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Ted Sluberski, Budi Miller, and Taylor Barfield in Residence this Fall

Acclaimed acting coach, Ted Sluberski, multi-disciplinary artist and teacher Budi Miller, and dramaturg Taylor Barfield will join The Actors Center’s Resident Company for the first time this fall for a series of artist development workshops focused on performance on-camera and embodying imagination through mask.

For the past 20 years Ted Sluberski has worked as an acting coach primarily in film and television. He has collaborated with actors in every genre from Studio features to Indie film and Streaming series to network series. The same question always starts the work: “What do you want to do with the role?”

Prior to full-time coaching Ted worked at ICM, then was a Casting Director for 14 years, followed by running the Actors and Directors Workshops at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Ted also directed the ABC Talent Showcase for 14 years, and taught at NYU’s Stonestreet and Atlantic Studios.

Upcoming projects include Superman, Gladiator 2, SNL 1975, Beef Season 2, The Gilded Age, Fight Night, The Diplomat, Brilliant Minds, Will Trent, Gen V and currently available to stream May/December, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fellow Travelers, Julia, Mending the Line, We Were the Lucky Ones amongst many.

Dr. Budi Miller is the former Head of Acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne (UoM), Australia (the first black person to hold this position at one of the top 3 drama schools in Australia). He is the Co-Artistic Director of The Theatre of Others; a Lead Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework, a certified integrative studies practitioner; and an UNESCO designated master teacher of mask work. He teaches acting through Balinese Performing Art Training (BPAT) with Mask Work, Fitzmaurice Voicework, Michael Chekhov, Clown, PEM, Viewpoints, and Grotowski. He holds a B.F.A. in theatre from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a Ph.D. in Practice-as-Research from the University of Melbourne.

He has been an actor-director-writer-teacher in the United States, Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, and Indonesia since 1992. He is a Balinese mask dancer and the first teacher to bring Fitzmaurice Voicework to Denmark, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Malaysia, China, and Indonesia.

He coached Michelle Williams for her Academy Award-nominated performance in Ang Lee’s movie Brokeback Mountain; Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country: HBO, The Harder They Fall: Netflix, Ant-Man III: Marvel, Creed III: MGM, Magazine Dreams: Tall Street Productions); and works extensively with Julian Elijah Martinez (Wu-Tang: An American Saga: Hulu). He has had the privilege of coaching and inspiring actors in many mediums: Broadway, HBO, Marvel Films, Netflix, Showtime, major international film markets, and theatres around the world.

He has been on the faculties of The Victorian College of the Arts UoM (2017-2023), The Chautauqua Theater Company (2004-2018), and LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore (2009-2017). He has taught at Yale School of Drama, The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, The Actors Center, Wayne State (MFA), The New School (MFA), SUNY Purchase College, University of Southern California, The Bill Esper Studio, Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts, The National Theatre Institute, Howard University, Western Michigan University, The National University of Singapore, The Queensland Theatre Company (Brisbane), Curtin University (Perth), and the Michael Chekhov Conference 2002.

He was the Executive Director of the International Antonin Artaud Fringe Theatre Festival 2008.  He was a featured presenter at the International VASTA conference in Mexico City in 2010 and London in 2014. He was the conference director for the first VASTA conference in Asia (Singapore) in 2017.

Dr. Taylor Barfield is a dramaturg, writer, and theater artist from Baltimore, MD. He served as the Acting Literary Manager at Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, CT and the Literary Manager at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ. Taylor currently works as a freelance dramaturg and consultant working with organizations such as the Guthrie, BMG, Portland Center Stage, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, and Yale Repertory Theatre.

Taylor received his B.A. in Molecular/Cellular Biology and English Literature from Johns Hopkins University and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where he earned his M.F.A. and D.F.A. in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. His scholarly work explores how contemporary Black American playwrights re-imagine and re-stage Black theater history. His writing has been published in VultureTDF Stages, and the Marginalia Review of Books. He is currently an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch.