Eugene Nesmith

 In the context of a Liberal Arts Theatre Training Program, I believe that the most important thing that we as professors can offer students who want to work in the theater at the professional level, or to serve the larger community, is to prepare them intellectually and artistically with the tools that are necessary to give them a competitive edge. As an actor, not only is it necessary to know how to make strong choices and commit to those choices, but more important, you must have a strong sense of the self and presence, and know how to speak and use language, as well as being able to analyze and interpret text to reveal the uniqueness of each character. Thus, students must be trained in a wide range of acting techniques, from Stanislavsky for Naturalistic and Realistic texts, to Classical acting styles for Shakespeare and other classical texts, to non-realistic styles for texts such as Beckett and other absurd playwrights. Students must have a strong foundation in voice and speech, and physical training along with the components mentioned above to establish a will of steel, and drive and discipline that will lead to success no matter what field one desires to work in. This is what I try to achieve with the students that I come in contact with at City College.

 BFA, Theatre, City College MFA, University of California at San diegoSan Diego

Prof. Nesmith teaches Acting, Directing, African-American Theatre, and Literature.

 "What's Race Got to do With It?" American Theatre Article on the Wilson/Brustein Debate at Townhall, Village Voice Wilson/ Brustein Debate”, Yale Theatre Journal Essay on Langston Hughes and African American Humor Black Comedy Nine Plays, a Critical Anthology, ed. by Pamela Faith Jackson and Karima Four Bad Sisters, published in A Sourcebook on African American Performance, ed. by Annemarie Bean

 Prizes and Awards 1996 National Endowment of the Arts, Summer 1996 Fellow in a seminar on “Performance Theory: Modern Drama and Postmodern Theatre” conducted by the distinguished director and critic Herbert Blau, at the Center For Twentieth Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Other Training Lincoln Center Theatre (5/22/95-6/10/95) Director’s Workshop Shakespeare & Co. (12/30/88-1/28/89) Professional Acting Workshop Director Bare Knuckle by Art Becker for the Philadelphia Festival Theatre Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams at the University of Louisville Three Sisters, by Chekhov You've Taken My Blues and Gone by Langston Hughes, adapted by the director Blues for Mister Charlie by James Baldwin Five on the Blackhand Side, by Charlie Russell Yerma, Federico Garcia Lorca Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson, CCNY Acting Off Broadway Let Me Live (Working Theatre) Off Off Broadway Titus Andronicus (Nada Theatre) By Land (Home for Contemporary Theatre) Every Moment (Frank Silvera’s Theatre Workshop) The Flies (Network Theatre) Androcles and the Lion (Hartley House Theatre) Comments on For Colored Girls (Lincoln Center and Tour 1/77-5/78) Film Author! Author! (Stage Manager) The Wiz (The Daredevil) The Warriors (Turn Bull)
Prof. Nesmith was a judge of the Village Voice Obie (Off-Broadway) Awards for the 1996-97 season. Professional Associations Black Theatre Network (1990-Present) American Federation of Televisions and Radio Artists (1980-Present) Screen Actors Guild (1983-Present) Actors Equity Association (1984-Present)