ACTOR
Eleni Papaleonardos’s work as an actor mines her training in corporeal mime, Viewpoints, Suzuki training, developmental movement, Stephen Wangh’s interpretation of Jerzy Grotowski’s methods, Meisner work, and Roy Hart vocal technique. Though her first love is ensemble-created new work, she has been recognized for her performances in period dramas (Mary Stuart, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), contemporary drama (The Clean House, Dead City), and children’s theatre (Go, Dog. Go!, The Princess and the Pea).
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On her recent performance in Young Jean Lee’s Church, Eleni reflected on a “huge shift” in her thinking about “finding truth” onstage. If, she says, we’re always “finding truth, always learning, then Church provoked me to a whole different level.” Because the material was “so personal to the audience” (Church examines faith, using contemporary American evangelical Christianity as a metonym), the “production kicked me into a deeper awareness” of the “direct interaction” between an actor and the audience. Though she rarely chooses roles in traditionally realistic productions, the real is an elusive goal for which Eleni continues to strive.
In creating a character, Eleni will admit to one secret in particular: “I start with the feet.”
Download Eleni's acting resume: PDF or DOC