Brennan Murphy

For the past six decades, Brennan Murphy engaged in a professional career in the performing arts encompassing theatre and dance on Broadway/regionally and with a world-renowned dance company and also reached the highest levels of certification in teaching modalities for higher education. His career allowed him to travel the globe working in the USA, the UK and Australia. He has worked with seminal artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries, and he is honored to pass on their influences and methods to his students. These artists: Angela Lansbury, Colleen Dewhurst, Jason Robards, Lynn Nottage, Kathleen Chalfant, Jose Quintero, Hal Prince, Uta Hagen, Robert Joffrey, William Hickey, Robert Lewis, and many more Illuminati, inform and inspire Brennan as a teacher and working artist. His MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama and an Advanced Degree in Voice Studies and Text from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama where he was awarded Excellence in Teaching Practice, along with his participation in and leadership of varied workshops and master classes fully complete his expertise in teaching the Arts in Academia.

Brennan worked as a professional actor for over 20 years in New York City and at regional theaters around the USA. As a professional actor, Murphy has performed in over 100 professional productions, including stage productions, commercials, numerous workshops of new plays, and several experimental venues. On Broadway, he was a featured actor in Angela Lansbury's revival of Mame, at Broadway’s Gershwin Theatre. At the Martin Beck Theatre, he appeared in Take Me Along, the musical version of Eugene O'Neill's classic, Ah, Wilderness! Another highlight of his performing career was the critically acclaimed Hal Prince production of the classic Harold Prince production of Candide, performed with the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center. Long before ‘devising’ came into vogue, Brennan worked as a founding member of two of New York City’s 1980 and 90’s cutting-edge experimental theatre companies, Cucaracha Theatre and the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre. He fondly recalls the exciting creation of numerous new works and restaging of works by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gertrude Stein, Peter Mattei, Annie-B. Parson, and Paul Lazar.

Studying dance in Seattle as a boy, Brennan was taught by a host of great American dance professionals of the 20th century: Ruthanna Boris, Tommy Rall, Perry Brunson, and Jo Emery. In 1977 he moved to New York City to study and perform with the Joffrey Ballet. He was kept busy working with amazing teachers and coaches: Robert Joffrey, Meredith Bayliss, Ann Reinking, David Howard, Anna Sokolow, Maggie Black, Gwen Verdon, Pat Birch, et. al. He was also privileged to dance works choreographed by George Balanchine, Donald Sadler, Anthony Tudor, Anna Sokolow, Onna White, Patricia Birch, Michael Peters, and Jerry Mitchell.

Brennan was a soloist with the New York City Opera under the direction of Beverly Sills. During his tenure with the company, he performed in Alceste, Turandot, Hamlet, Cendrillon, Mefistofele, Die Fledermaus, The Merry Widow, La Rondine, Carmen, Cavalleria/Pagliacci, The Pearl Fishers, Attila, Nabucco, The Magic Flute, et al. While there, he worked with international artists including Sherrill Milnes, Carol Vaness, José Carreras, Jerry Hadley, Samuel Ramey, Grace Bumbry, Eire Mills, and John Mauceri.

From 1985 to 1996, Brennan was mentored by Earle Gister, Associate Dean and the Head of the Acting MFA at the Yale School of Drama, continued working under the mentorship of Vjatcheslav Dolgatchev of the Moscow Arts Theatre, and thus his ongoing love of the plays of Chekhov and Ibsen. Over the years he has had the opportunity to perform major roles in Chekhov’s plays, direct productions, and teach scene study classes to help students find the gems and secrets of these masterworks.

As an educator for 35-plus years, Brennan has taught in MFA, BFA, and BA acting programs in the US as well as conservatory acting programs in the UK and Australia. Some of these institutions of higher education include The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University, California State University, Baldwin Wallace University, Cornish College of the Arts, and SUNY at Buffalo State College. In addition, he has been a guest teacher at Rose Bruford College, and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. In Australia, he was a guest teacher at the Western Australian Academy of Dramatic Arts. Currently, he teaches at the University of Washington Law School and Seattle University Law School, leading students in classes in Oral Persuasion and Advocacy.

A gifted voice teacher, Brennan taught hundreds of actors. He is a Designated Practitioner of Linklater Voice Technique and holds a Certification in Fitzmaurice Voicework. This work, along with extensive experience in acting, movement, and presentation skills affords him a unique perspective in working with students of performance.

A member of the Professional Ski Instructors Association for several years, Brennan can often be found during winter weekends teaching skiing to eager children and adults, all sharing in a mountain adventure.