Russ Camarda
Actor Trainer

Russ has been a professional actor/director for the past 13 years. He has performed in and directed everything from dinner theater to Williams, Miller, Shakespeare and a range of things in between. Russ was one of the founding producers of The Musical Mystery Show Improv Repertory Company. He is a founding member and former Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Genesis Repertory Ensemble, NYC as well as being the Artistic Director of their Contemporary Plays Division.

As an Actor Russ has performed such classic characters as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Alfieri in A View From The Bridge, Marc Antony in Julius Caesar, King Hamlet in Hamlet, Drummond in Inherit The Wind, and The Writer in The Good Doctor among many others. Russ has also appeared in heralded new plays by emerging playwrights. He starred as Prosecutor Hugh Dorsey in the courtroom drama The Knights of Mary Phagan, as William in Mitchell Ganem's two character play Burying Henry and as Lorenzo- the tortured patriarch of a turn of the century Italian family- in the World Premiere of Vincent Longhi's Canto XI.

As a Director his work has been seen in many theaters throughout the NYC-Tri-State area. In addition to critically acclaimed productions of Julius Caesar (Winner 2001 OOBR Critics Choice Award), Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Agnes of God, for Genesis Rep, Russ has directed productions at other area theaters including a recent revival of Crimes Of The Heart on Theater Row, and productions at The Abingdon Theater, The 13th Street Repertory, The Pulse Ensemble Theater, The Million Stories Arts and Artists Festival, and Long Island Live Theater Inc. The list of productions Russ has directed includes, Steel Magnolias, Love Letters, Anatomy of a Murder, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Odd Couple, and The Good Doctor.

Besides the theater, Russ is a director with Peartree Entertainment, a production company producing home video releases, television commercials and corporate industrial films. Some of the corporate clients he's worked with include Newsday, Neilsen Media Research, Lehman Brothers, Hoy, and Morgan Stanley. Two of the most recent home video releases Russ worked on are Homes For The Holidays, a video tour of elaborate Christmas homes and Captain Wonder, a children's action/adventure.

As an Acting Teacher- Since 1996 Russ has also taught acting technique through his series of classes called The Acting Gym at various area theaters as well as working as a private coach.

Russ has been trained in techniques ranging from "Meisner' to "Method" to Practical Aesthetics--the System developed by David Mamet and William H. Macy.