instructors
meet our devoted
TEAM OF INSTRUCTORS
Our instructors understand there is no one-size fits all student, so each student who walks through our door has an experience which is customized for their unique goals and strengths.
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Founder and Instrtuctor
Lots of stuff
FOUNDER AND INSTRUCTOR
Eliza is an actor, #1 bestselling author, casting director, feature film producer, keynote speaker and media fixture who has been featured on shows such as The Drew Barrymore Show and Access Hollywood, has written for publications such as Good Company and Forbes, and was included in Success Magazine's "Women of Influence" edition. She built career on nurturing artists and developing the arts.
Almost twenty years ago Eliza founded The Actor’s Workshop of Ithaca (AWI), which became Central New York’s preeminent Comprehensive Meisner Technique Studio. AWI students have gone on to national and international acclaim in film and onstage, in front of and behind the camera.
Eliza is also a bi-coastal theatrical consultant and international communication coach through her business VanCort Consulting, most recently growing the forward-facing artistic component of the Hope and Optimism project from a small grant to a nationally acclaimed playwriting competition with rolling premieres in Central New York and Los Angeles.
MORE: ELIZAVANCORT.COM
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Visiting ArtistDaniel V. Masciari is an award-winning filmmaker based in New York. His work is focused on telling the untold stories of everyday life by shining light on hidden poignant and comedic moments. Daniel wrote and directed his forthcoming film, “Stationed at Home”, which is currently in post-production. The film finds magic in the mundane, using atmospheric and nostalgic locations of post-industrial America to explore fascinating characters, disconnected but united by their yearning for connection, community and… home.
VISITING ARTIST/FILMMAKER
Daniel V. Masciari is an award-winning filmmaker based in New York. His work is focused on telling the untold stories of everyday life by shining light on hidden poignant and comedic moments. Daniel wrote and directed his forthcoming film, “Stationed at Home”, which is currently in post-production. The film finds magic in the mundane, using atmospheric and nostalgic locations of post-industrial America to explore fascinating characters, disconnected but united by their yearning for connection, community and… home
LEARN MORE: STATIONEDATHOME.COM
“As a professor in the TVR Dept at Ithaca College I decided to take the class to better understand the perspective actor. What this experience really did was connect with with the vast AWI network. I use this network partly to help my students and alumni cast their films.
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FounderIt all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.
CO-DIRECTOR
In addition to being a stage and voice- over actors, Katie is graduate of AWI and has been a Meisner technique instructor since 2005 and was appointed Co-Director of AWI in 2012. Katie has worked with just about every theater group in town in one capacity or another; her favorite role to date was Becca in the AWITC production of Rabbit Hole in 2010. She was recently onstage at the Kitchen Theatre in 2016 in the Homecoming Player's production of Sarah Ruhl's In The Next Room, as well as acting in Ithaca’s first 1 Minute PlayFest in July 2018, also at The Kitchen Theatre. She has taught several acting seminars at Ithaca College, and has done local and regional voice over work and has appeared in several short films. From 2000-2015, Katie was the owner of evolution 102 and avanti boutique, two clothing stores in downtown Ithaca. In 2016 she joined the Cornell University community, finding her new home at The Cornell Store as their Retail Manager of Satellite Stores. To learn more about Katie's journey to AWI, go to this NPR radio show.
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InstructorA long time Ithacan, David graduated from Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications with a degree in Cinema Production. As an editor and videographer at PhotoSynthesis Productions he has worked on numerous film and video projects, including editing documentary, They Call it Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain. Read the New Times article about the award winning documentary. David recently completed an educational project for the FDA on meta-cognition and is currently working on a new documentary focusing on Cambodia. After studying under and apprenticing with Eliza, David has been an instructor at AWI since 2008 and has directed several stage productions for the Workshop’s theater company.
INSTRUCTOR
Award-winning filmmaker and graduate of AWI, David graduated from Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications with a degree in Cinema Production. As an editor and videographer at PhotoSynthesis Productions he has worked on numerous film and video projects, including editing documentary, They Call it Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain. Read the New Times article about the award winning documentary. David recently completed an educational project for the FDA on meta-cognition and is currently working on a new documentary focusing on Cambodia. After studying under and apprenticing with Eliza, David has been an instructor at AWI since 2008 and has directed several stage productions for the Workshop’s theater company.
