FACULTY Directory

With a passion for the performing arts and a devotion to developing and inspiring new talent, there is no better person to creatively and artistically lead AMDA than David Martin. As a producer, director, actor and teacher, Martin has done it all, from staging New York, London and regional productions of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Ibsen and Wilde, to producing numerous television shows with actors John Houseman, James Earl Jones, Edward Herrmann and Sam Waterson, to gala events such as Broadway Plays Washington at the Kennedy Center featuring Beatrice Arthur, Pearl Bailey, Ellen Burstyn and Debbie Reynolds. In his early days at AMDA, Martin produced and directed many critically acclaimed fundraising productions that helped establish the school’s reputation as a world-class performing arts conservatory, includingSing Happy, a tribute to John Kander and Fred Ebb starring Liza Minnelli, Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera; You’re the Top, a tribute to Cole Porter featuring Kevin Kline, Dick Cavett and Lucie Arnaz; and Hey, Look Me Over, a tribute to Cy Coleman starring Neil Simon, Imogene Coca and Mel Torme. Then, in the late 1970s, AMDA founder Philip H. Burton passed the torch on to Martin, who took over as Artistic Director. In the three decades since, Martin has overseen significant expansion, transforming the school into a thriving, fully accredited institution with campuses in both New York and Los Angeles.

Fight director. Carrie has been choreographing, teaching and performing fights for the last 12 years. She has worked in TV, film, off-Broadway, regional and NYC indie theatre and has taught stage combat workshops around the country. She has trained in Taekwando, Hapkido, Kendo and many Western historical swordfighting styles and spent several years as a professional actor, singer and stunt performer. Fight choreography credits include Cherry Lane, PS 122, the Wild Project, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, Boomerang Theatre Co., Treasure Island Casino (Las Vegas) and the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. She spent six years as the founder and artistic director of the award-winning Lady Cavalier Theatre Company. Other stage combat teaching credits include Yale School of Drama, NYU, the School for Film and Television, Open Jar, Emerald Curtain and Broadway Classroom. Website: www.carriebrewer.net.

Tim is an actor, stuntman, and fight director, as well as a teacher. Some of his performing highlights include: Film – Thor, Open House, Resident Evil: Extinction, Head Hunter, Street Warrior for Spike TV, critically acclaimed short Breach; Television – Boardwalk Empire, Monk, Chuck, General Hospital, The District, Without a Trace, One Life to Live; Theatre – LA Opera, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Pasadena Shakespeare Company, Kings County Shakespeare Company, Lantern Theater Company, The Mint Theatre, and 68 Cent Theater. He has also performed in live stunt shows for Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios in both Hollywood and Osaka, Japan. Currently Tim teaches Stage Combat for the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles. He also teaches stage combat and film fighting with the Los Angeles Fight Academy, and the martial art Budo Taijutsu at the Muzosa Bujinkan Dojo - Los Angeles.

Michelle made her Broadway debut in Chicago: The Musical. She played Sheila in the national and European tours of A Chorus Line and appeared in the national tours of La Cage aux Folles, Grease and Damn Yankees. Regionally, she was critically acclaimed as Velma in Chicago and has performed in Anything Goes, Brigadoon, The Full Monty and many others.  Michelle recently directed Anything Goes, Guys and Dolls, and Annie for the Helen Hayes Youth Theatre in Nyack, NY. Yoga and dance instructor for pre-K through 6th grade, taught musical theatre at NYU’s Playwrights Horizons program. Website: www.skylineartists.com.

Teacher, actor, director. Voice coach in the United Kingdom and the United States.

A native of Virginia, Anne has acted professionally with many regional theater companies on both the east and west coasts, holding major and ensemble roles in contemporary and classical plays and musicals. She is also a trained vocalist specializing in jazz standards and classic Broadway repertoire. Favorite Roles: Ophelia in Hamlet(Temple Theatre, NC); Laertes in another, non-traditional production of Hamlet(Barter Theatre, VA); Actress 3 in The Dining Room(Centre Stage SC); Vera and The Ghost of Emily Dickinson in The Psychic Life of Savages(Los Angeles Theatre Center/Savage Players); Elena and Natalya in The Bear and The Proposal  (Savage Players, Los Angeles); Aoede in Mythical Playground(Broad Stage, Santa Monica); The Dead Woman in The Dead Womanworkshop (The Vagrancy, Los Angeles); Beth March in Little Women, The Musical(Temple Theatre); Anya in The Cherry Orchard, dir. Mel Shapiro (UCLA Little Theatre); Marian Paroo in The Music Man(Actors Repertory Theater of Simi, CA); Judy/Mrs. 3 in The Adding Machine, dir. J. Ed Araiza of SITI Company (Freud Theatre, UCLA); and Beverly in Is There Life After High School? The Musical(Los Angeles Theatre Center). Teaching Experience: Anne is passionate about teaching, as well as acting. She began her theatrical career by participating in two regional tours of educational theater pieces (with The Barter Players and Hampstead Stage Company), performing for packed cafegymnatoriums from New Hampshire to Texas and leading daily talkbacks and drama workshops with elementary, middle, high school, and college students. Shortly thereafter, Anne completed an educational theater internship at Flat Rock Playhouse (NC) and did additional teaching/outreach work with South Carolina Children's Theatre before becoming an undergraduate acting instructor, first at UCLA, and then at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in Los Angeles. Although she most loves teaching college-aged students, Anne remains actively involved in youth arts education and outreach programs: she recently taught with Discovery OnStage in Burbank and is also a founding member and Education Partner with ActOut!, a theater outreach program run by the Los Angeles-based theater company, The Vagrancy: http://thevagrancy.com/act-out/. Publishing credits: In her spare time, Anne writes poetry. Most recently, her poems have been published by Illuminations: An International Journal of Contemporary Writing; 491 Magazine; Word Riot; The Medulla Review; Spillway Magazine; Constellations: A Journal of Poetry and Fiction; and WomenArts Quarterly Journal. Since writing, directing, and acting in April Snow on Hokie Stone(a thesis project based on the lives and activism of survivors of the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre), Anne continues to be interested in developing original, poetry-based performance pieces.

Acting Credits include:THEATRE Highlights: PRIVATE LIVES (Sibyl) International City Theatre; LEND ME A TENOR (Maggie), Summer Repertory Theatre;THE CRUCIBLE (Abigail) David Storck; CYMBELINE (Imogen) Great River Shakes. Festival; THE HAMLET PROJECT (Ophelia), If/Then Ensemble; UNCLE VANYA (Sonya), Keith Fowler; TWELFTH NIGHT (Viola), Winifred Smith Hall; DANCING AT LUGHNASA (Agnes), May Studio Theatre; THE CHERRY ORCHARD (Charlotta Ivanovna), R. Scott Lank; NOISES OFF! (Poppy) R. Scott Lank. FILM: TOUCHED(Lead), Dir. Lisa Jeanrichard; BLUEBERRYCORNELIUS (Supporting), Dir. Brian Smee. NEW MEDIA: CHECK-OFF (Lead), Ehrlich Entertainment; HOWTO FAKE IT IN AMERICA (Lead), Dir. Elise Holowiki; CAR JOCKEYS (Lead), Dir.  Kyle Retter; WALKING IN L.A. (Supporting), Dir. Keith Jordan. Teaching Experience: Speech I, Speech II and Voice III, NYFA; Voice and Movement I and II, New York Film Academy; Introduction to Acting and Voice/Speech for Theatre, U.C. Irvine.

David Caldwell was the music director of Forbidden Broadway for five years. He conducted the American premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden and recently music-directed The Road to Qatar at Lyric Stage in Irving, Texas. He is the composer and lyricist of All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Uh-Oh Here Comes Christmas and Third Wish, all based on the writings of Robert Fulghum.

Musical director, vocal coach, operatic stage director. Broadway: The Producers, keyboard. NYC Opera, world premiere chorus, Haroun and the Sea of Stories; La Fanciulla Del West; Cendrillon. Performances: Cosi fan tutte (Don Alfonso), Mikado (Koko), Yeomen of the Guard (Jack Point), Patience (Bunthorne). Teaching experience: Juilliard School Drama Division, NYU Tisch School, CAP21, Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington Professional Actor Training Program.