| Richard Seyd | Maura Vincent | Daniel Gamburg | Saul Kotzubei |
James Cutts |
Most recently, Richard directed A Reckoning with Jonathan Pryce in London at the SoHo Theatre. Previously, Richard directed a Feast of Fools (with Geoff Hoyle) at the Marines Memorial Theatre and previously at LaJolla Playhouse. Other regional theatre credits include: Berkeley Repertory Theatre: Dinner with Friends (Bay Area Critics Circle Award), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Bay Area Critics Circle Award), Collected Stories (Garland Award from Backstage West), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A View From the Bridge. He has also received Drama-Logue, Backstage West and Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for his direction of Cloud Nine, About Face, Noises Off, Oleanna, A View From the Bridge, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
From 1992 - 1997 he served as Associate Artistic Director of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. For ACT, he directed The Learned Ladies, Dario Fo's The Pope And The Witch, Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Oleanna, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Othello, The Matchmaker, and A Streetcar Named Desire.
In the 1980's Richard was Associate Producing Director of the Eureka Theatre, and directed many productions for the company including Cloud Nine, The Wash, Threepenny Opera, and Dario Fo's About Face.
Other directing credits include The Pickle Family Circus (London Tour), King Lear at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, As You Like It for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, A Midsummer Nights Dream for the California Shakespeare Festival, The Lion In Winter at La Mirada Theatre, Present Laughter and The Presentment for the Pasadena Playhouse, and productions at the Classic Stage Company and the Wonderhorse Theatre's in New York. He is the director of an award-winning 35 mm short film entitled Brass Tacks.
Richard attended school at Dartington Hall (England). He received his Theatre Training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and acted with the affiliated Old Vic Company. He became a founding member of Stage Two - a company based on the works of Jersey Grotowski that was begun by James Roose-Evans. He then received his Advance Teaching Degree in Drama from North-Western Polytechnic of London.
In 1968, he co-founded Red Ladder Theatre, Britain's first professional, political theatre collective, now 35 years old. He acted, directed and produced for the company for seven years. Upon moving to San Francisco in 1975, Richard taught at the Cultural Training Center. From here, directing became his main focus as detailed above. In the early 1990's, Richard returned to teaching privately for professional actors in the Bay Area. It was here that he began to develop his individual and unique approaches to acting training. His approaches are detailed in the area of "techniques". Richard holds classes for professional actors in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Maura is thrilled to be a part of Seydways Acting Studio. Maura received her degrees in Drama from Catholic University of America (BA in Drama) and UC Irvine (MFA in Acting). She began teaching acting while attending graduate school at UC Irvine. Upon graduation, Maura joined the faculty of UCI and taught within the undergraduate program for four years. She left teaching to pursue her own acting career in Los Angeles. Her most recent theatrical credits include Wonderful World (Laguna Playhouse); Sir Peter Hall's productions of Measure for Measure and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Ahmanson Theater); The Presentment (Pasadena Playhouse); Mrs. Warren's Profession and Othello (American Conservatory Theater); Urban Folk Tales (Coast Playhouse); Romeo & Juliet (San Francisco Shakespeare); Club Termina (Indecent Theater-LATC); A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, All's Well That Ends Well, and Antony & Cleopatra (California Shakespeare Festival); and Skylight (understudy - Mark Taper Forum). Maura has had a successful television career including guest appearances on: Strong Medicine, Judging Amy, Family Law, The Practice, King of Queens, When Billie Beat Bobby, Fantasy Island, Almost Perfect, Love & War, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Breaking Through. But her real accomplishment is her life with Richard, Raina and Keira.
Daniel has been making films and working on commercial productions over 15 years. He received his Bachelors and a Masters Degrees in film production from San Francisco State University. Daniel is a recipient of numerous awards for his film work, including the Robin Eickman Memorial Scholarship and was chosen as the West Coast Regional Finalist for the Student Academy Awards. He taught film production, documentary, and theory at the Academy of Art University. In 2004 he taught a directing workshop at Pixar Animation Studios. Daniel was the Artistic Director of Theater and Film Lab SF (formerly the Bennett Lab) 2003 - 04. In 2000 Daniel co-founded Barewitness Productions, an ensemble film company, which has produced over 20 short films, some of which have played at festivals in the US and Europe. His first documentary film, “Tsipa and Volf” received the Michael Moore award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival for best short film. The film aired on KQED TV, and played at major festivals around the world. In 1996 Daniel produced and edited “Basil” a short film staring Edward Asner, which was acquired by Finish Television and Encore Media. In 2004 Daniel completed his first feature film, “IPO”, which premiered at Slamdance and in San Francisco at the 20th Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema. NetFlix currently distributes “IPO”. Daniel has also worked on corporate productions for companies such as Oracle and Wells Fargo. You can learn more about Daniel by going to http://www.danielgamburg.com/. .
Saul teaches workshops, ongoing voice classes, and private clients in Los Angeles. He is the lead trainer for the two-year Fitzmaurice Voicework Teacher Certification Program.
A performer with a masters degree in Buddhist Studies from Columbia University, and varied acting training that includes a year studying clown with Philippe Gaulier in England, Saul has taught Fitzmaurice Voicework at NYU’S CAP 21 Studio, New York’s Actors Center, and in workshops in Los Angeles, NYC, Boston, and San Francisco, as well as in London, Paris, and Santiago, Chile.
In addition to his voice teaching, Saul has done a wide range of communication-related teaching and consulting: he has taught theatre games to Cirque du Soliel in Las Vegas, consulted for the municipal government of Prague in their transition to democracy, done conflict resolution at a U.S. Zen center, taught presentation skills for business executives in Chile, and taught creativity workshops in Russia.
In 2006, Saul will be a featured presenter at the Voice Foundation's medical symposium: Care of the Professional Voice.
Saul is Catherine Fitzmaurice's son. He was a member of the first group to go through the Fitzmaurice Voicework Teacher Certification Program, in 1998.
If you're interested in Saul's writing check out his latest article To Breathe or not to Breathe
After graduating from UC Davis with a degree in Dramatic Art, James moved to London to work in theatre and improv. From a background rooted in stage, he has grown into virtually every aspect of on-camera work. James has extensive experience in most media and venues having worked in Film, Television, and Theatre. James has also seen success in about a dozen National commercials and too many industrials to name. James first began teaching at UC Davis when he was a member of a Sacramento comedy Troupe. Since then he has taught acting to adults and children both here and abroad. He has also remained active in sketch comedy and improvisation with such groups as Nothing to Hide, The Four Knobs, Improv'O'Rama and The Management. He's worked as a comedy and script writer since 1995, adding comedy and life to films and corporate events of such clients as Old Navy, Sun Microsystems, Banana Republic, Gap, Inc., Siebel, Bay Networks, and Genentech.
James has also worked in casting, and draws from his years of experience directing casting sessions. James taught commercial acting and audition techniques at San Francisco Acting Academy since 1999, and Film Acting, Comercial Acting and On Camera Auditioning at the Richard Seyd studios since we began. James has helped hundreds of stage actors and begining actors make a successful leap into the On-Camera World. You can check out his column "the working actor" at SFCasting.com.