Conservatory for Actors Faculty

Blake Hackler, a two-time Fulbright Scholar, has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theaters nationwide. He originated the role of Moritz Stiefel in the New York workshop of Spring Awakening. A member of the Dallas Theater Center's Brierley Resident Acting Company, he chairs Southern Methodist University’s theater department. An award-winning playwright and BMI/Lehman Engel Workshop member, Hackler has taught globally, including at LaSalle College of the Arts and the Kennedy Center. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Will's most recent theater credits include Raisin in the Sun (Arena Stage), Safe House (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), When I Come to Die (Kansas City Repertory), Autumn’s Harvest (Lincoln Center), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  with Scarlett Johannson (Broadway) . He has also appeared on Elementary, Madam Secretary, Army Wives, The Goodwife, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and The Night Of. Will holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama.

Gabriel Levey is an actor, teacher, theatre maker, and Artistic Director of Completely Ridiculous Productions. He leads the Completely Ridiculous Training Center and teaches Clown, Physical Acting, and Shakespeare at NYU. Gabriel also specializes in audition prep, coaching clients accepted into top programs like Juilliard and Yale. His original comedic works have been staged at Yale Cabaret and more. He holds a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama.

Stephanie Machado (she/her) is a first-generation Brazilian-American actor, director, and educator based in NYC. She holds an MFA in Acting from Yale School of Drama and a BFA from SMU. Stephanie teaches at NYU Tisch, AMDA, and the Yale Summer Conservatory for Actors. Her stage credits include Yale Rep, Classic Stage Company, and Denver Center. As a director, she’s worked on Ni Mi Madre and Inside The Wild Heart. She’s a Jerome L. Greene Fellow with extensive EDI training.

John Evans Reese is a graduate of Yale School of Drama’s Class of 2020. Recent credits include Yale Rep’s The Inspector and productions like A Taste of Honey (The Pearl), Way to Heaven (Repertorio Español), Lord of the Flies (Barrington Stage), and An Inspector Calls (Pioneer Theatre). YSD credits include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Trouble in Mind. A teacher at Yale Summer Conservatory, he’s a Jerome L. Greene Fellow and Equity member.

Dana is a scholar, dramaturg, and doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Drama, where she also earned her MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism. Dana currently teaches in the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta and the Summer Conservatory for Actors at Yale University, and she serves as the Managing Editor of the Marginalia Review of Books. Her professional dramaturgy credits include The Soldier’s Tale (Carnegie Hall); Hamlet (Yale Repertory Theatre); Urge for Going (The Public Theater); Suddenly Last Summer, Loot, Nora, and Appropriate (Westport Country Playhouse, CT); Psychos Never Dream (by National Book Award-winner Denis Johnson, Kitchen Dog Theater, Dallas). She is a former Literary Associate for Yale Rep and a former Managing Editor of Theater magazine. Dana spent five seasons in the education department at Dallas Theater Center, serving as Associate Director for two, and worked in the literary offices of Atlantic Theater Company and The Public Theater. 

Kara-Lynn Vaeni is a theatre and opera director specializing in bold, impossible-to-stage works by diverse writers, often women or artists of color. She directed the world premieres of SHAPE, named to the Kilroy’s List, and In Search of the Sublime. Named Best Director in Dallas (2020), she has directed at prestigious venues like BAM Harvey Theater, HERE Art Center, and Yale Repertory Theatre. An NEA grant recipient, she is an Assistant Professor of Acting at SMU and an SDC member.

Welker White is an actor with deep roots in theatre, film, and television. Her many film and tv credits include multiple films for Martin Scorsese, most notably Goodfellas and The Irishman, opposite Al Pacino . Other recent onscreen performances include Radha Blank’s The 40-Year Old Version and the HBO’s Emmy winning Bad Education. Welker holds an MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College, where she teaches in the MFA Acting program. Welker has been awarded a Fulbright Specialist designation for her teaching.

Evan Yionoulis, an Obie award-winning director and nationally-recognized teacher of acting, is Richard Rodgers dean and director of Juilliard’s Drama Division. Before that, she served twenty years on the faculty of Yale School of Drama, where she was a professor in the practice of acting and directing and a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, as well as Lloyd Richards chair of the department of acting from 1998 to 2003.  She has directed new plays and classics in New York, across the country, and internationally, including Guillermo Calderon’s Kiss at Yale Repertory Theatre and the world premiere of Adrienne Kennedy’s He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box for Theatre for a New Audience, where she also directed Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders (Lortel Award, Best Revival). Other credits include Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour (Broadway), Three Days of Rain (Obie Award for direction, Manhattan Theatre Club), and Everett Beekin (Lincoln Center Theater).  She is a Princess Grace Awards recipient and serves as president of the executive board of SDC, the national labor union representing stage directors and choreographers. Her book, Listening and Talking: A Pathway to Acting, is published by Methuen Drama. 

Damian Young is a career actor with over 100 credited film and television appearances. His work spans the films of Hal Hartley and cult favorite Nickelodeon's Pete and Pete, to roles in films such as Birdman, Catfight, Wonderstruck, and Ocean's 8. His recent work includes a series regular on HBO’s The Comeback, and recurring roles on House of Cards, Ozark, Homeland, and The Good Wife.  Damian has worked extensively in theatre, both on and off-Broadway, as well as regionally.