TOO Episode 218 - Conversation with Master Teacher for Screen, Bob Krakower

In this episode, Budi sits down with Bob Krakower to talk about his career in teaching acting for screen. 

A graduate of Tufts University, Bob Krakower started his teaching career at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. Mentored by Conservatory Director Allen Fletcher, he was teaching first year graduate acting, directing projects, and given the job of Associate Director of Conservatory at the age of twenty-four.  He then went on to work in the same capacity with Mr. Fletcher at the National Theatre Conservatory.

Soon after that, he took over the acting program at another landmark institution, the Tony Award winning Actors Theatre of Louisville, where he was a resident director for the company as well. He was one of the main creative forces behind ATL’s Shorts Festivals, producing and/or directing over 100 projects, including world-premieres by Howard Korder, Lanford Wilson, Jane Anderson, Jane Martin, and many more.

He served as Director of the Atlantic Theatre Company Acting School, running both the Professional and NYU Undergraduate Divisions. And along with Earle Gister, Lloyd Richards, J. Michael Miller, and others, is a founding faculty member of The Actor’s Center in New York. He has been a guest teacher at Yale, Harvard, & NYU and created Screen Acting Programs at UNCSA and Juilliard, where he is currently teaching.

In addition to his rich theatrical background, he spent a year learning the business side of acting from Susan Smith at her highly respected agency in New York and worked in film & television casting on several projects for ABC, MTV, Paramount, HBO, Nickelodeon, and others.

As an on-camera director he has helmed multiple television episodes, and his documentary film “John Pinette: You Go Now” was selected as the opening night feature at the Cinequest Film Festival.

For over thirty years, he has coached on countless film & television productions; hired by studios, networks, producers, writers, directors, and actors alike. Started in 1992, he teaches one of the longest ongoing acting classes in NYC. And whether he’s working with students, celebrities, stand-ups, or actors, he does so with what Emmy Award Winning Director Michael Lembeck has called “the most passionate, kindest, and brightest approach I’ve ever seen.”