teaching privately for professional actors in the Bay Area. It was here that he began to develop his individual and unique approaches to acting training. His approaches are detailed in the area of "techniques". Richard holds classes for professional actors in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
ROBERT WEINAPPLE is a native New Yorker who has performed at many of the West Coast's best theatres, including Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, The Marsh, A Traveling Jewish Theatre, Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, and TheatreWorks. In 1996, Robert was awarded the Dean Goodman Drama-Logue Award for Outstanding Principal Performance as Watty Watkins in Lady Be Good with 42nd Street Moon. Screen credits include principal roles in the independent features Klee-vies Peterbelt with Fazi / Falzone Productions, Tragos with Antero Alli and Vertical Pool, Heart of the Possible, as well as a guest appearance on the television show Nash Bridges.
On the directing front, Robert's Twelfth Night for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival received critical acclaim in the summer of 2002. His Tempest and Taming of the Shrew for the S.F. Shakespeare Festival played to over 50,000 students in more than 60 cities throughout California, followed by an expanded version with a live band and all original music at San Francisco's Gershwin Theatre. Other directing credits include The Quick-Change Room with TheatreFirst, Empty Places with Foothill Theatre Company, UPS and The Debating Society with the Playwright's Lab, and 2x4 Play at The Marsh in San Francisco. He also worked as Assistant Director to Richard Seyd on Beauty Queen of Leenane at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
In addition to his popular acting classes at Seydways Acting Studio, Robert teaches opera students at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and directs and teaches youth at various schools throughout the Bay Area. He also works with orchestras around the country hosting children's concerts entitled Where In The World of Music is Carmen Sandiego? and regularly appears with the Marin Symphony dressed as a giant chicken named Ollie Opus.
Janis Bergmann has taught, directed, acted and designed throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles for over 20 years. She is currently the Director of the Foothill Theatre Conservatory, which she co-founded in 1990 at Foothill College where she has been a drama faculty member since 1982. She holds theatre degrees from UCLA and San Jose State University and has received numerous awards as a costume designer and actor. As an actor, Janis has performed locally at San Jose Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, San Jose Stage Company and Playhouse West, among others, as well as extensive camera and voice-over credits
Cynthia Bassham is excited to be working with Seydways Acting Studios. Cynthia is a professional actor with extensive credits, including originating the role of 'C' in the world premiere of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women directed by the author. As a teacher, she has had many opportunities over the past thirteen years to share her skills and love of theatre in a variety of venues. Cynthia is also a full-time voice instructor at UC Irvine.
Cynthia's introduction to elements of Fitzmaurice Voicework started at A.C.T., where she studied with Nancy Houfek from 1986 to 1989. After studying with Saul Kotzubei and attending the teacher certification course with Catherine Fitzmaurice, she is now an associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework.
Cynthia received her B.A. in Drama from the University of Washington and her M.F.A. in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater.
Daniel has been making films and working on commercial productions over 15 years. He received his Bachelors and a Masters Degrees in film production from San Francisco State University. Daniel is a recipient of numerous awards for his film work, including the Robin Eickman Memorial Scholarship and was chosen as the West Coast Regional Finalist for the Student Academy Awards. He taught film production, documentary, and theory at the Academy of Art University. In 2004 he taught a directing workshop at Pixar Animation Studios. Daniel was the Artistic Director of Theater and Film Lab SF (formerly the Bennett Lab) 2003 - 04. In 2000 Daniel co-founded Barewitness Productions, an ensemble film company, which has produced over 20 short films, some of which have played at festivals in the US and Europe. His first documentary film, “Tsipa and Volf” received the Michael Moore award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival for best short film. The film aired on KQED TV, and played at major festivals around the world. In 1996 Daniel produced and edited “Basil” a short film staring Edward Asner, which was acquired by Finish Television and Encore Media. In 2004 Daniel completed his first feature film, “IPO”, which premiered at Slamdance and in San Francisco at the 20th Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema. NetFlix currently distributes “IPO”. Daniel has also worked on corporate productions for companies such as Oracle and Wells Fargo. You can learn more about Daniel by going to http://www.danielgamburg.com/. .