Resident Artists

Arin Arbus (Director) Resident Director, TFANA, and the company’s former Associate Artistic Director, for whom she directed Denis Johnson’s Des Moines, The Winter’s Tale, The Skin of Our Teeth (Obie Award), Strindberg’s The Father and Ibsen’s Doll’s House in rep, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Othello, and most recently the critically acclaimed The Merchant of Venice starring John Douglas Thompson. She directed Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nom. for best revival) with Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon on Broadway. Arbus spent several years making theatre with prisoners in association with Rehabilitation Through the Arts and in 2018, she directed an adaptation of The Tempest in a refugee camp in Greece for The Campfire Project.

Cicely Berry (Deceased; Former Distinguished Resident Artist) was the Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She was invited by Trevor Nunn to take over voice work with the actors in 1960. This work has developed considerably, and there is now a four-member voice team working in the Company. Cicely worked with major theatre companies all over the world: she worked regularly with Nos Do Morro, a company based in Viidigal, one of Rio’s favellas. She made a series of videos, Working Shakespeare, with top English and American actors. She had a very close and happy association with TFANA over many years. Cicely was awarded the CBE, Commander of the British Empire, in 2009 for her pioneering work in theatre.

Jack Doulin (Resident Casting Director) 

Jonathan Kalb (Resident Literary Advisor and Dramaturg) is a professor of theater at Hunter College, where he was Chair of the Theatre Department for six years, and an internationally acclaimed theater critic and scholar. A two-time winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, he has published five books on theater and has written for dozens of publications including The New York Times, The Village Voice, New York Press, The Nation and Salon.com. His book Great Lengths: Seven Works of Marathon Theater won the George Freedley Memorial Award for the outstanding theater book of 2012.

John Douglas Thompson (Distinguished Artist in Residence) Broadway: Jitney (Tony nomination), Carousel, A Time to Kill, Julius Caesar. Off-Broadway: The Merchant of Venice, The Father, A Doll’s House, Tamburlaine, Macbeth, Othello (Obie, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel and AUDELCO Awards), Antony and Cleopatra, Oroonoko (TFANA); Julius Caesar (NYSF); The Iceman Cometh (Obie, Drama Desk Awards; BAM); Satchmo at the Waldorf (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, NAACP Award; Westside Theater); The Emperor Jones (Drama League, Drama Desk nominations; Irish Rep), Hedda Gabler (NYTW). Regional: The Tempest (Commonwealth Shakespeare); Man in the Ring (Elliot Norton Award; Huntington Theater); Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Mark Taper Forum); Antony and Cleopatra (Hartford Stage); Red Velvet, Othello, Richard III (Shakespeare & Co.). Television: “The Gilded Age,” “Mare of Easttown,” “For Life.” Film: 355, The Letter Room, 21 Bridges, Let Them All Talk.

Andrew Wade (Resident Voice and Text Director) For Theatre for a New Audience: Notes from Underground, Hamlet and Chair. Head of Voice, RSC, 1990–2003. Assistant Voice Director, RSC, 1987–1990. Co-directed/devised “Journeys,” “Words, Words, Words,” “More Words” and “Lifespan” with Cicely Berry for BBCWorld Service, awarded Bronze Medal, International Radio Festival, New York, 2000. Verse Consultant, Shakespeare in Love. Andrew teaches, lectures and voice coaches internationally with particular associations with Stella Adler Studio, Delaware University, NTS Canada and Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis where he’s coached Two Gentlemen of Verona, Henry V, Antony and Cleopatra, Comedy of Errors, Othello, As You Like It, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Toronto/London: The Lord of the Rings. TV: “Triple Sensation,” 2007/2008. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2008: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Clay Cart.