Teachers
The staff of teachers at the BHP are all home-grown, trained personally by Milton in the BHP approach, and have a combined several hundred years of experience as students themselves at the BHP. All are professional actors, writers and/or directors, and are themselves pursuing the goals they are responsible for teaching.
| Milton Katselas |
Milton Katselas began his directing career in the 1960s with the original off-Broadway production of Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story. From there he has gone on to direct over sixty plays and eight feature films. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Butterflies are Free. Under his direction, Blythe Danner won the Tony Award, Eileen Heckart the Academy Award, and Bette Davis her only Emmy Award. Milton has directed such actors as Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Goldie Hawn, Christopher Walken, Burt Reynolds, George C. Scott, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, to name just a few.
Milton studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio and was mentored by such great film and stage directors as Elia Kazan and Joshua Logan. It was through these influences and his extensive directing experience that Milton ultimately created the technique that is taught at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
Milton is also an award-winning painter and sculptor, and has had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Tokyo. As an author, he has penned two books: Acting Class, his renowned book on acting technique, and Dreams Into Action, a New York Times bestseller about getting the career you want. Milton is also an architectural designer, and his LA-based firm has both renovated and built from scratch several Los Angeles homes.
A consummate artist, Milton is forever looking to unlock and rehabilitate the potential that is lying under the surface, not only in himself but also in everyone who crosses his path.
| Richard Lawson | Richard's Web Site |
Richard Lawson has to his credit an auspicious list of film, television and stage appearances. His first professional job was in the national company of the Pulitzer Prize winning No Place to Be Somebody. He has also starred in the Los Angeles drama critics award winning performances of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Streamers. Other productions include Fool for Love, Checkmates, Vision and Lovers, The Mighty Gents, The Talented Tenth, Hapgood, and The Exonerated.
Some of his films include Poltergeist, Streets of Fire, Stick, The Main Event, Coming Home, Audrey Rose, Wag the Dog, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Guess Who.
His vast television experience includes being a series regular on The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, Dynasty, and Chicago Story. Movies of the week like Jericho Mile, The Golden Moment and Johnnie Gibson, FBI, Pandora's Clock and Jackie's Back. He has also guest starred on such popular small-screen series as MacGyver, Wiseguy, Amen, Parenthood, St. Elsewhere, Picket Fences, Judging Amy, The Division and NYPD Blue to name a few. Lawson created the part of 'Lucas Barnes' on the soap opera All My Children.
From 1983 to 1994, Lawson helped to administrate and run the drug education, training, treatment and aftercare program for the National Basketball Association. Today he is a highly sought-after interventionist and continues to counsel people all over the country.
Lawson has been a teacher at the Beverly Hills Playhouse for twenty-five years and a student for thirty years.
| Chick Vennera |
Born in Herkimer, New York, Chick Vennera's career in entertainment had an early start. Beginning dance lessons at the age of three, piano at seven, clarinet and saxophone shortly thereafter, Chick found his passion at a very young age.
Chick continued his musical education throughout high school, singing and playing in nightclubs as well as school dances. Upon graduation, Chick left New York bound for California to study acting at the esteemed Pasadena Playhouse.
Two years later, Chick entered the Army where upon completing basic training he was assigned to the signal corps. It was while in the signal corps that Chick won the Third Army Entertainment Contest and was reassigned to Special Services and later the Third Army Soldier Show. Chick spent the balance of his military commitment singing, dancing and playing music for the troops.
After completing his military commitment Chick returned to the West Coast where he continued to work as a musician playing in various nightclubs in the Los Angeles area. It was during this time that he auditioned for the Academy Award winning choreographer Onna White who was choreographing Disney On Parade. Chick spent the next two years touring the United States, Canada and Mexico performing as a dancer, acrobat and clown portraying many Disney characters.
After the Disney tour, Chick worked with director/choreographer Joe Layton dancing and working as a back-up performer for Raquel Welch and the Sid and Marty Croft Review, in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe. During this time Chick went to New York to audition for a new show called "Grease". Chick won the roll of "Sonny" and performed first in the "Bus and Truck" Tour, and then later in the second National Tour. When "Grease" broke the record of longest running musical, Chick performed the roll of "Sonny" on Broadway.
After leaving the "Grease" tour, Chick again returned to Los Angeles where he began studying at the Beverly Hills Playhouse with acclaimed director and teacher Milton Katselas. For the next two years, Chick acted various rolls in film and television until he returned to New York to do the play "Jockeys" directed by Milton Katselas. Chick was awarded the Theater World Award for his role as "Angel" in "Jockeys".
Back in L.A., after "Jockeys", Chick starred in "Thank God It's Friday" where, as "Marv the Leather Man", he performed the now famous dance on seven cars in the parking lot of a Hollywood discothèque. Casting director Marion Dougherty, who had seen Chicks performance in "Jockey's", asked him to audition for the role of "Danny" opposite Richard Gere and Vanessa Redgrave in the WWII love story, "YANKS" directed by John Schlesinger.
This began Chick's work as an actor in more than 50 films, including "The Milagro Beanfield War" directed by Robert Redford. Chick's voice can be heard portraying characters in many animated television series, including Steven Spielberg's Emmy Award winning "Animaniacs", in which Chick created the voices for "Pesto" and "The God Pigeon".
In addition to acting, music, dance and voiceovers, Chick has written and directed for television, stage and film. Chick has also worked as a singer and songwriter for radio, television and film. Currently, Chick has expanded his resume to include teaching at the esteemed Beverly Hills Playhouse, where he is working for his old friend and mentor, Milton Katselas.
In addition to the Theater World Award, Chick has received the Golden Eagle Award and was part of the ensemble cast awarded the Daytime Emmy for "Animaniacs". Chick is a member of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences.
| Allen Barton | Allen's Web Site |
Allen Barton has been a student of the BHP since 1990 and currently serves as its CEO/Executive Director. He has been involved in BHP management since 1996, and has been on the teaching staff since 2002. He was the editor of both of Milton's books, Dreams Into Action and Acting Class.
Allen is a graduate of Harvard University, and has numerous L.A. stage, television and film credits. He currently works primarily as a writer/director, and helmed LA stage productions of About Faith (world premiere), Burn This, The Last Five Years, I Make You Laughing (world premiere), Pink Dot, as well as several short films. His first feature film screenplay, Real Music, was a top-three finalist in the 2005 CAPE New Writers Competition, and is currently in development.
Also a prize-winning classical pianist, Allen studied at New England Conservatory, was a summer fellow at the prestigious Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts, and has recorded four compact discs, currently available at the i-Tunes store and other major digital download services. He was a prize-winner in the 2002 Los Angeles Liszt Society Bi-Annual Competition and performs regular recitals in Los Angeles, New York, Boston and throughout New England, including 15 annual holiday concerts at the BHP's Skylight Theatre in Los Feliz and regular appearances at Camelot Artists star-studded Building It Together fundraising events in Los Angeles.
| Art Cohan |
Art Cohan is an accomplished award-winning actor and director who has worked extensively for over 25 years in New York and Los Angeles in theater, film and television. Some of his film and television credits are available on IMDB. Art first started his studies with Milton Katselas in 1987 in a workshop in New York and has been attending classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse since 1992.
In addition to his Scene Study classes, Art has also been teaching the "What's This Play About?" class to the advanced classes since 1992. Milton considers this "the most important class at the school" as it teaches the actor and directors in a practical way how to read a script and "take the black words on a white page and create life's colors." He also teaches a "How to Audition" class to students at the Playhouse. This is a 4-week intensive where actors can discover what's getting in the way of them booking jobs and solve that problem. Many of his students enjoy a higher percentage of callbacks, booking ratios and landing professional representation.
Art's primary focus is human nature and he is passionately committed, dedicated, and devoted to the student who wishes to understand every aspect of emotion, motivation, agenda, plot, plan, scheme or trick that any human is capable of in trying to determine a character. Many of his students credit him with changing their life as a person as well as a performer. It's one thing to dig deep inside and find your strengths and weaknesses to make the character live and breathe; it's quite another to take that inner journey and re-emerge with additional personal power as a human and an artist.
Art's students learn the Katselas approach and techniques as well as the business savvy required in maintaining a successful career and his "no holds barred style" empowers the actor to refuse the limitation of imitation and discover the endless imagination of the artist within. He teaches what is needed to respect, rely on, and know in order to study with Milton.
Art Cohan's most famous quotes…
"I am here to prepare you to study with the greatest living acting teacher in the business- that man is Milton Katselas."
"Milton Katselas has directed legends such as Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis, George Clooney, James Cromwell, Doris Roberts, Alec Baldwin and Michelle Pfeiffer- to name just a few- so you had better know what you are capable of when you step on the stage in front of him- and it is my commitment to each student to make that happen."
| Rick Podell | Rick's Web Site |
Rick Podell has spent his career in all areas of the business - actor, writer, producer, director, and teacher. Rick's theatre career began by being hired by Andrew Lloyd Webber to be the original narrator in the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Rick went on to do such Broadway shows as Evita, Company, Two by Two, Sugar, The Fantasticks, Chapter Two, and most recently co-starred as one of the original Broadway cast members of Sunset Boulevard, opposite Glenn Close and Betty Buckley.
Rick has starred in over 75 episodic television shows, including a year on Days of Our Lives, and has co-starred in movies opposite such stars as Anne Archer and Melanie Griffith.
Also a stand-up comedian, Rick has played Las Vegas and around the world, opening for such stars as Cher, Tina Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mac Davis, The Mills Brothers, and George Benson. He was the first American comedian ever to perform in South Africa.
As a writer, Rick wrote during the golden era at MTM, the home of such shows as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and others. His screenwriting break came when he wrote the script for Nothing in Common, starring Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason. His most recent script was for the CBS Movie Gleason, starring Brad Garrett.
| Gary Grossman |
Feature films include Bachelor Party, Mr. Saturday Night and Leprechaun 4. Television credits include: Series Regular On The Air (ABC), recurring roles Push Nevada (ABC), Night Court (CBS), Wonder Years (ABC) plus guest starring roles on Everyone Loves Raymond, Mad About You, Murphy Brown, just to name a few.
Gary has been the Executive Producer for Camelot Artists since 1984 and recently became its Producing Director. He has produced over 200 stage plays, including over 50 world premieres. Among his other celebrated productions are Romeo & Juliet (3 LADCC Awards), AIDS Us (3 LADCC Awards), Dylan (3 LADCC Awards), Lone Star, Balm and Gilead, Four and Visions and Lovers.
In addition to his work for Camelot, Gary has produced for the prestigious Matrix Theatre Company, where he was associated with the celebrated productions The Home Coming, End Game and The Seagull. For television he co-produced the MOW Sadie and Son (CBS) and the sitcom pilot Man in the Kitchen (ABC). He is the Executive Producer for award-winning director Chuck Workman's newest documentary The Actor's Life.
Gary is most proud of his 22 year association with director Milton Katselas and The Beverly Hills Playhouse, where he is a longtime student of Milton's master class, as well being a member of the teaching staff. As Executive Producer for Katselas Productions he produced Milton Katselas's national bestseller Dreams Into Action, as well as over 30 seminars, lectures and over 10 solo art exhibitions for Milton Katselas in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Tokyo.
| Rob Brownstein |
Rob Brownstein has worked as an actor and director at The Odyssey Theatre, The Falcon Theatre, The Court Theatre, Yale University, The Hollywood Court Theatre, The Hudson Guild, The Roundabout, Circle Repertory Company, Interact Theatre Company, The Riverside Shakespeare Company, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, among many others.
National tours include The King and I and The Little Prince. Television credits include The Guardian, For the People, Purpose, Snitch, Georgetown, Astronauts, Room 302, Hostage Hotel, Outreach, Very Bad Things, Bean, Chicago Hope, Picket Fences, L.A. Law, and Desperate Housewives.
He has taught at the University of North Carolina and at Circle Rep School of Theatre, as well as privately coaching in New York and Los Angeles. He has been Director of Development for Palisades Pictures, and a Director/Writer for the Walt Disney Company.
He was a longtime member of the Circle Repertory Lab in New York, a founding member of the award-winning Interact Theatre Company in L.A., and is currently a member of Milton Katselas' master class. His wife, Robin, is a veterinarian, and their son, Will, a professional toddler.
| George DiCenzo |
An experienced teacher, actor and director who has appeared
in over 50 major motion pictures (including Helter/Skelter, Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, and Back to the Future).
George is a frequent guest star on network television (Law & Order, Judging Amy, NYPD Blue and Murder, She Wrote, among many others), as well as having starred in his own network television series (Equal Justice and Joe's Life).
He has appeared frequently on stage (on Broadway in On Borrowed Time with Nathan Lane, directed by his longtime friend George C. Scott).
Channel!| "Hands down, Milton is the best teacher in America. I haven't stopped working for thirty years and I'm still studying with Milton at the Beverly Hills Playhouse..." |
| - Thaao Penghlis, Days of Our Lives |