New York Society Library To Host Panel On Actor Training And The Art Of Performance

The New York Society Library will host a panel discussion titled What Is Acting, and How Do Actors Do It? on Monday, February 23, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place at the New York Society Library, located at 53 East 79th Street in Manhattan.

The panel will feature theater educators and authors Evan Yionoulis, Bill Connington, and Ron Carlos, all of whom have taught in the graduate acting program at Yale University. The conversation will examine the acting profession, contemporary theater and film practice, and the role of actor training, with discussion also addressing why human performance remains central to the arts despite advances in artificial intelligence.

Yionoulis currently serves as the Richard Rodgers Dean and Director of the Drama Division at The Juilliard School. She previously spent two decades on the faculty of Yale School of Drama and as a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre. Her honors include an Obie Award and a Princess Grace Award, and she has served as president of the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Connington is an actor, filmmaker, and writer, as well as the series editor for the Acting Essentials book series published by Methuen Drama / Bloomsbury. He is a lecturer in acting at Yale University and the recipient of the George Pierce Baker Award from Yale’s graduate acting program. His film work includes Love, Repeat and Poughkeepsie Is for Lovers, and he is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Carlos is a voice, speech, and dialect coach and a former lecturer in acting at Yale University. A graduate of the American Repertory Theater Institute at Harvard University, his work has appeared at The Public Theater, MCC Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Yale Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, and The American Repertory Theater, as well as on television networks including CBS, Fox, HBO/Max, Showtime, and Starz.

All three panelists are authors in the Acting Essentials series, and copies of their books will be available for purchase at the event. Titles include Listening and Talking: A Pathway to Acting by Evan Yionoulis, Introduction to the Alexander Technique: A Practical Guide for Actors by Bill Connington, and Speechwork for Actors: An Inclusive Approach by Ron Carlos.