ALUMNI

Rachel Finley (Class of 2018)

Rachel Finley is a director, intimacy coordinator, actor, accent coach, and Arizona State University professor.  She is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework and Knight Thompson Speechwork, a founding member of the Intimacy Coordinators of Color’s board of directors, and a co-founder of The Blueprint, an organization that provides POC-centric actor training at no cost to students.  Finley’s creative work, which includes film, theatre, performance art, devised theatre, motion capture, voice over, spoken word poetry, new media and other forms has appeared on stages, in studios and on sets  from Miami to Los Angeles and Canada to New Zealand.  Rachel has recently worked on productions for NYC based ANDTheatre Co, Miami based Zoetic Stage, Netflix, Xbox Studios, Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Southwest Shakespeare Company, Virginia Stage and several indie film and theatre companies.

Bruce Linser (Class of 2012)

Since receiving my MFA in directing from FAU in 2012, I have taught musical theatre, acting, and/or directing as Dean of Theatre at Dreyfoos School of the Arts, as an adjunct at FAU, and as a Visiting Professor at Lynn University where I helped create the musical theatre BFA program. I am currently a freelance actor and director in the South Florida theatre community and have been the manager of new play development for The Dramaworkshop at Palm Beach Dramaworks since 2017.

Gaby Tortoledo (Class of 2018)

Gaby is a Venezuelan stage and screen actress and singer, last seen in Miami New Drama’s world premiere of Elián, playing Countess Andrenyi in Actors’ Playhouse’s Murder On The Orient Express, and critically acclaimed for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Next up Gaby will be seen playing Betsy in Honeymoon in Vegas (Slow Burn Theatre Co.) and Kate/Lucy in Avenue Q (MNM Theatre Co.). Screen credits include a feature in Amazon Studios' The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Susie in the new TV series Just My Type. Other regional theatre credits include Songs for a New World and I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change (Gulf Coast Symphony), Athena in Rock Odyssey (Adrienne Arsht Center), Tara in the World Premiere of Compensation (Island City Stage), Antonia in Man of La Mancha (MNM Theatre Co). International credits include And The World Goes Round, Opening Doors: A Sondheim Song Cycle, and A Dream Is A Wish: A Disney Song Cycle (Song Cycle Intensive, London UK). She is a proud AEA and SAG-AFTRA member, and holds an M.F.A in Theatre Performance from Florida Atlantic University. Follow her on social media for more @gabytortoledo / gabytortoledo.com

Elizabeth Price (Class of 2014)

Recently Elizabeth has taken a break from teaching to pursue acting, directing, and creating full time. She’s been working with a theatre company based in Fort Lauderdale called New City Players, and this season has begun as their Associate Artistic Director. Elizabeth just closed her first show of the season, where she got to play a full-on psychotic in Misery, the play based on the Stephen King novel. Next up Elizabeth will be seen headlining City Theatre’s What The Constitution means To Me. In her personal life, she’s been doing a lot of self-discovery and healing work. Elizabeth just took my first solo trip, and it was amazing!

Sean Patrick Gibbons (Class of 2018)

Sean is an actor, intimacy director, theatre educator, and a college audition coach. He has performed in numerous theaters across the country including his home town of Boston, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and many more. Select Credits: Boston Playwrights Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Bridge Repertory Theatre, Boston Theatre Company, and Theatre Row in NYC. Intimacy Direction: A Good Farmer, University of Scranton, Spring Awakening, Brandeis University, and most recently served as the Intimacy Consultant for the Scranton Shakespeare Festival's 11th season. Training: BA Theatre Education, Theatre (Marywood University), MFA Acting (Florida Atlantic University), and MCS Meisner Studio in NYC. A member of AEA, and SAG-AFTRA eligible, Sean has taught on the theatre faculty at Florida Atlantic University, American International College, Dean College, and is currently on the theatre faculty of The Boston Arts Academy where he teaches Voice and Movement for the Actor, Acting, as well as a course designed for the BFA audition process. Sean is on the recruitment team for the American Musical Dramatic Academy where he auditions and coaches prospective students planning to major in both Musical Theatre & Acting. Sean is a certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, as well as in the Michael Chekhov technique, teacher certification track, with The Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium in partnership with Kent State University. When not teaching or performing, Sean offers workshops in consent forward approaches in theatre and creating and holding supportive spaces for artists to work in.

Rachel Dawson (Class of 2022)

Rachel currently resides in South Carolina where she teaches, performs, and directs as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Winthrop University. She is currently instructing Voice for the Actor, Movement for the Actor, Stage Combat, and Acting, and she will be directing the closing show for the season, Pippin. She is currently training with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators in their Pathway to Certification program and is thrilled to be bringing consent forward practices into the curriculum. She continues the exploration of her craft in the classroom as a teacher and student.

Manny Zaldivar (Class of 2017)

Manny Zaldivar has expanded his career into film, television, theater, and voice over as an actor while also writing, directing, and producing stories along the way. He's worked with local companies like MNM and Theatre Lab as well as bigger companies like Paramount, Hulu, and Universal Studios. He is currently using everything he learned to create his company that will focus on building the largest Narrative Universe out there; combining and interconnecting multiple artistic mediums and offering them and their creators a home somewhere between physical reality and the Metaverse. Aside from his art, he also studies quantum and particle physics as a hobby and gets overly excited for his D&D games

Alyssa Frewen (Class of 2022)

Alyssa just moved back to my hometown of Chicago, and she’s hit the ground running! She is currently in rehearsals for Winnie the Pooh: A Walking Play at the Morton Arboretum (playing Kanga) and gearing up to assistant direct a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the northern suburbs next month.

Michael Focas (Class of 2022)

After wrapping up an interesting 2-year journey (MFA in Theatre Performance in the midst of a global pandemic and going on medical leave due to tongue cancer), Michael Focas is happy to announce he is in remission, successfully graduated with his MFA on time (completed thesis and verbal defense with a 3.9 GPA), and is gainfully employed as the full-time drama teacher (and teaching a chorus class, for good measure) at Plantation High School for the 2022-2023 school year. All the best to the new crop of graduate students and the rest of the FAU Theatre family. Go, Owls!