My mother took me to plays when I was a kid, so I'll blame her.
I started acting when I was 14 in Miami. First there was some community theatre, then some plays in school, and after that, I was hooked for good. Since then, I’ve never considered any other path in life.
Carnegie-Mellon University was the first college to offer degrees in Acting (called Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1914), and it was where I chose to study my craft. There I built a strong professional foundation, and I began to realize that we never stop learning and re-learning our lessons as actors. So, I’ve been in one acting class or another for most of my adult life. I’ve been teaching acting for over 20 years now, and I realize that I’m fortunate to learn so much about acting from my students as they learn themselves.
After training at CMU, I started my career in New York.
I worked for the New York Shakespeare Festival in “Romeo and Juliet”, “Macbeth”, and “As You Like It” at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway. All three plays directed by Oscar winner, Estelle Parsons. In NY, some of the other plays I was in included: “King John”, “Twelfth Night”, and “The Golem” for the NYSF at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. In addition to those, I acted in shows at Soho Rep, The Kitchen, La Mama, and I was a company member of The Working Theater.
While I was chasing my dream of working as a stage actor in NY, I had some luck landing film and TV jobs. I was cast in “Law & Order”, “Lonesome Dove”, “Fletch Lives”, “Jacknife”, “The Trial of Bernhard Goetz”, some soaps and commercials, and the movie that helped me move to Los Angeles, “Lock Up”.
At first In LA, I worked primarily on camera. There were roles in TV shows like “Murphy Brown”, “LA Law”, “ER”, “Walker, Texas Ranger”, “Cheers”, “Star Trek: TNG”, “Star Trek: DS9”, “NYPD Blue”, and movies such as: “Speed”, “Species”, “Doc Hollywood” and “The American President”. I've made about 80 appearances on TV and in Movies over the years.
Then after 4 years in Los Angeles I finally started acting on stage again, thanks to my wife's suggestion.
In addition to the plays I’ve worked on in Los Angeles, I’ve gone back to NY and other cities to appear on stage. These include performances at Cleveland Playhouse in the World Stage Premiere of “On The Waterfront”, “Scapin” at Portland Stage Company. directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, Great Lakes Theatre, TheatreWorks and the Aurora Theatre in the SF Bay area. In 2011 I went back to NY to work at Shakespeare in Central Park for the first time in 23 years. It was a great summer where I was in “Measure for Measure” directed by David Esbjornson, and “All’s Well That Ends Well” directed by Tony winner, Daniel Sullivan.
In LA I’ve worked on stage at some wonderful theaters. As a company member of Pacific Resident Theatre I was in “Boo: An Evening of Ghost Stories”, “The Shadow of a Gunman”, “Hogan’s Goat” and “Ardele”. At The Blank Theatre I was in “The Cradle Will Rock”, which won the Best Musical Production of the Year Award from the LA Weekly. We also recorded a cast album of that show. Also for The Blank, “Hello Again” and the original Bill Clinton era musical revue, “Starr Struck”. At the Ahmanson Theatre I was in “Romeo and Juliet” directed by Sir Peter Hall. Most of my stage work in LA has been with The New American Theatre (Formerly Circus Theatricals), where I am an Associate Artist/Teacher. I’ve been in over 20 productions with NAT: “Julius Caesar”, “As You Like It”, “Taming of the Shrew”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Twelfth Night”, "Macbeth: Revisited", “The Cherry Orchard”, “The Adding Machine”, “Tartuffe”, "Uncle Vanya", and several original plays: “Safe”, “Bedfellows”, “63 Trillion”, “Man.Gov” and “More Lies About Jerzy” among them.
I’ve been teaching and coaching privately and in classes for over 20 years. For many years I taught On-Camera acting classes for the David Kagen School of Film Acting. For the New American Theatre, I’ve taught Scene Study and Acting Technique classes.
I’ve been living in Riverside since 2008 after my wife, Rabbi Suzanne Singer took a job leading Temple Beth El. After all the years of commuting, I’ve opened a private studio in downtown Riverside, where I teach ongoing weekly On-Camera acting classes, and coach everyone from beginners to professionals.