Our faculty comprises accomplished professionals who bring a wealth of experience from diverse backgrounds in acting, directing, voice, movement, and more. Each faculty member is dedicated to fostering creativity, discipline, and critical thinking, ensuring our students receive a comprehensive and transformative education.
Stephanie Machado is an actor and educator based in NYC, and has been a member of the faculty at the Yale Summer Session Acting Program since 2016. She is currently an adjunct professor at NYU Atlantic Acting School. Stephanie has worked extensively in the commercial industry and with numerous regional and New York based theaters. She holds an MFA in Acting from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale and a BFA in Acting from SMU.
John is a graduate of Yale School of Drama’s class of 2020. Recent work: Manifest Destiny (Teatro LeTEA), and Inspector directed by Yura Kordonsky (Yale Rep). Selected Credits: A Taste of Honey (Pearl Theatre, directed by Austin Pendleton); Way to Heaven (Repertorio Español, NYT Critic’s Pick); Lord of the Flies (BSC); An Inspector Calls (PTC); This is Our Youth (WHAT); The History Boys (PB Dramaworks); Shakespeare’s R&J (Cygnet) and The Way of the World (FSC). YSD: In His Hands; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; Pivot; Shoot Her, Shooter; Cymbeline; shakespeare’s as u like it; Cock; Truck 3 (Yale Cabaret). Oliver Thorndike Acting Award; Jerome L. Greene Fellow. YSD 2020, BADA, UNCSA, SCGSAH. Member of the Actor’s Center Company and AEA. @johnevansreese
Will Cobbs is a television, film and theater actor based in NYC. Will lived and worked in Atlanta. During his Atlanta years, he worked with theater companies like The Alliance Theater, Theater in the Square, Aurora Theater, and Georgia Ensemble Theater. His time in Atlanta culminated in his first tv guest-star role on the Lifetime show Army Wives. Will applied to and was accepted to the Yale School of Drama under the helm of Ron Van Lieu.
Annelise Lawson is an actress, director, and teacher based in New York and L.A. She teaches contemporary applications of the Russian Étude method – an improvisatorial rehearsal tool designed to propel an actor’s imagination into the world of the text – and Clown. Her work focuses on developing students’ technique and style through their personal senses of play and unique identities.
Since graduating from the Yale School of Drama, Gabriel has taught Clown, physical acting and Shakespeare in traditional university settings such as NYU, Smith College, Amherst College and Yale University. He has also led workshops students at regional theatres such as The Alliance, Berkshire Theater Group and Northern Stage. Currently, Gabe is on the faculty of The Pandemonium Studio in Brooklyn, while maintaining an online coaching practice and in person teaching practice in Western Massachusetts.
Eli Pauley grew up in rural Illinois. She teaches a lot, directs often, and acts occasionally. She did her post-graduate teaching work on fellowship at The Juilliard School under the mentorship of Evan Yionoulis and Richard Feldman where she worked on productions such as Yionoulis’ King John. She is currently on the Acting faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers. Training: MFA Acting; Yale School of Drama, BFA Acting; Rutgers/MGSA.
Welker White’s many film and tv credits include multiple projects with Martin Scorsese including The Irishman and Goodfellas. Other films: Dead Poets Society, Nora Ephron’s This Is My Life, HBO’s Emmy-winning Bad Education, The 40-Year-Old Version, Outcome opposite Keanu Reeves to name a few. Welker has originated roles on and off-Broadway. Welker served on the Acting faculty at Brooklyn College. Welker is a Fulbright Specialist.
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 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 and was a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre. She has directed new plays and classics in New York, across the country, and internationally. Her book, Listening and Talking: A Pathway to Acting, is published by Methuen Drama.