Denison acting students doing warm-ups

Geoffrey Nelson is teaching an introductory Acting Class at Denison University in Granville, OH, this semester.  The class includes both theatre majors and students in other disciplines.

Students in the class study basic acting concepts such as playing an objective, raising the stakes and creating a character arc. Additionally, they learn how to warm up, physically and vocally, and how to relieve physical tension; how to analyze a character and a scene; how to utilize body language and subtext; and how to block a scene and how to use props as expressions of character.

Nelson has previously taught acting and directing classes at Denison as well as acting classes at the Ohio State University.  He is a member of Actors Equity and has performed more than fifty roles himself.

Jonathan Putnam

Geoffrey Nelson’s production of The Santaland Diaries was originally to have ended its five-year run at CATCO/Phoenix last December, but the show’s appeal has been strong enough that the theatre has decided to remount it for a sixth year.

Starring Jonathan Putnam, The Santaland Diaries is David Sedaris’ sardonically funny account of his experiences working as a department store “elf” at Macy’s. Nelson originally staged Santaland as part of a double-bill with another Sedaris piece, Season’s Greetings, in the company’s main performance space.  Following the success of that production, Nelson re-staged Santaland for the more intimate, cabaret-style Studio Three space, where it has enjoyed packed houses for the past four years.

Santaland is not Nelson’s only long-running Christmas show.  His production of Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory & The Thanksgiving Visitor was performed for seven seasons at CATCO.  Nelson also adapted the autobiographical Capote short stories for the stage.  His stage adaptation of O. Henry’s Gift of the Magi toured central Ohio schools for six years.

The Santaland Diaries will be performed December 1 – 23, 2011.  For more information, contact the Box Office at 614-469-0939.

Amber and Sam Jaeger

Sam Jaeger’s film Take Me Home received its central Ohio premiere in October at the Arena Grand Theatre in Columbus, featuring a cameo by Geoffrey Nelson as a rattled taxicab passenger.

Jaeger, one of the stars of television’s Parenthood, is a graduate of Otterbein University’s theatre program and played the leading role in Nelson’s 1998 production of Ten-Minute Alibi at CATCO.

Read Columbus Dispatch coverage of the premiere here.

Take Me Home has been screened for the Chicago International Film Festival, the USA Film Festival, the Tucson Film & Music Festival and at film festivals in Nashville, Naples (FL), Napa Valley, Savannah, Prescott (AZ), Salem (OR) and Las Vegas.  It won the Audience Award at the Rhode Island and Boston Film Festivals.

Visit the Take Me Home website here.

From top left: Geoffrey Nelson, Jonathan Putnam, Adam Schalter, Marina Pires, Melissa Lusher, Lauren Friednash and Christina Kirk

Geoffrey Nelson was a Guest Artist at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, where he played the role of “Charlie Aiken” in August: Osage County.  The long-running Broadway play by Tracy Letts won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize.

The Otterbein production featured five guest professionals: Christina Kirk, Melissa Lusher, Jonathan Putnam, David Combs and Nelson.  Dennis Romer directed.

Click here for a Columbus Dispatch preview article and here for their review of the production.

Nelson’s previous Guest Artist work with Otterbein includes directing The Taming of the Shrew and four other plays, as well as acting in the world premiere of Anthony Clarvoe’s adaptation of The Brothers Karamazov.

The Department of Theatre and Dance at Otterbein boasts one of the finest actor training programs in the country, with many graduates performing on Broadway, in regional theatre, television and film.  Click here for their website.

Geoffrey Nelson and Patrick Shaw

Kitchen Hamlet, an independent film featuring Geoffrey Nelson as “Polonius,” has been making the rounds of film festivals across the country.

Beginning with the Southern Appalachian Film Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee last October, Hamlet has been shown at the Garden State Film Festival in New Jersey, the Appalachian Film Festival in West Virginia, the Tupelo Film Festival in Mississippi (2nd Place, Features), Seattle True Independent Film Festival in Washington, the Landlocked Film Festival in Iowa, the Salem Film Festival in Oregon and at the Indie Gathering International Film Festival (Honorable Mention, Feature Drama) in Cleveland, Ohio.

Kitchen Hamlet uses the original text of Shakespeare’s play but places the action in a contemporary, domestic setting.  Filmed in Gambier, Ohio in the summer of 2008, Hamlet features Patrick Shaw as “Hamlet,”  Kate Clarvoe as “Gertrude,” and Jonathan Putnam as “Claudius.”  Daniel Kramer produced and directed the film.

Visit the Kitchen Hamlet website for more information.

From bottom left: Acacia Duncan, Elena Perantoni-Fehr, Ian Short, Artie Isaac, Jeanine Thompson and Geoffrey Nelson at the first rehearsal

Geoffrey Nelson will play the role of “James” in a staged reading of Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation for the Available Light Theatre Company.

The reading will take place Saturday, August 20, 2011 in the Studio One Theatre of the Riffe Center in downtown Columbus, Ohio.  Curtain time is 8 pm.  In addition to Nelson, the cast also includes Acacia Duncan, Artie Isaac, Elena Perantoni and Jeanine Thompson.  Ian Short directs.

Circle Mirror Transformation won the 2010 Obie Award for Best New American Play.

To listen to an AVLT podcast about the reading, featuring Geoffrey Nelson and Artie Isaac, click here.  For further information on the play and the Available Light Theatre Company, click here.

From left: James Sargent, Jon Farris, Tom Holiday, Kelly Strand, Jonathan Putnam and Mandy Fox

Geoffrey Nelson’s production of Joe Orton’s What the Butler Saw closed on April 17, 2011, after a very successful run at CATCO in Columbus, Ohio.

“Under the measured direction of Geoffrey Nelson,” The Columbus Dispatch review noted, “six actors knit together into a seamless ensemble ….”  Critic Michael Grossberg described the show as “hilarious” and called it a “polished, well-cast production.”

A glowing review combined with enthusiastic word-of-mouth from audiences led to several sold-out houses.  Sales for the three-week run of Butler easily surpassed expectations.

Read the entire Dispatch review here.

A short video excerpt from a dress rehearsal may also be viewed here.

Geoffrey Nelson

WOSU-TV’s “Artzine” program has filmed an interview with Geoffrey Nelson, reflecting on his career as an actor, director and producer — in particular, his founding of CATCO and 26 years as Artistic Director.

The interview, produced when Nelson was awarded the annual Raymond J. Hanley Fellowship earlier this fall, is posted on YouTube.  Produced by Cindy Gaillard, “A Conversation with Geoff Nelson” includes many archival photographs and may be viewed by clicking here.

Raymond J. Hanley

At the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s 27th annual Community Arts Partnership Awards (October 14, 2010) it was announced that this year’s Raymond J. Hanley Fellowship would go to actor/director/producer Geoffrey Nelson.

The $10,000 award from the Columbus Arts Endowment, named in memory of the late President of GCAC, goes to an individual artist in any field “who lives or works in the Columbus area and who has demonstrated an unusual level of achievement.”

The recipient of the award is selected by an anonymous panel of judges and by the trustees of the Columbus Arts Endowment.

Nelson was also the director of Pierce to the Soul, one of the five projects nominated for the GCAC Artistic Excellence Award.

To read the GCAC press release, click here.

Alan Bomar Jones as Elijah Pierce

CATCO’s world premiere of Pierce to the Soul by Chiquita Mullins Lee (April 7-25, 2010) has been nominated for the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s prestigious Artistic Excellence Award. 

Pierce, a one-person show based on the life of noted Columbus wood-carver Elijah Pierce, was directed by Geoffrey Nelson, who has worked closely with playwright Lee for several years on the development of the script.

For additional information on the Artistic Excellence award, go to the GCAC website.