Heidi Miami Marshall, acting coach, director, and casting director, and Beth McGuire, Juilliard and long-time Yale faculty member will join The Actors Center’s Resident Company this month for a series of artist development workshops focused on film acting and idiolect.
Heidi Miami Marshall’s career has spanned over 25 years as an acting coach, film and theater director, casting director, and acting studio owner. Her entire career informs her director’s eye and influences her aesthetic for working with actors.
Originally, Heidi was the lead casting director at Telsey + Co. for the Broadway musical Rent, as well as for 70+ projects in theater, film, TV, commercial, and voiceover. Now, as owner of a top acting studio, she’s coached countless actors into roles for film, TV, and theater. She is frequently hired by directors and production studios to prep actors for auditions, screen tests and performance. Heidi has expert understanding in all the layered needs of casting and what gets actors hired. Her acting clients have appeared on screens big and small, from network TV to indie film to blockbuster hits. Her clients’ range of talent includes new actors to Emmy award-winning.
As a director, Heidi has received awards and fellowships for her directing in theater and film, most notably AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and The Drama League. Recent films directed by Heidi include S.P.I.C., Muscle, and upcoming feature American Bubble (written by Johnny Sánchez and Khalil Kain, and starring Jade Pettyjohn, Julianne Nicholson, Dave East, J. Alphonse Nicholson).
Beth has worked as a vocal and accent/dialect coach both on and off Broadway, in regional theatre, and in film and television for over 30 years. She was on the Yale School of Drama faculty for over 20 years and recently joined the faculty of Juilliard Drama Division. Beth lives in NYC and has a private practice teaching and coaching. Her book, African Accents: A Workbook for Actors, is the first practical comprehensive analysis of the genre.
Some of Beth’s most recent theater projects include, He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box by Adrienne Kennedy, at TFNA, directed by Evan Yionoulis, and Twelfth Night at the YRT, directed by Carl Cofield. One of her favorite projects on Broadway was A Streetcar Named Desire with Blair Underwood, Nicole Ari Parker, and Daphne Rubin-Vega, directed by Emily Mann. Some of her most recent media projects include Us directed by Jordan Peele, Marvel’s Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, both directed by Ryan Coogler, and the video game, Marvel’s Avengers: War for Wakanda. Beth also co-teaches a training program for professionals and rising professionals in accent, dialect and phonology coaching with her colleague Jane Guyer Fujita.
