Conversations
with Co-op

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Two Broadway Veterans, Two Nights

This Summer, we are excited to bring you a two-night miniseries of interviews with two Broadway veterans and Actors Co-op artists, Linda Kerns & Thomas James O’Leary!

Streaming LIVE on YouTube and Facebook!

Please RSVP to reserve your spot. We are so excited to talk with you!

About the Artists:

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Linda Kerns

Monday, July 26th, 7:30pm PDT

Linda’s Broadway and National Tour credits include NINE (Original Broadway Cast), BIG RIVER, LES MISERABLES, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, WICKED and SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN (Off-Broadway, Original Cast). Here in LA, projects include SPRING AWAKENING (Ovation Nomination), INTO THE WOODS (LA Weekly Award), RABBIT HOLE and THE NIBROC TRILOGY (LA Weekly Award). Her film and television work include the movies Titanic, Mrs. Santa Claus, and Rat Race and episodes of NYPD Blue, Murphy Brown and Without a Trace among others. She also has a thriving voice-over career. (Remember The Carrot Lady from Sesame Street?) In recent years Linda has found a new career, that of director. Among other pieces Linda has directed The Fantasticks, The Triumph of Love, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Pride and Prejudice, The Traveling Lady and Guys and Dolls. This Fall she will be directing Noel Coward’s Waiting in the Wings for Azusa Pacific University. In this virtual age she has written and directed on-line pieces for Actor’s Co-op including A Co-op Christmas and When We Meet. Linda is an Adjunct Professor in UCLA’s Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program. Member AEA, AFTRA-SAG, SDC.

 
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Thomas James O’Leary

Monday, August 23rd, 7:30 pm PDT

THOMAS JAMES O’LEARY has been honored to direct at Actors Co-op three times in the last four years. His first Co-op outing was Moisés Kaufman’s 33 Variations, which received four 2018 Ovation Awards - Directing, Scenic Design, Lighting Design and Best Production of a Play in an Intimate Theatre. In 2019, Thomas directed The Christians by Lucas Hnath in the Crossley Theatre, and last year he directed Marvin’s Room, which was ready to open at the David Schall Theatre just as theatres shut down due to Covid. Thomas is very excited to bring this amazing play to life for Co-op audiences as soon as theatres reopen. 

Other directing credits include Sunday in the Park with George (Musical Theatre Guild), Next to Normal (Pico Playhouse), Flim Flam: Houdini and the Hereafter (Malibu Playhouse), Dusty de los Santos and Bloodletting (Skylight Theatre), The Escape Artist’s Children (Celebration Theatre), and Thoroughly Modern Millie, Carrie, Aida, Nine, How to Succeed in Business… and Kiss Me, Kate, all at AMDA College of the Performing Arts where Tom has been a principal faculty member for the past nine years.

Thomas is indebted to the brilliant directors who inspired him during his acting career. Thomas was blessed to have worked with Hal Prince when he played the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway for more than 1,000 performances in the late 1990s, and with Nicholas Hytner when he originated the role of Captain Schultz in Broadway’s original production of Miss Saigon. He was also in the first national companies of Les Misérables, directed by John Caird and Trevor Nunn, and Chess, directed by Des McAnuff. Here in Los Angeles, Tom received the 2011 LA Weekly Award for his portrayal of Mason Marzac in Celebration Theatre’s Take Me Out. Tom is a proud member of SDC, AEA and SAG-AFTRA.