Teachers and Yale faculty members Jessica Wolf and Grace Zandarski return to The Actors Center to open the 2024-25 season. The pair of faculty are in residence leading a workshop devoted to body, breath, and voice.
Jessica Wolf, AmSAT, has been teaching the Alexander Technique for 45 years and is currently a Professor Emerita in the Practice of Acting at Yale School of Drama, where she established the first Alexander Training curriculum in 1998. She is also a certified Laban Movement Analyst. Jessica is the founder of Jessica Wolf’s Art of Breathing, a certification program for Alexander Technique teachers based in her own technique, which integrates principles and procedures developed from her work in respiratory science and education. In 2013, Jessica published the Art of Breathing: Collected Articles and created the first three‐dimensional animated film of the respiratory system, which has since been translated into Spanish, Chinese, and German. She is currently in development of her next book.
Other faculty appointments include the Aspen Music Festival, The Juilliard School, SUNY Purchase, Circle in the Square Theater School, Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence College, and the Verbier Music Festival. Jessica coaches performing artists who appear on‐ and off‐Broadway, and in films and television. Her work is recognized internationally and she travels giving workshops to performers, teachers, and healthcare providers.
Grace Zandarski is a Professor in the Practice of Acting and Associate Chair of the Acting Program at Yale School of Drama where she has taught Voice since 2002 and currently serves as Head of Voice and Text. Her NYC coaching credits include Mike Nichols’ Death of a Salesman and Betrayal, Blackbird, and Cabaret on Broadway, Off- Broadway: The Dance and the Railroad (Signature, May Adrales, dir.), The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide… (The Public, Michael Greif dir.), Homebody/Kabul (BAM, Frank Galati, dir.). Yale Rep: Caucasian Chalk Circle ( Liz Diamond, dir.), Hamlet starring Paul Giamatti (James Bundy, dir.), among many other Yale Rep and Yale Drama School productions, as well as individual coaching credits for actors appearing on and off Broadway, in film, and on television. Grace has taught master classes for the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Lab. She was named Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework in 1998 in the first certification program, and has also taught at The Studio NY, A.R.T./MXAT, and Fordham University.
