Simone, Ed

My job is to inspire, provoke, prod, and otherwise motivate students to achieve heightened emotional and intellectual states in acting, and exciting spatial and emotional relationships in directing.  My job is to make students question everything they think they know; to make them uncomfortable with satisfaction and unsatisfied with comfort.  I am as much a coach as a professor.  I try to give my students the benefit of the whole body of professional stage and film work I have been fortunate enough to have done and continue to do.

I never berate students for trying, or teach by negative comparison.  I expect dedication and curiosity from my students.  I don’t believe in talent; I believe in potential.  I try always to bring to my work humor, a sense of balance, and making the most of the potential that students bring to classes and rehearsals.

A university education isn’t about grades---so much work equals A, B, C, etc.  A university education is about opening yourself and challenging yourself to discover that which you did not know and to achieve that which you thought you could never accomplish.  And that means hard, dedicated work.  It means stretching your body and your mind; it means taking delight in ensemble and rejoicing in the thing well done.  It means, as Stanislavsky said, loving the art in yourself not yourself in the art.  If you’re into that kind of theater, I’m here for you.