Talk is both cheap and substantive at The Freeman Studio. The Tribeca-based acting studio led by Scott Freeman welcomes the super-busy Santino Fontana and Sarah Steele in its next "Actors Aloud" free panel discussion at on Wednesday June 3 at 6pm. The legendary Cherry Jones is The Freeman Studio's guest on Sunday June 21 at 5pm.
Co-moderated by the NY Theatre Workshop casting director
Jack Doulin and Scott Freeman (The Freeman Studio's founder and director), the popular on-going series invites distinguished actors to speak freely about issues central to their craft and careers and to engage with the audience in a Q&A session after their free-ranging conversation with Doulin and Freeman. Complimentary refreshments are provided. The Freeman Studio is located at 79 Leonard Street (between Broadway and Church Street).
This will be the sixth and seventh installments of the "Actors Aloud" series which has already featured
Carrie Preston and
Michael Emerson;
Marin Ireland and
Terry Kinney;
Judith Ivey and
Jayne Houdyshell;
Maria Dizzia,
Suzanne Bertish, Anatol Yusef, and
Lois Smith and
Amanda Quaid.
Jones is a two-time Tony Award-winning best actress ("The Heiress" and "Doubt") and five-time nominee. She also has three Drama Desk Awards and an Emmy, for her role as Allison Taylor on Fox's 24, which she nabbed in 2009.
Fontana and Steele have both trained with Scott Freeman. A graduate of the University of Minnesota Guthrie Theater Training Program, Fontana was tapped to play Hamlet at The Guthrie at the ripe age of 23. After arriving in New York ten years ago, he quickly found work on Broadway and Off-Broadway earning a Tony nomination for "Cinderella;" a Drama Desk nomination for "Brighton Beach Memoirs;" a Lortel Award for "Sons of the Prophet," and a
Clarence Derwent Award for Most Promising Newcomer. He voiced the character of Hans in Disney's "Frozen."
Steele's career hasn't bended since she was a 15-year-old sensation in "Spanglish" with
Adam Sandler. In addition to her highly lauded work on Broadway and Off-Broadway -- most notably at Lincoln Center in "Slow Girl;" The Roundabout in "Speech and Debate," and on Broadway in "The Country House" -- Steele kept up her studies earning a degree in Comparative Literature at Columbia University. And for good measure she has had a recurring role on The Good Wife and guest star roles on Nurse Jackie and Girls.
Known for presenting numerous community enhancing events and activities for its students and for the city's acting community at large, The Freeman Studio's so-called extracurricular activities include industry panels and talks, and low-cost workshops called Saturday Specials. Most of these add-ons, led by notable theatre artists, are either free or low-cost, and are open to the public.
Reservations for the free "Actors Aloud" events are highly recommended by visiting
www.thefreemanstudio.com.
