The Gately/Poole Conservatory, previously the Gately Poole Acting Studio, was founded by Kathryn Gately and Richard Poole. It was located on the prestigious block known as Theatre Row in New York City, from 1981-1994. During this period it trained approximately 200 students each year in its professional program. Its curriculum included movement, voice, and speech, and it was the only private studio in the country to offer this comprehensive approach to actor training. Its alumni have had successful careers in Theatre, Television, and Film.
In 1992, it moved to the Chicago area and continues to teach the next generation of actors through Acting Intensives, in Chicago, Boston and New York City areas.
KATHRYN GATELY M.F.A., Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts Professor of Acting and Head of M.F.A. Acting Program at NIU, Specialist in Meisner Acting Technique. Kathryn Gately has been involved in the inception of six distinct actor training programs and in the development of those programs into highly successful and well respected entities with national and international reputations. Read More about Kathryn Gately
RICHARD POOLE Richard Poole worked extensively in New York City as a director and teacher before joining the NIU faculty. He has coached actors for Broadway, Television and Film. Mr. Poole co-founded the Gately/Poole Acting Studio in New York City and was both its director and master teacher for 14 years, overseeing it’s growth to over 200 students per year. Read More about Richard Poole
JANICE ORLANDI (AEA) & (SAG) Movement, Character and Period Style Specialist
Artistic Director and Director of Education at Actors Movement Studio Conservatory, NYC. A certified teacher and teacher trainer of the Williamson Physical Technique for Actors, including Period Styles, Character and Period Dance. She is a certified teacher of Michael Chekhov Technique, and has extensive training in Viewpoints and Composition with Anne Bogart, Tina Landau and SITI Company. Trained in
Rasaboxes with founder Richard Schechner, NYU Performance Studies.
Has taught for over eighteen years in educational institutions in the United States and Europe including: Ira Brind School of the Arts; Mason Gross School of the Arts; Williamstown Theatre Festival; de Lindenberg Centrum Voor de Kunsten, Netherlands; State Theatre School in Odense, Denmark; and Ophelia Theatre School in Copenhagen; NY Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, and the School for Film and Television, NYC. Founder and Artistic Director of the AMSC Summer Theater Institute for Physical Theater Training, NYC, Teen Shakespeare Conservatory. A Movement, Character and Period Style coach for: The Mirror Repertory Company, Sonnet Rep, Players Theater, and for University of the Arts.
A Founding Member of Echo Repertory Company, produced and adapted new plays including: "The Triangle Factory Fire Project" (A tribute to the women who died and survived the Triangle Factory Fire of 1911). A founding member of Expanded Arts Theater Company, NYC, and a member of National Association of Movement Educators.
SCOTT NICE has served the Gately/Poole Studios Conservatory since 2002 as their resident voice and movement instructor. He is also Assistant Professor of Voice and Movement at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where he also serves as the departments Fight Director. Professor Nice holds an MFA in Acting from Northern Illinois University, a BA in Theatre Performance from Western Michigan University and is a graduate of the American Musical Dramatic Academy.
He is owner/operator of Studio Nice, Body/Voice Training for Performance and Life, which is located in Wilmington, North Carolina, where Scott instructs local actors in voice training including dialects and dialect reduction, as well as providing actors training techniques designed to eliminate tension and developing a stronger more flexible instrument.
Professor Nice is Certified as an Associate Fitzmaurice Voicework ® Teacher, and is fully trained in the voice techniques of Kristin Linklater, Arthur Lessac and Clifford Turner. Scott Nice has worked for over 20 years as a stage combatant instructor/choreographer since his certification with the Society of American Fight Director (SAFD:) in 1987. Mr. Nice has extensive experience in clowning, circus skills, mask work and the Commedia del’ Arte.
As a professional Actor, he has worked all over the mid-west, and in such cities as Boston, Chicago, LA, Dublin Ireland and New York theatres; The Roundabout, The Westside, The Ohio and Symphony Space and the New York City Opera. Scott Nice trained with the premier mime, Marcel Marceau and for over 25 years has performed mime all over the United States and Western Europe. He has done numerous voice-overs and television commercials.
In 2004 he was awarded the Kennedy Center's American College Theater Festival Outstanding Teacher Award.
He has been the recipient of numerous grants from universities and private funding for professional and artistic developments.
