MARJORIE BALLENTINE
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Acting Coach

Talent Roster

Developing the Actor

Artistic Director/Founder

Credentials

Directorial Highlights

Acting Coach

Stella Adler's protégé, sought-after coach, and critically acclaimed theater director, with close to 20 years of experience.

Marjorie inspires actors by individually working with each student at his or her level -- from movie star to series regular to Broadway actor to students fresh out of school. Marjorie's youthful exuberance inspires her actors and demands from them the work ethic of a seasoned professional.

Since arriving in Los Angeles in the fall of 2003, Marjorie has both coached and placed actors as leads on the following movies and hit series: Mission Impossible III, Prison Break, My Name Is Earl, West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, Without a Trace, Cold Case Files, The Jury, CSI Miami, Wedding Crashers, Capers, and Hard Luck.


Talent Roster

Gary Oldman, Victor Rasuk (Raising Victor Vargas, The Lords of Dogtown), Nadine Velazquez (My Name Is Earl), Mario Cantone (Sex and the City), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break, Transformers), Krysten Ritter (Gilmore Girls, Mona Lisa Smile, Veronica Mars), Shawn Reaves (Tru Calling), Barney Cheng (Mission Impossible III, Hollywood Ending, Capers), Tasha Smith (Nip/Tuck, Daddy's Little Girl), Olga Merediz (Man of La Mancha, Broadway; Music of the Heart), Bitsie Tulloch (West Wing, Cold Case Files), James Hiroyuki Liao (Song in M. Butterfly, Arena Stage; Guest star in upcoming Hard Luck with Wesley Snipes and Cybill Shepherd), Kieren van dan Blink (Without A Trace), Alex Dinelaris (Playwright. Nominated for a Lucille Lortel (Best Musical) and two Drama Desk Awards [Book & Lyrics] for his work on the Off-Broadway hit, Zanna, Don't! Currently working with Danny Aiello on his newest play, Folding the Monster), ... to be continued ...


Developing the Actor

Marjorie Ballentine is a highly respected acting teacher and director, who believes in the craft of acting - not in "chance." "I'm interested in an actor who wants a career, not a 5-minute fly-by-night spot on the latest hit series. Hollywood demands professionalism, toughness, and range. An actor must enter the audition with utter confidence in his choices - and the ability to change them on a dime if requested - with equally talented, interesting choices. Craft! Craft! Craft! It always comes back to craft!"


Artistic Director/Founder

Founder of The Marjorie Ballentine Studio in New York City, where she created a new model for acting training: the first of its kind in the United States. In an effort to marry two great styles of acting, Marjorie hired two of the top casting directors from New York and the finest teachers from two of the most prominent acting schools in the world: RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art).

The Marjorie Ballentine Studio combined the intuitive strengths of the American actor with the classical size and power of traditional British training. The following were members of her faculty:

  • Stuart Howard, Casting Director (Chicago, The Graduate, Fosse ...)
  • Deborah Aquila, Casting Director (The Illusionist, The Shawshank Redemption, Mission Impossible II ...)
  • Ilan Reichel, Head of Alexander Technique at RADA
  • Clare Davidson, Head of Voice and Speech at LAMDA
  • Other faculty included Ben Bennison, Head of Movement at RADA; Mona Stiles, Alexander Technique at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU; and Walton Wilson, Head of Voice and Speech at Yale University

Professional and Academic Credentials

  • Trained extensively as an actor and apprenticed as a teacher directly under the tutelage of the legendary Stella Adler.
  • Trained as an actor with the renowned Lee Strasberg and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
  • Faculty Member of Stella Adler Conservatory (NYC) from 1988 to 1991, where she taught Technique, Scene Study, and Script Interpretation. As a member of the administration staff, she also helped design and develop the curriculum.

Directorial Highlights

  • Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie
  • Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class
  • Clifford Odets' Rocket to the Moon
  • Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom
  • Robert Harling's Steel Magnolias
  • August Strindberg's The Creditors
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    © Copyright Marjorie Ballentine 2006, all rights reserved.