Your Teacher
Brian Rhinehart
Brian Rhinehart is a freelance actor and director, and an Associate Professor at The Actors Studio Drama School in New York City. Working primarily in devised and site-specific theatre, the productions he has written, directed and/or acted in have been seen in seven countries and all over the U.S. He has given many workshops and masterclasses on acting, improvisation and devising in theatres and universities across the U.S., Europe and Asia. Brian is a TEDx and Fulbright teaching scholar, is the recipient of numerous international and national grants for his work, and is co-author of a book on comedy acting, titled Comedy Acting for Theatre: The Art and Craft of Performing in Comedies, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen. He holds an MFA in Directing from the Actors Studio Drama School and a PhD in English from the University of Florida.
https://www.brianrhinehart.net/
About THE LEAVERS
Conceived by Brussels-based, Vietnamese-American artist Trong Gia Nguyen, THE LEAVERS examines the plight of the immigrant experience as a prism splintering into surreal yet parallel spaces. Emphasis is placed on a fluid reckoning of history, where the wilful ignorance of the present meets a faulty memory imposing its sense of revisionism on the past. The project incorporates theater, movement, and new media to weave a narrative of seemingly unconnected fragments –family archives, modern newsreels, 'TedToks', extremist protests, sportswashing, and old Renault car ads. Mining the relatable and warped experiences of the forced migrant and refugee, THE LEAVERS conflates personal narrative with sweeping societal conflicts. The base material comes from recorded video footage made 10 years ago of the artist’s family, when he and a friend interviewed the remaining members of his large family that left together on the last day of the Vietnam War, yet never spoke of it again. The work expands into a broader story within the Vietnamese diaspora and beyond, framing a universal struggle where the affliction of “RE-colonization” and institutionalized violence come home everywhere to root, from an overcrowded boat to the weekend sports arena.
https://www.trong.be/theleavers