09/13/2023
We see a lot of new faces around here and wanted to say hi 👋 Meet the team behind Performance Atelier, a new BIPOC-led acting studio in Toronto!
Performance Atelier Toronto is led by Eugene Ma, Atelier Director & (Aspirational) Buddha-In-Residence*.
Eugene is a Drama Desk-nominated, Toronto/Hong Kong/NYC-based, Canadian acting teacher and interdisciplinary theater maker, who directs, acts, and composes across continents.
As an acting teacher, Eugene had been an Assistant Professor (Adjunct) at Columbia University's Graduate Acting Program, Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale School of Drama (now the David Geffen School), the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Hong Kong Baptist University; as well as Lecturer at SUNY Purchase and Harvard University (TDM). He also regularly coaches working screen actors on projects at the Dome Studio in Beijing, and currently lectures and directs at the Toronto Metropolitan University’s BFA Acting program.
An acclaimed international theater director, Eugene most recently helmed the orchestral concert-theatre spectacle WILD,(Rose Theater, U.K.; City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong), he has also helmed the works of Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Thornton Wilder, Moliere, Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill and Saviana Stănescu, and developed new works with Lisa Clair, Cherry Lou Sy, Mike Lew, Shane Sakhrani, EllaRose Chary and Sooyeon Lee among others.
With a zest for continual research, Eugene is also currently an MFA Candidate at Goddard College in their low-residency, praxis-forward Interdisciplinary Arts program, investigating liberatory contexts and practices for acting training as he reexamines common practices in and outside of institutional structures and reexamine curriculum and learning cultures fit for our discipline’s unique needs today. As how we show up morph, and as needs and mediums evolve.
