Marcia Kimmell, Artistic Director of The Next Stage, is a professional actress, director, teacher and private coach with 41 years of experience in theater of all styles and genres, as well as film and video.

Her acting and directing have won critical acclaim in Chicago, San Francisco and Off Broadway New York.

She has taught and directed for the American Conservatory Theatre's Professional Actor Training Program, School of the Arts (SFUSD), the first Drama Therapy Program on the West Coast (now at CIIS), and the SF Art Commission's CETA/Arts program.

Her acting and directing have won critical acclaim in Chicago, San Francisco and New York. She has taught and directed for the American Conservatory Theater, S.F., Advanced Actor Training Program; School of the Arts, S.F. Unified School District; Antioch University's Drama Therapy Master's Program; and the San Francisco Art Commission's CETA/Arts Program, which became a national model.

Her roles as an actor include Lady Macbeth, Winnie in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, and Beatrice in The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. She was co-creator of Leftovers, the Ups and Downs of a Compulsive Eater, which ran successfully for five years, and was produced off-Broadway in New York.

Her innovative approach to theater is a synthesis of her training at the American Conservatory Theater; her study of Stabiles' System of Psycho-physical Actions, with Philip Bennett; psychodrama with Dr. Richard Korn and Shirley Gomer; and improvisational theater with Viola Spolin, originator of Theater Games, at the Second City in Chicago. Ms. Kimmell founded The Next Stage in 1979.

She teaches and/or has taught a variety of classes, including Basics of Improvisation, Scene Improvisation, Experimental Theater / Transformations, Performance of Ensemble Improvisation, Scripted Monologue and Scene Study, & Master Class for Teachers & Acting Coaches.

She has done extensive private coaching in the areas of Audition Preparation, Cold Readings, and Creation of Original Theater Pieces.

Her Seminars have included such topics as: Improvisational Fairy Tales & Personal Myth, Letting Go of the Judge, The Creative Classroom for Educators, Therapeutic Applications of Theater, Presentation Skills, Corporate Creative Problem Solving & Team Work, and ARt of Relating for Men & Women.

Events facilitated have included, among others, Game Jam, a Theater Games Social, and Demonstration Performances.