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Mission
The mission of 2nd Story Theater is to create an environment for
the individual and the group to actualize the fullest and most
truthful expression of acting, and to share that magic with our
audiences.
History
What’s In a Name?
The origin of the name 2nd Story is itself two stories. The
original location of 2nd Story Theater was on Motor Avenue in
Palms and was, like our current home, on the second story of
a charming older building. More importantly, in her teaching
and her own work as an actor, Wendy always insists upon the
importance of the second story – the river of inner life
going on beneath the visible exterior of the character while
the events of a scene are going on. Call it subtext, or inner
life, or what you will. Wendy has her own ideas about it –
and she calls it the 2nd Story.
By the way, Wendy learned shortly after she had named her studio
2nd Story that the first literary club created by the very youthful
Eugene O'Neill in New London, Connecticut was called The Second
Story Club.
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Wendy Phillips
Artistic Director
Wendy currently
appears in the HBO series Big Love. She has
played the female lead in seven network television series, including
the Emmy Award winning NBC series, A Year in the Life.
Wendy has played principal roles in hit feature films including
Midnight Run, Bugsy, and I Am Sam, as well as
in offbeat classics such as Airplane II and Fraternity
Row. She starred in the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest,
the acclaimed post-WWII drama Homefront, and the CBS
primetime family drama Promised Land. Two years ago Wendy
starred in the LA Drama Critics Award-winning play, The Visible
Horse at The Court Theater, and last year she played Linda
opposite Stuart Margolin in Death of a Salesman at Shakespeare
of the South at Auburn University. In 2002 Wendy directed her
first play, The Dumbwaiter, and has since directed Blind
Date and Spring Dance by Horton Foote. In 2006 she
starred in the critically acclaimed 2nd Story Theater production
of Horton Foote’s The Roads to Home. Wendy founded
2nd Story Theater in 2001.
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Scott
Paulin
Company Director
Scott has worked primarily as an actor on stage, in film, and
television for the last thirty-five years. He also directed more
than thirty hours of television drama (winning The Humanitas Prize
for an episode of I’ll Fly Away on NBC), a feature film,
and fair amount of theater, including Welcome to the Moon, and
Four Dogs and a Bone by John Patrick Shanley, One-Armed Man, by
Horton Foote, Twenty-seven Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee
Williams, Three Little Turns by Michelle Tremblay, and The Wool
Gatherer by William Mastrosimone. In the summer of 2005 he directed
the World Premiere of Nick Kazan’s new play A Good Soldier
at the Odyssey Theater. In 2006, he directed the critically acclaimed
2nd Story Theater production of Horton Foote’s The Roads
to Home. |
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Lea
Endres
Managing Director
Lea began
acting at age 5, as the youngest cast member of a San Diego production
of Our Town. Since then, she has starred in numerous theatrical
productions, including Lysistrata, The Queen of Swords, her own
one-woman show When I Was On the Inside, and the hit San Francisco
rock-theater production of AIDS: The Made for TV Musical. Lea
produced Horton Foote’s The Roads to Home for 2nd Story
in 2006, and is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to continue
her work at this amazing theater.
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Sam
Grant
Stage Manager
Sam was
resident stage manager for the St. Louis Shakespeare Company
and the Orthwein Theatre Company from 1993-1995. She moved to
LA in
1995 to try her hand in the film business. Sam has worked in many
different capacities from casting to associate producer.
In early 2002 Sam was introduced to Wendy and Scott and found
a very
cozy home at 2nd story. She is always entertained and never bored
and
would like to thank all the actors and directors who open their
hearts
and take the chance to show us what it is to be human.
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