Chris DeCarlo

Chris DeCarlo has been directing, writing and acting in Los Angeles for over fifty years.
As a performer, Chris has created more than three hundred roles, with over ten thousand on-stage performances on three continents, from the Henry Street Settlement Theatre in New York to the Dream Factory in Warwickshire and the gargantuan Hitomi Memorial Hall in Tokyo. He is especially recognized for his portrayals historical figures Mark Twain, Chekhov and Moliere. Over a quarter of a million people have been touched by his award-winning characterization of Yiddish humorist Sholom Aleichem, a role he has assayed over five thousand times in the past twenty-eight years. His versatile performance style has garnered him such raves as “Magnetic!” (Drama-Logue) and “A tour-de-force performance!” (B’nai B’rith Messenger). Always the explorer, his diverse choices run the gamut from the blithely serio-comic Hero in the House to the dangerously dramatic answers to unmailed letters, a collaborative theatre odyssey (Peter Manning Robinson, Bill Gough, Stephen Rothman and Evelyn Rudie) based on his personal experiences in Vietnam.
Chris combines performing with an active career as director and educator. Chris has directed countless World Premieres, twelve Critics’ Picks, including Charlie Lustman’s Made Me Nuclear, Doug Knott’s Last of the Knotts, the Sroka/Fleming comedy Dying for Laughs and the 20th anniversary production of Jerry Mayer’s Aspirin & Elephants, the Critics Pick of the Year musical tribute to Shakespeare Love in Bloom, the critically acclaimed stage adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, the award-winning Hard Laughs starring Sammy Shore and Ron Palillo, seven of playwright Jerry Mayer’s comedies including the award-winning Almost Perfect, Annie Reiner’s Mirage a Trois, playwright Brenda Krantz’s Lovely, starring Louise Sorrell, the bi-lingual cultural exchange play From Tokyo to Hollywood and Back Again and the Ovation-nominated Picon Pie. As Co-Artistic Director of Santa Monica Playhouse, he has been directly responsible for more than 250 American and World Premieres, including Michel Garneau’s Quatre a Quatre, Stephen King and Robert B. Parker’s RAGE, and the long-running hit musical Funny, You Don’t Look Like A Grandmother by Lois Wyse, Sheilah Rae and Robert Waldman.
Chris and his wife and partner, Evelyn Rudie, have personally collaborated to create more than 500 critically acclaimed productions, including four of a projected five plays in the Sholom Aleichem quintilogy (Author! Author!–an evening with Sholom Aleichem, The Clown Prince, The Great Fair: Sholom Aleichem On Tour and Because of You: the life and loves of Sholom Aleichem). Their productions of Dear Gabby: the confessions of an over-achiever (the longest-running teen dramedy in Los Angeles theatre history), 2004—a telling of tomorrow, Mezzanine, DOLLS!, CANTEEN: a musical reconnaissance of war and other unnatural disasters, and their translation of Moliere’s The Fools have all been performed internationally. AUDITION! THE MUSICAL, a production he directed (“Impeccable direction!” Los Angeles Times) and co-wrote with Ms. Rudie, previewed at the prestigious Studio Theatre in Covent Garden, returned to rave reviews in its Los Angeles world premiere, and toured England, Ireland and the Netherlands. Over the course of his time as Co-Artistic Director at Santa Monica Playhouse, he has directed such show business luminaries as Frank Aletter, Haskell Anderson III, Bea Arthur, K Callan, Mickey Callan, Precious Chong, George Coe, Brett Cullen, Jan Daley, Sandy Faison, Archie Hahn, Deborah Harman, Michael Horton, Peter Jason, Paul Linke, Barbara Minkus, Shereen Mitchell, Stuart Pankin, Marcia Rodd, William Schallert, Albie Selznick, Sammy Shore, Louise Sorell, Todd Susman and Rene Taylor.
As an educator, Chris is co-founder and director of the Actors Workshop and the Young Professionals’ Company, theatre-intensive internship programs for performers with serious career intent. Under his direction, the Young Professionals’ Company has traveled internationally, performing as well as leading discussions and workshops in New York, Canada, Japan, Ireland and England. Mr. DeCarlo also leads the Advanced Technique Workshop, the Advanced Internship Program, the Advanced Preparatory Program and the Dear Gabby Project. He is co-founder of the Kids-in-Theatre Educational Conservatory, Actors’ Repertory Theatre, the Young Professionals’ Company, the American Cultural Youth Ambassadors, the Diversity-in-Education Program, the Schools Theatre Excursion Project and Project: OutReach. His innovative methods of utilizing theatre as a tool for cross-cultural and cross-curricular education, developed over 40 years through work with students locally and nationally, as well as in Japan, England, Ireland and Canada, are renowned internationally and are currently being utilized in classrooms across the globe. Former students include performers Kate Hudson, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Deschanel, Jason Ritter, Jason Segel, Azura Skye, Emmy-award winner Aisha Waglé, novelist Rebecca Donner, filmmaker Shana Feste, producer/writer Rina Mimoun (Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls, Pushing Daisies, Mistresses), casting director Liz Dean, Newark Superintendent of Schools Cami Anderson (Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World), Gadi Dechter (former senior adviser at the White House National Economic Council and National Security Council), and musicians Terri Nunn (Berlin) and Mickey Madden (Maroon 5).
In addition to his work at Santa Monica Playhouse, Mr. DeCarlo teaches in the public and private school systems, and has developed theatre programs for such SMMUSD and LAUSD Schools as Edison, P.S. 1, John Muir, SMASH, McKinley, John Adams, Grant, Paul Revere, Mark Twain, Manchester School, as well for Model Language Studio in Tokyo, International Human Network in Kyoto, Playbox Theatre in Warwick, England, South Island School in Hong Kong, the Henry Street Settlement Theatre in New York, the University of Ulster at Coleraine, the Maharishi School in Fairfield, Iowa, and Kent State, the Northridge Play Project, Firestone High School and The Muse Machine in Ohio.
Awarded a Bronze Star for his film work with U.S. Army, he studied with Agnes Bernelle at The Project in Ireland, the Lee Strasberg Institute, Belgian director-producer Ted Roter, and British West End director Marianne Mcnaughten.
Chris and his partner Evelyn have spearheaded numerous community service and cultural arts programs to bring the magic of live theatre to audiences throughout Southern California, as well as across the nation. These programs include the Mobile Touring Project, the Family Theatre Matinee Series, and the England Summer Theatre Adventure. Their educational outreach work stretches across the United States. They also headed a ground-breaking program for the Northridge Play Project in Ohio, helping students to craft a piece of personal theatre, Stains, Junk and Other Necessities of Life, which has now become a model for high school theatre programs.