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Drama

Education

B.F.A. in Acting from ETW
M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College

Biography

RAINA VON WALDENBURG is a full-time faculty member at NYU.  She has been teaching a physical approach to acting based on the work of Jerzy Grotowski at NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing for the past fifteen years. Teacher, playwright, director and actor, she received her MFA in creative writing from Goddard College and her BFA in acting from New York University. Trained under Ryszard Cieslak, Grotowski’s principal actor and protégée, and Steve Wangh, Raina has taught numerous Master Classes in physical acting nationally and internationally. Venues include: INTER-ACT (Austria), The Bali Conservatory 2007 (Bali), Delachenal Impro (France), The New School (NYC), Big Sur Theatre Lab (Big Sur), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (NYC), the National Viewpoint Conference (NYC), Working Classroom (Albuquerque), Synaesthetic Theatre (NYC), Theatre For The Forgotten: Changing Scenes, Inc. (NYC), Studio 5 (Brooklyn, NY), and the Metropolitan School for the Arts (Syracuse). She has worked with ensembles developing material for performance at Working Classroom, Metropolitan School for the Arts, Delachenal Impro, and New York University. Raina has served as acting coach for the Broadway production of Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy, Ben Curtis Entertainment and East 3rd Productions. She continues to teach RainaClass, her private acting classes in NYC. Raina served as research assistant and editor for Steve Wangh’s book An Acrobat of the Heart: A Physical approach to acting based on the work of Jerzy Grotowski, published by Vintage Press. Raina’s directing credits include NYU’s production of her full-length play Das Kaspar Theatre, Safiya Henderson-Holmes’ Testimony at the New Federal Theatre, Sarah Schulman’s Promenade at PS122, and Killer in Love at Goddard College, as well as assistant directing NYU’s productions of Dream Farm, Troilus and Cressida and Merchant of Venice. Her acting credits include Laura in The Father (La MaMa ETC.), Miss Rauch in Radio Programme (La MaMa ETC.), Marilyn Robertson in My Friend Andrea in East Coast Artist’s production at NYU, Mother [Andrea Yates] in 15 Seconds of Silence (American Place Theatre), Delphine in The Life of Spiders (The Culture Project), Charlotte in The Last Supper (La MaMa Etc.), Dantchika/Magda/Rohkol in Jude (Marilyn Monroe Theatre at the Lee Strasberg Institute), Girl’s Mother/Zucco’s Mother/Elegant Lady in Roberto Zucco (OHIO Theatre), Girl in MC Girl (Living Theatre), Mouth in Not I (NYU),  Renee in Erostratus (Gene Frankel Theatre), Mother/Madame in Roberto Zucco (Currican Theatre), Linda in Just the Boys (Painted Bride), and Nurse in Medea (Movement Theatre International).  Raina is also a published poet, visual artist and mother.