Pandemonium Faculty Bios
Christopher Bayes began his theater career with the internationally acclaimed Theatre de la Jeune Lune where he worked for five years as an actor, director, composer, designer and artistic associate. In 1989 he joined the acting company of the Guthrie Theater where he appeared in over twenty productions. His roles included Caliban inThe Tempest, Edgar in King Lear, The Herald in Marat/Sade and Harlequin in Triumph of Love. In 1993, commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, he produced his one-man show This Ridiculous Dreaming based on Heinrich Boll’s novel The Clown.
In New York, he has directed The Servant of Two Masters at Theatre For A New Audience, Red Noses by Peter Barnes,Four by Feydeau, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Moliere One Acts, and The Love of Three Oranges by Carlo Gozzi at the Juilliard School; The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, The New Place by Carlo Goldoni, We Won’t Pay...by Dario Fo, and his new adaptation of Moliere’s The Reluctant Doctor of Love for New York University’s Graduate Acting Program; The Raven by Carlo Gozzi at NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing; Ubu Roi at both NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing and Fordham University; and Timeslips at HERE.
Additionally, he has staged several original works including Wreckage at P.S. 122, The Big Day (a clown show)and The Fiasco Bro. Circus at the Juilliard School, Zibaldoné at HERE and the Present Company Theatorium,The Fools/Los Locos Del Pueblo at Touchstone Theater, Necromance, A Night of Conjuration at Dixon Place,Clowns. at the New York International Clown Festival and The Public Theater and Even Maybe Tammy at The Flea.
Outside of New York, his directing credits include Servant of Two Masters (Yale Rep, Shakespeare Theater, Guthrie Theater, Arts-Emerson and Seattle Rep), Doctor In Spite of Himself ( Intiman Theater, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep), co-production of Scapin at the Intiman Theater in Seattle and Court Theater in Chicago, Comedy of Errors at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Len Jenkin’s new adaptation of The Birds at Yale Repertory Theater, Endgame at Court Theater, The Moliere Impromptu at Trinity Repertory Theater.
He was part of the creative team for the Broadway and Touring productions of THE 39 STEPS for which he created additional movement and served as Movement Director. He also created the Movement/Choreography for John Guare's Three Kinds of Exile at The Atlantic Theater.
He has received numerous awards and grants including a Jerome Foundation Travel/Study Grant, a General Mills Foundation Artist Assistance Grant, and both a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship Grant and a Career Opportunity Grant. He is a 1999/2000 Fox Fellow.
He has taught classes and workshops internationally at Cirque Du Soliel, Williamstown Theatre Festival, , the Big Apple Circus, Interlochen Arts Center, Vassar College, Stella Adler Conservatory, Bard College, Fordham University, University of Texas Graduate Acting and Directing Programs, National Shakespeare Conservatory, University of Minnesota Graduate Acting Program, the Guthrie Theater, Iowa State University and Theater de la Jeune Lune.
He has served on the faculty of the Juilliard Drama School, the Actor's Center (founding faculty & master teacher of physical comedy/clown), Yale School of Drama, the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Lab, the Academy of Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C., New York University's Graduate Acting Program and Tisch School of the Arts. His most recent position was that of Clinical Professor of Theater, Speech and Dance at Brown University and Director of Movement and Physical Theater at the Brown/Trinity Consortium. He is currently Professor and Head of Physical Acting at the Yale School of Drama.
In New York, he has directed The Servant of Two Masters at Theatre For A New Audience, Red Noses by Peter Barnes,Four by Feydeau, The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Moliere One Acts, and The Love of Three Oranges by Carlo Gozzi at the Juilliard School; The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, The New Place by Carlo Goldoni, We Won’t Pay...by Dario Fo, and his new adaptation of Moliere’s The Reluctant Doctor of Love for New York University’s Graduate Acting Program; The Raven by Carlo Gozzi at NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing; Ubu Roi at both NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing and Fordham University; and Timeslips at HERE.
Additionally, he has staged several original works including Wreckage at P.S. 122, The Big Day (a clown show)and The Fiasco Bro. Circus at the Juilliard School, Zibaldoné at HERE and the Present Company Theatorium,The Fools/Los Locos Del Pueblo at Touchstone Theater, Necromance, A Night of Conjuration at Dixon Place,Clowns. at the New York International Clown Festival and The Public Theater and Even Maybe Tammy at The Flea.
Outside of New York, his directing credits include Servant of Two Masters (Yale Rep, Shakespeare Theater, Guthrie Theater, Arts-Emerson and Seattle Rep), Doctor In Spite of Himself ( Intiman Theater, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep), Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep), co-production of Scapin at the Intiman Theater in Seattle and Court Theater in Chicago, Comedy of Errors at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Len Jenkin’s new adaptation of The Birds at Yale Repertory Theater, Endgame at Court Theater, The Moliere Impromptu at Trinity Repertory Theater.
He was part of the creative team for the Broadway and Touring productions of THE 39 STEPS for which he created additional movement and served as Movement Director. He also created the Movement/Choreography for John Guare's Three Kinds of Exile at The Atlantic Theater.
He has received numerous awards and grants including a Jerome Foundation Travel/Study Grant, a General Mills Foundation Artist Assistance Grant, and both a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship Grant and a Career Opportunity Grant. He is a 1999/2000 Fox Fellow.
He has taught classes and workshops internationally at Cirque Du Soliel, Williamstown Theatre Festival, , the Big Apple Circus, Interlochen Arts Center, Vassar College, Stella Adler Conservatory, Bard College, Fordham University, University of Texas Graduate Acting and Directing Programs, National Shakespeare Conservatory, University of Minnesota Graduate Acting Program, the Guthrie Theater, Iowa State University and Theater de la Jeune Lune.
He has served on the faculty of the Juilliard Drama School, the Actor's Center (founding faculty & master teacher of physical comedy/clown), Yale School of Drama, the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Lab, the Academy of Classical Acting at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C., New York University's Graduate Acting Program and Tisch School of the Arts. His most recent position was that of Clinical Professor of Theater, Speech and Dance at Brown University and Director of Movement and Physical Theater at the Brown/Trinity Consortium. He is currently Professor and Head of Physical Acting at the Yale School of Drama.
Eric Davis is a multi-award winning performer & director with over 20 years of teaching experience in clown and bouffon. His critically-acclaimed bouffon show, Red Bastard, won dozens of 5-star reviews as well as awards for Best Theater, Most Outrageous Show, Commitment To Community and multiple Best of Fests across the globe, including Edinburgh International Fringe Festival where it was named Top 5 shows in the UK. To date he has performed for over a million audience members world wide in addition to creating original roles for Cirque du Soleil’s IRIS and ALEGRIA. For more info about the man and the beast, go to: redbastard.com
Steven Epp is an actor, director, writer, and teacher based in Minneapolis and Brooklyn. Steve began his life as an actor as a six year old making plays in his basement. He later joined Theatre de la Jeune Lune - winner of the 2005 Tony Award for best Regional Theater - an independent, actor driven company that grew out of the renowned Ecole Jacques Lecoq.
Steve spent 25 years with Jenue Lune as an actor, writer, director, designer, composer, teacher, and Co-Artistic Director. He collaborated in the creation and performance of over 75 productions. Signature roles include Tartuffe, Hamlet, Figaro, and The Miser. He co-wrote numerous productions for Jeune Lune, including Children of Paradise (winner of the Outer Circle Critics Best New Play Award) and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer.
In 2009, Steve co-founded The Moving Company, dedicated to creating new work for the American theater. MoCo has collaborated with numerous Universities and Colleges to research and develop new work. They partner with major regional theaters to produce that work. Their work has been seen at The Humana Festival, Center Theater Group, Playmakers, SouthCoast Rep, Berkeley Rep, Actors Theater of Louisville and The Guthrie Theatre. Productions include — The House Can’t Stand; Come Hell and High Water; Fissures; Massoud Lion of Panjshir; The Imaginary Invalid; Out of the Pan Into the Fire; Love Labor Lost; Liberty Falls 54321; Speechless; The 4 Seasons; What If; and Anamnesis.
Steve first worked with Christopher Bayes in 1983. They worked closely for five years at Theatre de la Jeune Lune. In 2010, they reunited to create their acclaimed production of Servant of Two Masters, followed by Doctor Inspite of Himself, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and Ruzante (in continuous development).
Steve has received numerous awards and fellowships including: Best Actor Helen Hayes Award (Servant of Two Masters); Fox Fellowship, 2000; Beinecke Fellowship, Yale University, 2009, 2011, 2013; Norton and Ivey Awards for The Miser; Ivey Award for Don Juan Giovanni; Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellowship, 2009; Outstanding Performance, Connecticut Critics Circle & Best Actor, Bay Area Critics Awards (Doctor Inspite of Himself, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Metamorphosis); Outer Circle Critics Award Best New Play (Children of Paradise); Ivey Award for Best Actor (Fiddler on the Roof).
Steve spent 25 years with Jenue Lune as an actor, writer, director, designer, composer, teacher, and Co-Artistic Director. He collaborated in the creation and performance of over 75 productions. Signature roles include Tartuffe, Hamlet, Figaro, and The Miser. He co-wrote numerous productions for Jeune Lune, including Children of Paradise (winner of the Outer Circle Critics Best New Play Award) and was shortlisted for the Pulitzer.
In 2009, Steve co-founded The Moving Company, dedicated to creating new work for the American theater. MoCo has collaborated with numerous Universities and Colleges to research and develop new work. They partner with major regional theaters to produce that work. Their work has been seen at The Humana Festival, Center Theater Group, Playmakers, SouthCoast Rep, Berkeley Rep, Actors Theater of Louisville and The Guthrie Theatre. Productions include — The House Can’t Stand; Come Hell and High Water; Fissures; Massoud Lion of Panjshir; The Imaginary Invalid; Out of the Pan Into the Fire; Love Labor Lost; Liberty Falls 54321; Speechless; The 4 Seasons; What If; and Anamnesis.
Steve first worked with Christopher Bayes in 1983. They worked closely for five years at Theatre de la Jeune Lune. In 2010, they reunited to create their acclaimed production of Servant of Two Masters, followed by Doctor Inspite of Himself, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, and Ruzante (in continuous development).
Steve has received numerous awards and fellowships including: Best Actor Helen Hayes Award (Servant of Two Masters); Fox Fellowship, 2000; Beinecke Fellowship, Yale University, 2009, 2011, 2013; Norton and Ivey Awards for The Miser; Ivey Award for Don Juan Giovanni; Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellowship, 2009; Outstanding Performance, Connecticut Critics Circle & Best Actor, Bay Area Critics Awards (Doctor Inspite of Himself, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Metamorphosis); Outer Circle Critics Award Best New Play (Children of Paradise); Ivey Award for Best Actor (Fiddler on the Roof).
Annelise Lawson is a New York-based actress and theater maker. After first studying with Christopher Bayes at the Yale School of Drama, she’s since collaborated with him both in the rehearsal room and out – training with him as a teacher’s apprentice and going on to become a founding member of The Pandemonium Studio.
As a teacher, Annelise’s work focuses on developing technique and style through students’ personal sense of fun. Her areas of expertise include Clown, Commedia dell’arte, and the Russian Étude method – an improvisatorial rehearsal tool designed unleash an actor’s imagination into the world of the text.
Outside of The Pandemonium Studio, Annelise teaches Chekhov and Shakespeare at the Yale School of Drama, NYU Tisch School of the Arts (New Studio), and the New School for Drama.
Annelise has previously taught at the Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, the Stella Adler Conservatory, and the international LungA Arts Festival in Iceland.
As an actress and maker of collaborative theater, her recent credits include Anna in Babes in the Woods (world premier, Signature Theater), Edmund in MONUMENT (HERE Arts Center; LungA Arts Festival), The Clown in I Should Have A Party for the Thoughts I Didn’t Say (San Francisco International Arts Festival), Helena in MIDSUMMER (The Araca Project), and Masha in Dmitry Krymov’s √3 Sisters (International Festival of Arts & Ideas). Other credits include Arcadia (Yale Repertory Theatre) The Oresteia, Our Lady of 121st Street, ...And Sometimes Why?, The Troublesome Reign of King John, The Tempest, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, (Yale School of Drama); Middletown (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Secretaries, (Yale Cabaret), and The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe (First Folio)
She holds an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama, and certificates in Acting from American Conservatory Theater, the British American Drama Academy, iO Chicago, and the Moscow Art Theater.
As a teacher, Annelise’s work focuses on developing technique and style through students’ personal sense of fun. Her areas of expertise include Clown, Commedia dell’arte, and the Russian Étude method – an improvisatorial rehearsal tool designed unleash an actor’s imagination into the world of the text.
Outside of The Pandemonium Studio, Annelise teaches Chekhov and Shakespeare at the Yale School of Drama, NYU Tisch School of the Arts (New Studio), and the New School for Drama.
Annelise has previously taught at the Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, the Stella Adler Conservatory, and the international LungA Arts Festival in Iceland.
As an actress and maker of collaborative theater, her recent credits include Anna in Babes in the Woods (world premier, Signature Theater), Edmund in MONUMENT (HERE Arts Center; LungA Arts Festival), The Clown in I Should Have A Party for the Thoughts I Didn’t Say (San Francisco International Arts Festival), Helena in MIDSUMMER (The Araca Project), and Masha in Dmitry Krymov’s √3 Sisters (International Festival of Arts & Ideas). Other credits include Arcadia (Yale Repertory Theatre) The Oresteia, Our Lady of 121st Street, ...And Sometimes Why?, The Troublesome Reign of King John, The Tempest, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings, (Yale School of Drama); Middletown (Yale Summer Cabaret); The Secretaries, (Yale Cabaret), and The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe (First Folio)
She holds an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama, and certificates in Acting from American Conservatory Theater, the British American Drama Academy, iO Chicago, and the Moscow Art Theater.
Gabe Levey is an actor, teacher and theatre maker straddling the divide between Northampton, MA and Brooklyn, NY.
Over the last 12 years Gabe has collaborated with Christopher Bayes as a student, teaching apprentice, actor, assistant director and teacher. Now, joining together to create The Pandemonium Studio could not be more of a thrill.
In addition to Acting as Play at The Pandemonium Studio, Gabe teaches Physical Acting, Clown, and Shakespeare as Play at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New Studio.
In Northampton Gabe teaches The Fun of Failure and Acting as Play at Completely Ridiculous Productions, a brand spanking new Training Center and Theatre Lab for the development and performance of theatrical comedy, founded in 2019. www.completelyridiculousproductions.com
Gabe has taught classes and/or workshops at The Berkshire Theatre Group, Galim Dance, Smith College, Amherst College, The Yale Summer Acting Conservatory, Shakespeare & Co., The Professional Performing Arts High School in Manhattan, and The Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School in Massachusetts.
A maker of theatrical comedy, Gabe's original work includes the clown duet Dwellicle 109 (IRT); the solo show Brainsongs or the play about the dinosaur farm (Yale Cabaret); an ensemble piece And now we do LINDBERGH’S FLIGHT by Bertolt Brecht (Yale Cabaret); The Most Beautiful Thing in the World (Yale Cabaret/Boston University/Cloudcity); How to Help the Self Needs Help with Carol A. Jantsen (The Peoples Improv Theater); and most recently A Super Serious and Not at All Funny Reading of Stories I Wrote After Brain Surgery, which kicked off Completely Ridiculous Productions first season of new work at the Northampton Center for The Arts.
Gabe received a BFA in Acting from Boston University, and an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama.
For more information visit: www.gabriellevey.com
Over the last 12 years Gabe has collaborated with Christopher Bayes as a student, teaching apprentice, actor, assistant director and teacher. Now, joining together to create The Pandemonium Studio could not be more of a thrill.
In addition to Acting as Play at The Pandemonium Studio, Gabe teaches Physical Acting, Clown, and Shakespeare as Play at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New Studio.
In Northampton Gabe teaches The Fun of Failure and Acting as Play at Completely Ridiculous Productions, a brand spanking new Training Center and Theatre Lab for the development and performance of theatrical comedy, founded in 2019. www.completelyridiculousproductions.com
Gabe has taught classes and/or workshops at The Berkshire Theatre Group, Galim Dance, Smith College, Amherst College, The Yale Summer Acting Conservatory, Shakespeare & Co., The Professional Performing Arts High School in Manhattan, and The Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter High School in Massachusetts.
A maker of theatrical comedy, Gabe's original work includes the clown duet Dwellicle 109 (IRT); the solo show Brainsongs or the play about the dinosaur farm (Yale Cabaret); an ensemble piece And now we do LINDBERGH’S FLIGHT by Bertolt Brecht (Yale Cabaret); The Most Beautiful Thing in the World (Yale Cabaret/Boston University/Cloudcity); How to Help the Self Needs Help with Carol A. Jantsen (The Peoples Improv Theater); and most recently A Super Serious and Not at All Funny Reading of Stories I Wrote After Brain Surgery, which kicked off Completely Ridiculous Productions first season of new work at the Northampton Center for The Arts.
Gabe received a BFA in Acting from Boston University, and an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama.
For more information visit: www.gabriellevey.com
Budi Miller is Senior Lecturer, Head of Acting at Victorian College of the Arts the University of Melbourne. He is the co-Artistic Director of The Theatre of Others. He is an UNESCO designated master teacher of mask work. He has been an actor-director-writer-teacher in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Australia, Malaysia, India, and Indonesia since 1992. He is the Southeast Asian and Australian Regional Director of the Fitzmaurice Institute. He is aCertified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework and Integrative Studies Practitioner. He specializes in Clown, Mask, and Intercultural Movement Hybrids. He recently worked with Jonathan Majors creating his role of Kang the Conqueror in Antman III (Marvel Films).
