ABOUT
"Are we all met?"
*William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act III, Sc. 1)
“The desire to impart the significance and the reality of human experience, from birth to death, is a fundamental one. Mankind exists; each individual exists alone; the pain of such an existence, the sadness of it, and of course the joy of it as well, must all be conveyed. One way to do so is in the theatre.”
Hi, I’m Paul Collins.
I’m an American actor and educator currently working and living in Beijing, China.
My background as an actor includes experience with both physical and devised theatre as well as significant experience in directing, voice, and movement. I received my M.F.A. in Acting from California State University, Fullerton in 2011. Since then, I have been working extensively as an educator and as a professional actor in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and now in Beijing, China.
My experience as a professional actor has deeply affected my work as a teacher. I taught at California State University, Fullerton during graduate school and continued doing so for two years after completing my degree. At the same time, I was a teaching artist in Los Angeles at various high schools and nonprofit programs. When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, I began teaching at California State University, East Bay. I also became a teaching artist with the San Francisco Youth Theatre directing students in plays and bringing drama curriculum into local schools.
The heart of my acting training lies in the Stanislavski system which was taught to me by Svetlana Efremova, as they were taught to her at the State Theatre Arts Academy in St. Petersburg. It was this work that led me to my interest in the relationship between various acting techniques and theatrical movement, specifically physical improvisation since the basis of Stanislavski’s acting system lies in physical action.
In August of 2018, I accepted a position as a full time theatre teacher with Dreamaker Drama Academy in Beijing, China! I am teaching youth ages 7-12 years old the fundamentals of acting. We are also staging several mainstage productions!
It is my desire to continue acting, teaching, directing and collaborating with others for the rest of my days. The study of the craft of acting, sharing that journey with others - learning, stumbling, crawling, rising up in inspiration - and discovering and telling our stories gives us a glimpse of ourselves. I have found no other pursuit as rewarding.