VERNICE MILLER

Founder, Artistic Director - Actor/Director/Teacher/Activist/Writer

VERNICE P. MILLER is an educator and international theatre artist currently serving as an Adjunct Lecturer for the City University of New York at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. For John Jay Miller has directed three main stage productions, Jitney by August Wilson, The New York premiere of The Execution of Saint Luke by Steven Fechter and most recently The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown. In 1995 along with Joann Maria Yarrow, Miller founded A Laboratory for Actor Training Experimental Theatre Company (ALAT) as a venue to further the work they began with Roberta Carreri at Eugenio Barba's Odin Teatret in Denmark. In New York she was an early member of Richard Schechner's East Coast Artist where she originated the role Vernice Minsky Miller for Faust Gastronome. Miller also travels and teaches ALAT’s rigorous actor training technique to university students in the US and Europe including Swarthmore, Sarah Lawrence and Union Colleges. Other directorial projects in the academy have included Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Euripides’ Iphigenia, and Scorched by Wadji Mouawad for Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Miller’s professional directing credits include a five year stint, working with Pulitzer Prize winner, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis; and a ten year collaboration touring internationally with HBO comedienne Hazelle Goodman.  After directing Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott’s Pantomime for Payomet Performing Arts Center in Truro, Massachusetts, Miller was invited by Mr. Walcott to work with him on his musical Marie La Veau. She has written and directed extensively for children’s theatre and has freelanced as a teaching artist with a number of arts organizations including Epic Theatre Ensemble, Symphony Space and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As a performer Miller is the recipient of the London New Plays Festival's Best Actress Award for her solo performance of Medea: Now, directed by Seth Baumrin, She sits on the board of Ithaca's Civic Ensemble and is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association

JOANN MARIA YARROW

Director of Development, Co-founder - Actor/Writer/Director/Producer

Joann Maria Yarrow is a professional director and producer with over 30 years of experience. She began her career as a director and choreographer while with Double Edge Theatre in Boston. She went on to train withOdin Teatret in Denmark consequently co-founding A Laboratory for Actor Training with Vernice Miller in New York. Joann worked at La Mama ETC with East Coast Artists’ director, Richard Schechner and spent three years working for Broadway director, Harold Prince on the productions of Parade, Whistle down the Wind, Candide, Show Boat, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Phantom of the Opera.  She has since worked in Denmark, London, Madrid, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Texas, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. From 2006-2017 Joann was the Executive Artistic Director of Teatro Prometeo, the only Spanish-language theatre conservatory in the nation. While there, she directed and produced over 80 productions, translated, adapted and commissioned new works that have toured nationally and internationally.  Joann produces and directs the ARTrepreneur Programin collaboration with ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale; offering young artists tools to turn their passions into a career. Her corporate company, Distinctive Voices, works with leading entrepreneurs on creativity, power, passion and team building. In 2015, Joann partnered with SFX Director, Dean Lyon and Puppet Master, Jim Hammond to create Live Animation Studios, bringing to life various live action, puppet and animation projects, from live events to TV series pilots. Joann received her BFA from Boston University and her M.F.A. in Directing from the University of California at Irvine. She has taught at the Universidad de Alcalá in Madrid, the NYU Madrid Program and Union College in New York. Joann is a featured director in the book “The art and practice of directing in Latin America: Central America and United States.” She is a member of the Latinx Theater Commonsand is a founding alumnus of Lincoln Center’s Director’s Lab West in Los Angeles

Brandt Adams

Managing Director - Actor/Writer/Director

Brandt Adams is a Brooklyn-based theater artist. He is a company member of The Nerve Tank, with whom he most recently performed the role of Woyzeck in Project Woyzeck at University Settlement, Sea Dog Theater, for whom he recently collaborated as a writer on their devised site-specific pieceNot From Here at The Ace Hotel, and The Funny School of Good Acting's Commedia Company. He has also enjoyed long collaborations with Sister Sylvester, Epic Theatre Ensemble, and the choreographer Catherine Galasso, among others. In Fall of 2012, his play, Dispatches from (A)mended America, co-written with Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., was produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble at the Theater at the 14th Street Y. He has been a visiting artist at Cornell University, and has led middle and high school students throughout New York City in creating and performing plays addressing ethical and social issues. www.brandtadams.com

Seth Baumrin

City University of New York Activities Coordinator- Director/Teacher/Writer

Seth Baumrin is the Artistic Director of two theatre collectives: SUBPOETICS INTERNATIONAL, a Paris-based theatre group whose members are from eleven nations and tour the world; and GERSHOM, a theatre group based in L’viv Ukraine. Baumrin also serves as the chairman of the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. He holds four degrees in theatre: PhD, M.Phil., MFA, and BA. He is the author of many articles on 20th Century theatre history, with a focus on the work of Eugenio Barba and Jerzy Grotowski. He also writes theoretical essays on axiologies and ontologies of the actor. Baumrin has directed well over 60 professional theatre and opera productions such as Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman; Garcia Lorca’s When Five Years Pass; Calderon de la Barca’s Life is a Dream; Aeschylus’ The Furies; Euripides’ Medea; Tennessee Williams’s Summer and Smoke; and Carson McCullers’s Member of the Wedding to name a few. Over his career Baumrin has founded and served as the founding artistic director of five theatre groups. All of them survive to this day.

Soraya Broukhim

Marketing Director- Actress/Teacher/ Poet/ Activist/Healer

Soraya has evolved with ALATetc. professionally administratively and artistically for many years now. Recent acting credits include: Recent Off-Broadway: The Aeneid music by Dunkan Sheik (Drama League, Workshop), Outside The World(Here), Rug Dealer (Women’s Project Theatre), Petrol Station (BAM/NYU), I am Gordafarid (NYTW/Rising Circle), Soundwaves: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan (Fringe), Blackbird (one woman show, LocationOne), Korach, History of the World, SMOPS, Here We Are, No Place to Hide (Artistic Associate /The Living Theatre), Antigone, Betrothed (RipeTime), The Red Tent ( ALAT etc Joyce Theatre) Regional: Kiss (Yale Rep), The Who & The What (Milwaukee Rep), Scorched (Syracuse Stage). In the Heart of America (Interact Co.), Wintertime (SanJose Rep), Afghan Women (Passage Theatre), Sodom & Gomorrah (O'Neill), Blue Demon (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Darko Tresnjak dir.)  Notable TV/Film: “Madam Secretary,” America 1979, Eugenia & John, Encounter with Simone Weil. Graduate & Adjunct Professor at Fordham University, BAADA, NTI, & St.Petersburg Arts Theatre Academy.

Also runs her own Ayurvedic healing practice and has collaborated in consultations with Deepak Chopra for many years.

For more information about Ms. Broukhim please visit: sorayabroukhim.com

Steven Fechter

Playwright-in-Residence – Playwright/Screenwriter/Librettist

Steven Fechter co-wrote the screenplay for the 2004 film The Woodsman (based on his play). For that film he was a Humanitas Prize finalist in screenwriting. The Woodsman play (published by Samuel French) has been produced in North America, Europe, and Australia. In the summer of 2014, 360repco produced the world premiere of his play Lancelot at The Gym at Judson in New York. His other theatrical works have been produced throughout the U.S. Recent productions include Resonance Ensemble’s 2011 production of Shakespeare’s Slave at the Clurman Theatre in New York. In 2012, Thom Fogarty and Other Side Productions produced world premieres of his plays The Artifacts andThe Mentee at the Bridge Theatre in New York. In 2015, The Execution of Saint Luke premiered at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. For the 2015-2016 season, Theatre Bielefeld staged the world premiere of Serpent’s Tooth in Bielefeld in Bielefeld, Germany. In 2017, his opera libretto The Darkest Light in the Heart had an AOP First Chance Reading at The American Opera Projects. Upcoming in 2018 is the premiere of Bergen in the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival at the 14th Street Y Theater. Fechter is a member of Oberon Theatre Ensemble, Resonance Ensemble, EST Playwrights Unit, and The Dramatists Guild.

Raymond Johannes Kraft

Company Manager- Actor/Writer

Raymond Johannes Kraft is an aspiring Actor and writer. Raymond graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice. A degree that currently sits on his mother’s mantle collecting dust. He found theatre towards the end of his studies and ever since then has shifted his focus to becoming a part of the industry.  Theatre has unlocked his creativity, besides performing, he is also focused on developing his writing skills as a play/screenwriter. Though Raymond has had no formal theatre education, he continues to learn  a great deal being mentored by both Vernice Miller and Steven Fechter. 

Raymond's past credits include Jitney (Doub), The Execution of Saint Luke (Luke) and A Sketch of New York (Various). He also has backstage experience; Assistant Director for The African Company Presents Richard III and Production Assistant for Martha Graham Dance Company.

Angelica Lara

Dramaturg- Actor/Poet/Activist

Angelica is very excited and grateful to be joining ALATetc as Dramaturg. Besides dramaturgy Angelica is a poet, writer, actor and art activist who believes that history and knowledge sharing is one of the most effective and consistent ways to keep our people, languages, cultures and resistance alive. “Drama is and will continue to be a tool of the oppressed to dismantle that which is not clear in our world, I am excited and energetically charged to contribute as myself and my ancestors for the enrichment of this exploratory work.” Angelica has served as stage manager, production manager, actor and dramaturg on various projects including Jitney by August Wilson directed by Vernice Miller; Ruined by Lynn Nottage directed by Margit Edwards and The Execution of St. Luke, Written by Steven Fechter.