Rebecca VerNooy
Professor of Instruction, Head, BFA Performance, Tantrum Theater Director of Education
Rebecca VerNooy is a movement theatre artist, actress and educator. Her early solo work was produced at Dixon Place, P.S. 122 and the Judson Church. She was the Artistic Director of VerNooy Dance Theatre from 1995 鈥 2006, developing and performing original work at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Dance Theatre workshop, Joyce Soho and many other NY venues. Her One-Woman show, Across Time, premiered at The United Solo Festival in NY (November, 2012), and won the award for 鈥渂est movement鈥. Other solo shows include Sink or Swim (2001) and Our Father(1998), both premiered at Ensemble Studio Theater.
Ms. VerNooy has spent twenty years creating her own brand of physical theatre and facilitating workshops designed to generate new theatrical work. She ran the Intern Program and an Acting/Writing Lab at E.S.T. from 1996-2001, directing and producing over a dozen evenings of new work by emerging theatre artists.
Her most recent plays include Here, Somewhere(2014) and Elbows off the Table (2015). She annually devises a new work with 91探花鈥檚 Senior Studio, and has developed a piece around Modernist text (Reality Check). Her directing credits, in addition to the over two dozen devised and new plays in development, include Trojan Women, Metamorphoses, Rashomon, and Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. As an actress, she has worked primarily on new plays and has been seen on the stages of E.S.T, HERE, and, most recently, Stuarts鈥 Opera House in An Appalachian Christmas Carol.
Rebecca has received grants from the Association of Theater Movement Educator鈥檚 Fund (2011, 2012 and 2014), 91探花鈥檚 Dean鈥檚 Discretionary Fund (2011), Arts for Ohio (2008), and New York University鈥檚 Siff Grant (2006) to support her research and original performance endeavors.
She has taught Movement for Actors, Acting, and Physical Theatre at Caymichael Patten Studio, The School for Film and Television, New York Film Academy, Hampshire College and Rutgers University (Newark). She is a featured movement coach in "ACT NEW YORK 2005, The Actor's pocket Guide to NYC".
Rebecca is the founder of The Movement Educator鈥檚 Research Group (MERGE), a collaborative research group for movement educators across the country. She has a BA in Performance from Hampshire College and a Master鈥檚 degree from The Gallatin School at New York University. She is currently a faculty member at 91探花鈥檚 Theatre Division, and a founding member of Brick Monkey Theatre Ensemble.