Nancy
Kawalek is a New York theatre-trained actress whose credits include Strider
on Broadway, as well as several leading roles Off Broadway, including a
one-woman show, Alice Without, which
she also co-authored. Performing in regional theatre, Nancy has been privileged
to work with directors such as Frank Galati, JoAnne Akalaitis and Dennis Zacek.
At the Ensemble Theatre Company, she played Doris in The Loman Family Picnic. A graduate of Northwestern University with
degrees in Theatre and Performance Studies, Nancy honed her improvisational
skills with Chicago’s distinguished SecondCity . She has acted in film,
television and numerous commercials, and has been heard in the acclaimed Selected
Shorts series on National Public Radio. Nancy is also a regular performer
with Speaking of Stories and Santa
Barbara Theatre of the Air. Among her credits as a director is the
documentary film, Lost and Found. Nancy
is a Studio Professor in Film and Media Studies and Media Arts and Technology at
UCSB, where she teaches acting, directing and the adaptation of literature for
the stage. She is also the founder/director of the Professional Artists Lab (www.proartslab.ucsb.edu)
– a dynamic artistic laboratory in which new works
in film, theatre, television, radio and multi-media performance are created and
developed – and the STAGE Project (www.cnsi.ucsb.edu/stage),
a collaboration between the Lab and the California Nanosystems
Institute (CNSI). STAGE (Scientists, Technologists
and Artists Generating Exploration) is
comprised of both an international script competition that awards a $10,000
prize to the best new play about science and technology, and a developmental lab
where professional artists create multi-media theatre pieces in which science
and technology play prominent roles in content and/or form.
Nancy
Kawalek is a New York theatre-trained actress whose credits include Strider
on Broadway, as well as several leading roles Off Broadway, including a
one-woman show, Alice Without, which
she also co-authored. Performing in regional theatre, Nancy has been privileged
to work with directors such as Frank Galati, JoAnne Akalaitis and Dennis Zacek.
At the Ensemble Theatre Company, she played Doris in The Loman Family Picnic. A graduate of Northwestern University with
degrees in Theatre and Performance Studies, Nancy honed her improvisational
skills with Chicago’s distinguished Second
City . She has acted in film,
television and numerous commercials, and has been heard in the acclaimed Selected
Shorts series on National Public Radio. Nancy is also a regular performer
with Speaking of Stories and Santa
Barbara Theatre of the Air. Among her credits as a director is the
documentary film, Lost and Found. Nancy
is a Studio Professor in Film and Media Studies and Media Arts and Technology at
UCSB, where she teaches acting, directing and the adaptation of literature for
the stage. She is also the founder/director of the Professional Artists Lab (