Currently, Cris instructs Fundamentals of Drama and Compelling Communications at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. She also directs community and children´s theater and solo performances. Her Bay Area work has been featured at the S.F. Fringe Festival, C.A.F.E., Noh Space at Theatre Artaud, and The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, among others. Cris holds a B.F.A. in Acting from Boston University.

Vision

Each of us has a completely unique experience as a human being. We are compelled to give expression to that experience in a creative way, to find our own "voice." When expressed from the heart and soul, our voice resonates as universal, and carries the power to move, heal, and inspire others.

Cris's passion is working with actors and non-actors to achieve truthful and powerful self expression, integrating mind, body, emotion, and spirit. The space she creates is safe, non-judgmental, fun, and challenging. Her feedback is positive, insightful, and specific to your needs as an actor. She respects and supports the revelation of each student's unique voice.

Approach

Cris has more than 15 years of professional experience as an actor, director and coach. Her approach is grounded in four years of classical acting, voice and movement training, as well as extensive stage experience. She draws from a variety of acting techniques, focusing on Stanislavsky´s system of objectives and actions, as well as his method of emotion and sense memory.

Each actor has his or her own way to connect to and explore character and text, and Cris´s philosophy is simply, "Use what works for you." She effectively empowers you, the actor, to access your intuitive physical and emotional intelligence, to enable you to ground your work in emotional truth and create a fully realized performance.

She works closely with you to identify your individual strengths and blocks, and suggests specific physical and/or emotional exercises to enhance those strengths and offers ways to explore and release blocks. She helps you discover the practical acting techniques that are most effective in helping you explore and realize text and character.

Experience