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The Company
Ronald Rand - playwright & performer
Gregory Abels - director
Elizabeth Dixon - voice consultant
Laura Gale - dramaturg
  RONALD
RAND (Harold Clurman, Playwright) International Performing Artist. Mr. Rand has enjoyed immense response across 5 continents for over 12 years performing his celebrated play, LET IT BE ART! Harold Clurman’s Life of Passion, seen in 18 countries and 16 states. Mr. Rand performed LET IT BE ART! Off-Broadway twice (at the Century Center & at the ArcLight Theatre presented by The Mirror Repertory Theatre). LET IT BE ART! has been seen in London, Kathmandu’s International Theatre Festival; Zimbabwe’s BAFA International Arts Festival (First American Artist); “Voices of History” International Theatre Festival-Vologda, Russia (First American Artist); Athens-International Festival of Making Theater; Internationales Theatre-Frankfurt; Filmotheque Theatre-Paris; Palace Dar El Majzen in the Casbah-International Intermediality Theatre Conference, Tangier, Morocco; XXVIII International Winter Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, MERCOSUR International Theatre Conference-Paysundu, Uruguay; Patravadi Theatre-Bangkok; Kafka Theatre-Buenos Aires; Sehir Tiyatrolari-Eskisehir, Turkey; Kerala’s International CPRASSIS International Theatre Conference; Palace of Culture, Minsk, Belarus; National School of Drama’s Festival of Fame, Johannesburg, South Africa; Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Auroville, India; Calicut University, Thrissur, Kerala, India; Indo-French Cultural Centre, New Delhi, India; Invisible Theatre-Tucson; Cyrano’s Theatre-Anchorage; Cape May Stage; Last Frontier Theatre Conference. Upcoming performances: Mozambique, Kenya, Bangladesh, China. He appeared with Marian Seldes, Elizabeth Ashley, Jayne Atkinson, Donald Margulies, and Rosemary Harris in a program he created for The Helen Rose Scheuer Jewish Women's Series at The Jewish Museum in New York City.
Performing Artist. Mr. Rand has enjoyed immense response for over 11 years performing his celebrated play, LET IT BE ART! Harold Clurman’s Life of Passion across 5 continents, 16 countries & 15 states. Mr. Rand performed his critically-acclaimed play Off-Broadway twice (Century Center & ArcLight Theatre presented by The Mirror Repertory Theatre). LET IT BE ART! has been seen in London, Paris, Athens, New Delhi, Frankfurt, Mumbai, Los Angeles, including Filmotheque Theatre-Paris; Palace Dar El Majzen-Casbah, International Intermediality Theatre Conference, Tangier, Morocco Patravadi Theatre-Bangkok; Kafka Theatre-Buenos Aires; Eskisehir’s State Municipal Theatre, Sehir Tiyatrolari-Turkey; Invisible Theatre-Tucson; Cyrano’s Theatre-Anchorage; and Cape May Stage. Recent: Kathmandu’s International Theatre Festival, Zimbabwe’s BAFA International Arts Festival (First American Artist); “Voices of History” International Theatre Festival-Vologda, Russia (First American Artist); at the Palace of Culture in Minsk, Belarus; MERCOSUR International Theatre Conference-Paysundu, Uruguay, plus Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Kerala’s International CPRASSIS International Theatre Conference. Upcoming performances: Cuba. Morocco, Mozambique, Kenya, Bangladesh, Turkey, Egypt, China. He appeared with Marian Seldes, Elizabeth Ashley, Jayne Atkinson, Donald Margulies, and Rosemary Harris in a program he created for The Helen Rose Scheuer Jewish Women's Series at The Jewish Museum in New York City.
He began his acting career appearing in over 250 plays at a professional children's theatre in Florida. His Off-Broadway debut in Julius Caesar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Richard Dreyfuss and George Rose, was followed
by numerous New York appearances including Hamm in Endgame ,directed by Joseph Chaikin; the lead in Goldoni's The Liar; as the First Gravedigger in Hamlet; leads in several of Bernard Shaw's plays; and all three male roles in Perfect Crime for two years. Mr. Rand also toured for five months throughout Europe as the Fool in King Lear. Mr. Rand appeared as Sturdyvant in a sold-out run in The Classical Theatre of Harlem's production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, directed by Arthur French. His television appearances include: Milton Sterns in A Marriage - O'Keefe and Steiglitz on American Playhouse, opposite Jane Alexander & Christopher Plummer; Homeless with Yoko Ono; Law & Order; Saturday Night Live (for many seasons); and all of New York City's daytime serials. His extensive film work include roles in The Emperor's Club; In & Out; Jerky Boys; Another You; Rude Awakening; and Quiz Show directed by Robert Redford. He studied with Stella Adler for over 5 years, receiving a B.F.A. in Acting at NYU's School of the Arts, and was also fortunate to have studied with Harold Clurman. He counts among his mentors: Jerzy Grotowski, Joseph Chaikin, Richard Schechner, John Strasberg, Sabra Jones, and Bobby Lewis. He also studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. As a playwright, Mr. Rand's plays also include Ode to the Moon; Ziz, King of the Birds; The Site of Human Life; and The Group! about the life of The Group Theatre (World Premiere at Northern Illinois University, February, 2004). The Group! also received the distinction of being chosen to appear in the York Theatre's New Play Series, as well as The Cherry Lane Theatre New Play Festival, and has also been seen at The Actors Studio, The Harold Clurman Theatre, Lambs Theatre, Stella Adler Theatre, Neighborhood Playhouse, and here at The Century Center. Mr. Rand is the Founder, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of "The Soul of the  American Actor," now in its 12th year of international circulation. It is the only free newspaper in America dedicated to the art and craft of the actor and the art of the theatre. Mr. Rand has had the honor of producing these memorable events at The Players in New York City: Libby Skala in "LiLiA!", Janis Stevens in "Vivien," "An Evening with Vijay Tendulkar" (India's greatest living playwright a staged reading of Ty Jones' Emancipation, Vinie Burrows in Rose McClendon: Harlem's Gift to Broadway), John Rothman as "H.L. Mencken", Andrea Reese in "Cirque Jacqueline," and "An Evening of Exceptional Women Poets" with Ruby Dee, Irene O'Garden, Hasna Muhammad & Sandy Rochelle. LET IT BE ART! has also received acclaim at The GIFT Festival-Tbilisi Georgia, Spiro Ark-London, Internationales Theatre-Frankfurt, Villanova University, Philadelphia, Jean-Claude van Itallie’s Shantigar Retreat-Massachusetts, Donald T. Oat Theatre-Norwich, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center-Long Island, Central Florida Community College-Ocala, Orange Country Community College-Middletown, Actors' International Retreat Experience (A.I.R.E.)-Seabeck Conference Center-Seattle, New York City at Proshansky Auditorium, Martin E. Segal Theater Center, CUNY Graduate Center, The Players, Stella Adler Studio, William Esper Studio, T. Schreiber Studio, New Actors Workshop, Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre, Maggie Flanigan Studios, Sande Shurin Theatre, Penny Templeton Studio, Actors Movement Studio, and the Episcopal Actors’ Guild of America. An Adjunct Professor of Acting at Pace University in New York City, Mr. Rand has taught at over 75 universities, festivals, conferences, and schools around the world, including Academy of Dramatic Art, Zagreb; Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey; Belarusian State University, Minsk; Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares, Mumbai; Kathmandu International Theatre Festival; R.K. Film & Media Academy, New Delhi; Espacio Blanco Leis Studio, Buenos Aires; New York University; University of Alaska; Northern Illinois University; University of Missouri-Columbia; University of San Diego; Stella Adler Studio, New York City; Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Valdez; Great Plains Theatre Conference, Omaha; and Rustavelli State University of Theatre & Film, Tbilisi, Georgia. Across the nation “LET IT BE ART! Harold Clurman's Life of Passion” has also received standing ovations at the 13th Annual Frontier Theatre Conference (Valdez, Alaska), Governor’s School for the Arts (Norfolk, Virginia), Northern Illinois University (Dekalb, Illinois), University of the Arts & Villanova University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Vaudeville Muse Theatre (Des Moines, Iowa), and as a special presentation at The New England Theatre
Conference’s Annual Convention (NETC) in Bedford, New Hampshire. Mr. Rand is a member of The Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit, and an Artistic Advisor to the Mirror Repertory Theatre and the American National Theatre.
photo: Lloyd H. Slomanson
 GREGORY ABELS (Director) An artist of vast experience, Mr. Abels has directed or acted in nearly 800 plays, films and television dramas. In 1980 he founded St. Malachy's Theatre-space. Among the numerous plays he directed there was a highly acclaimed production of T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral starring Lee Richardson and the World Premiere of Sally Dixon Wiener's Show Me A Hero. Other New York directing credits include new American plays for The Lark Theatre Company and New Dramatists; a series of Scandinavian plays at Lincoln Center and the Samuel Beckett Theatre, sponsored by the Swedish Consulate. Regionally, he has directed Ephiginia at Aulis (Cleveland Playhouse); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Asolo State Theatre); an adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson's Kidnapped (Westerly Theatre); and Mass Appeal (Stage West) was one of the most popular productions in that theatre's 35-year history. He is perhaps best known as an actor for his performance as the relentless prosecuting attorney in the Broadway production of Nuts. Mr. Abels is the leading American director in the Czech Republic, where he directed the Czech premiere of Arthur Miller's The Archbishop's Ceiling in Prague, sponsored by The World Pen Congress and the United States Information Agency; and Herb Gardner's The Goodbye People, which ran for four years. His production of Julius Caesar was the first permitted in Moravia since the 'Prague Spring'. At an early age, he was a star pupil of Stella Adler. A Master Teacher himself, he guided his own classical based Manhattan acting conservatory, GATE - Gregory Abels Training Ensemble, 1996-2004. There he has directed annual spring productions including The Trojan Women by Euripedes and The Triumph of Love by Marivaux, and works by Havel, Pinter, Churchill, Carr, and Fornes. He has served as Master Teacher on the faculties of New York University, National Theatre Institute at The O'Neill Center, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, National Shakespeare Conservatory, Warsaw State Academy, and The National Academy of Prague. Mr. Abels directed a world premiere of a new play in the spring of 2006 in Prague. He is currently the Master Teacher of Scene Study at Circle-in-the-Square School and an Artistic Advisor to the American National Theatre.
 ELIZABETH DIXON (Voice Consultant) Internationally renowned vocal and personal dramatic coach, she has worked on many Broadway & National tours, including Natalie Makarova (“On Your Toes”), Mary Martin (“The Sound of Music”), Anthony Quinn (“Becket”), Lilia Skala (“Forty Carets”), Zoe Caldwell & Lindsay Crouse (“Long Day’s Journey Into Night,”) Kirk Douglas (“Long Day’s Journey Into Night,”) Diana Sands (“Owl and the Pussycat”), as well as several Off-B’way plays and theatre companies, among others. Her film and TV coaching includes Michael Douglas (“Wall Street”), Lindsay Crouse (“Places
in the Heart” and “House of Games”), Eva Le Gallienne (“Resurrection”), Jane Fonda & Donald Sutherland (“Klute”), Joel Grey (“Cabaret”), Jon Voight (“Midnight Cowboy”), Al Pacino (“Bobby Deerfield”), Ben Gazzara (“Run for Your Life”), “Lois and Clark,” many soap operas; Ms. Dixon also worked with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Isabella Rossellini, Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn. Ms. Dixon is the author of The Spiritual In Speech or Create Yourself – Everything Else Has Been Done. A New Voice Is a New You. (212) 685-6415
 LAURA GALE (Dramaturg of Educational Guide for Teachers on website), is a co-founder of Theatre Artists Collective ( tac@tac-nyc.org) and also spent several years working as a resident artist at Ensemble Actors' Theatre, a company she co-founded to explore the actor's creative process within a permanent ensemble of young artists. Laura trained at New York's Circle in the Square Theatre School and holds degrees in Theatre and Sociology from the Ohio State University, where her study of the history of American acting eventually led to her extensive research on Clurman and the Group Theatre. In New York City she has worked in casting at MTC and as part of the administrative team at The Mint Theater. Ms. Gale is delighted to be involved in this exciting project, which offers students, the theatre leaders of the future, such a tremendous opportunity to become informed about and inspired by a great leader of the past.
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