Vinessa Shaw To Lead Masterclass For The International Acting Studio (TIAS)

i??Vinessa Shaw (3:10 to Yuma, Hocus Pocus, Eyes Wide Shut, Ray Donovan) will lead a masterclass for the students of The International Acting Studio (TIAS) in Belgrade, Serbia on Monday, April 5th. Participants will perform monologues and scene work from film & television for Ms. Shaw via a virtual class and receive one-on-one feedback from her.

"We are thrilled to welcome Vinessa to Belgrade," said Adam Davenport, Artistic Director and Master Acting Coach at TIAS. "To learn from an actor of Vinessa's caliber who has been directed by such great filmmakers as Stanley Kubrick is a huge gift to these young actors in Serbia who do not have an opportunity to learn from professional actors who work outside of the local film industry here."

Vinessa Shaw began her career as a child career and had her break-out role in Disney's 1993 Halloween comedy-fantasy film Hocus Pocus opposite Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy. While attending Barnard College,Shaw was cast in a supporting role as Domino, an HIV-positive prostitute who meets Tom Cruise's character, in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), after which she decided to pursue acting into her adulthood. In a 2008 interview, Shaw stated that Kubrick was "very influential" to her and that he "was the first person who encouraged her to continue acting." Subsequent roles include the independent mystery-drama The Weight of Water with Sarah Polley and Sean Penn, the comedy 40 Days and 40 Nights, playing the feisty ex-girlfriend of Josh Hartnett, Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda, the 2006 remake of Wes Craven's horror film The Hills Have Eyes, Jame Mangold's remake of the classic Western film 3:10 to Yuma with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, Jude Law's wife in Stephen Soderbergh's Side Effects and a leading role in James Gray's Two Lovers alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2014, she joined the cast of the Showtimes series Ray Donovan in a recurring role.

Shaw recently co-starred opposite Dermot Mulroney in Carlson Young's directorial debut thriller The Blazing World, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Shaw can next be seen starring opposite Luke Wilson, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall in the sports drama 12 Mighty Orphans, to be released theatrically by Sony Pictures Classics.

Davenport founded TIAS in 2020 with the aim that it would be an incubator for developing international talent in underrepresented and underrecognized local communities outside of the United States. Says Davenport: "I first set my eyes on Serbia, a developing country with a deep and varied history of artists who have enriched cinema, television, theater and music in the Balkans and abroad. Everything I've seen produced at The National Theatre here for instance has blown me away and so I'm hoping that TIAS can also be a bridge between artists here and in America." A graduate of Yale University, Davenport was previously the producing partner for Academy Award winner Melissa Leo and co-produced the feature FURLOUGH, with a cast of three Oscar winners (Leo, Whoopi Goldberg, Anna Paquin) in addition to Tessa Thompson and Edgar Ramirez. Last year, Davenport directed Shaw in a special all-star reading of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (opposite Academy Award nominee Sally Kirkland, Austin Pendleton, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Greer and Tony winner Reed Birney).

For more information about TIAS, visit www.theinternationalactingstudio.se or email info@theinternationalactingstudio.se.

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