Directors of 2012
Here is the talented roster of directors from the 2012 OC-Centric New Play Festival
Tamiko Washington
Director of "The Dirt and Its Harp In Her Mouth"
Tamiko Washington is also artistic director of OC-centric. An Associate Professor of Theatre at Chapman University, she has an MFA in Acting from UCI and is considered the originator of American Noh Theatre. Tamiko has acted at South Coast Repertory, the Old Globe Theatre, the L.A. Women’s Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare Orange County. Her TV credits include co-starring and guest artist roles in Pensacola, Silk Stalkings and two Lifetime films, Two Small Voices and Kidnapped. In 2005, she received a Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival Award for Excellence in Education for her work at Chapman University.
Paul Tavianini
Director of "Isosceles"
Paul Tavianini is an Adjunct Professor of Theatre at Chapman University, where he teaches Acting, Improvisation, and Intro to Performance Techniques. A founding member of the Theatre Asylum in New York City, he produced works by new playwrights as well as classic American authors such as Williams, Odets, Inge and Elmer Rice. As an actor, Mr. Tavianini has performed regionally with the Merrimack Repertory, Nora and Huntington Theatre companies in Boston, MA; the Hippodrome Theatre Company in Gainesville, FL; Capital Repertory in Albany, NY; and the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. He has appeared on Law & Order and most recently in the Discovery Channel series “Kidnap & Rescue”. He has an M.F.A in Acting from Brandeis University and also studied with the Royal National Theatre Company in London.
Richard Stein
Director of "Obsession"
Directing credits include: Colleen Bevacqua’s Obsession, OC-Centric New Play Festival 2012, In Spitting Distance, Washington DC’s Theatre J, Damnée Manon, Sacrée Sandra, Monkey Wrench Collective, Seascape (Year’s Top Ten, Variety) and Teibele and Her Demon, Lincoln Theatre, and Ex-Miss Copper Queen on a Set of Pills, Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse; at Laguna Playhouse, which he led for 17 years, The Master of the House, Last Easter, Jumping for Joy, Old Wicked Songs, What the Night is For, Travels With My Aunt, The Shape of Things, Gun-Shy, The Price, The Labors of Hercules. Laguna Playhouse and San Jose Repertory Theatre: Tuesdays With Morrie. He is Executive Director of Arts Orange County and a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers. His sixth article for AMERICAN THEATRE magazine appears in the current issue.
Andrea Andresakis
Director of "Shrink"
A native New Yorker, began her career performing at Lincoln Center. She graduated from the High School of Performing Arts and appeared in both the film and television series Fame. Other performing credits include: the Majestic Theatre on Broadway; the Metropolitan Opera; the New York City Opera; Alvin Ailey III and Radio City Music Hall. NYC theatre directing and choreography credits include: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Lee Blessing’s Down the Road, Frederick Knott’s Wait Until Dark and Neil Simon’s Star-Spangled Girl at Playwrights Horizons. She was Associate Artistic Director of the American Playwrights’ Theatre, where she also directed several plays. As a teaching artist, she was on the adjunct faculty at CUNY, Queens College and has taught and choreographed productions at SUNY, Purchase and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Mark Majarian
Director of "Thug 4 Life"
Has accomplished 31 successful years as a professor of acting and Theater/Dance Department Chair (2001-2004) at Cypress College, and as a director of productions at Cypress College and Equity Waiver theaters in L.A. He served on the KC/ACTF Region VIII board for four years and he has conducted master workshops on the Eric Morris System of Acting. Mark has worked with noted playwrights including Oliver Mayer, Alice Tuan, Hilly Hicks, Mickey Birnbaum (Big Death & Little Death, PEN USA finalist 2006) and Cody Henderson (Cold/Tender, 2002 OC WEEKLY award for Best New Play). Theseplaywrights have been produced at the Mark Taper Forum, Boston Court Theater, Wooly Mammoth Theater and The Public Theater. A good number of his students have gone on to professional studies at UCLA, UCSD, CSUF, Chapman University, Hunter College, NYU, Circle in the Square, Cal Arts and the Eric Morris Actors Workshop. Two of his previous students have won the Emmy award.