Graduate Studies: Professional Actor Training Program: Faculty
Core Faculty:
Ray Dooley (PATP Head, Teacher of Acting; Actor, PlayMakers Repertory Company) Ray Dooley has taught by example and in the studio for the Professional Actor Training Program since 1990. He has been a guest instructor for numerous universities and training programs including the University of Texas at Austin, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and the University of San Diego / Old Globe Theatre. Mr. Dooley is a principal actor with PlayMakers Repertory Company, and has played leading roles in theatres in New York, throughout the United States, and abroad, including Circle in the Square; CSC Repertory Company (OBIE Award, Distinguished Performance, Peer Gynt); Yale Repertory Theatre; Seattle Repertory Theatre; Hartford Stage Company; American Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford, CT; Huntington Theatre, Boston; the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Canada, among many others. In January 2006 Mr. Dooley traveled to Vienna's English Theatre, Vienna, Austria, to play Father Flynn in the European premier of John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer and Tony-Winning Doubt. He has appeared in numerous films, daytime dramas, and commercials. rdooley@email.unc.edu
John Patrick (Teacher of Voice and Speech, coach for Playmakers Repertory Company) has taught for Rutgers University, New York University, New York Film Academy, the Miller Voice Method Studio of NYC and other theater companies and schools around the country. John completed his training as a teacher of the Miller Voice Method at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program under the direction of Scott Miller, Professor of Voice. As an actor he trained under William Esper, Lloyd Richards and Deborah Hedwall at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts where he received his MFA. He received his BFA in Acting from TCU and trained in and employs the methodologies of Dudley Knight (Erik Singer), Patricia Fletcher (Ms. Fletcher), Edith Skinner & Kristin Linklater (Margaret Loft), & Michael Chekhov (Lenard Petit). Originally from Kansas City, John is also a working actor and has appeared off-Broadway, regionally such as The Dallas Theater Center & Casa Manana, in feature films, and has shot regional and national network commercials. jpatrick@unc.edu
Vivienne Benesche (Fall Semester 2012: Teacher of Acting; Director for PlayMakers Repertory Company) is Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Theatre Company. She returns to UNC Chapel Hill / PlayMakers Repertory Company after directing In The Next Room last season. As an actress, Ms. Benesch has worked extensively on and Off-Broadway, in film and television and at many of the country's most celebrated theaters. Most recently, she performed in the Off-Broadway revival of Michael Frayn’s Benefactors and played the title role in Major Barbara at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.. In 2007 she appeared with Maggie Smith in the London revival of Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque. In 2005 she received an OBIE Award for her performance in Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives. In New York, her Broadway credits include: After the Fall, Salome, Deep Blue Sea and The Heiress; Off-Broadway: Belle Epoque (Lincoln Center); Vienna: Lusthaus (New York Theatre Workshop); Pericles, All's Well That Ends Well (NYSF/Public Theater); Troilus & Cressida (Theatre for a New Audience); Ancient History (Primary Stages). Regional work includes leading roles at The Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Alley Theatre, A.C.T. San Francisco, and The Shakespeare Theatre. TV & film credits include Teeth, American Splendor, Tenderness, Corn, “The Good Wife,” "Paradise" (a pilot for Showtime),"Six Feet Under," "Sex and the City," "The Education of Max Bickford," "The Division" and multiple episodes of "Law & Order."
She works extensively at the Juilliard School (Measure for Measure, Arms and the Man, A Month In The Country, The Seagull and Getting Out.) and has directed Antigone and Richard III for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey (Star Ledger, Top Ten of 2006). She is a graduate of Brown University and NYU's Graduate Acting Program and served for five years as chair of the theater panel for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.
Craig Turner (Teacher of Movement, coach for PlayMakers Repertory Company) has taught in actor training programs at Penn State University, University of Missouri at Kansas City, University of Washington, Ohio University, Boston University, California Institute of the Arts, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival Conservatory and the National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center Theatre. He has been a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and is a founding member of the Association of Theatre Movement Educators. He is a Certified Master Practitioner and Modeler of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He has published articles on juggling, mime, movement theory, martial arts and masking process and is co-author of the book Methods and Practice of Elizabethan Swordplay. cwt4885@email.unc.edu
