Nancy Smithner

Nancy Smithner

New York University, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development

Teacher of Educational Theatre

Phone: 212-998-5250
Email: ns23@nyu.edu

• Music and Performing Arts Professions
• Educational Theatre

Nancy Smithner is a performer, teacher and director. She has been teaching Physical Theatre, Acting, Mime and Directing for the Program in Educational Theatre since 1986. She has also taught at many other venues such as Tisch School of the Arts; Playwrights Horizons, Circle in the Square Theatre School, School for Movement Research, the New York Dance Intensive, the Berkshire Theatre Festival and Soongsil University in Seoul, Korea.

Recent directing credits include Mad Forest by Caryl Churchill, (m)body: Provocative Acts, an original performance work on cultural interpretations of the body, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Godspell. Her company, The Ensemble of Movement Theatre, performs original works, most recently "...suddenly there came a tapping...", a retelling of Poe's The Raven at the Storytelling Series at the Provincetown Playhouse. Since 2003 she also curated, and directed three productions of "Voices of Women," original works by women on culture and identity.

Smithner has been a member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit since 1989, performing for children in pediatric settings, and giving workshops on clowning and physical comedy. In Steinhardt, she is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. For the Program in Educational Theare, she oversees the placement of student teachers in public and private schools throughout the city.