Elizabeth Elias Huffman

Actor

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Elizabeth Elias Huffman recently played Rose in the Los Angeles premiere of The Children and is delighted to dig deeper with such an amazing team of artists.  She is the Artistic Director of Chain Reaction Theatre, an international production company currently located in the Pittsburgh area. Elizabeth is a multiple recipient of Portland’s Drammy Awards for directing and design and she is also an actor, teacher and playwright. She has directed or acted regionally in theatre around the USA and internationally in London, Scotland, and at various theatres in Germany. 

Elizabeth spends most of her time creating theatre but she has also appeared in the independent films Mercy Street, Girl Before a Mirror, and Kiss of the Killer. She has guest starred on the series The Librarians, In The Vault, and plays The Headmistress in the upcoming film Who are You People, directed by Ben Epstein, currently in post-production. 

As a playwright she has enjoyed critical success in her solo show Not My Revolution.  The play continues to tour and has played in Germany, Portland, New Mexico, New York and will open at Carnegie Stages in Pittsburgh in June 2022.  Not My Revolution was recently included in a new book titled Middle Eastern American Theatre by Dr. Michael Malek Najjar. Her new musical The Shakespeare Café is currently in development in Pittsburgh following an earlier version she directed for Bremer Shakespeare Company in Bremen, Germany in 2018.  Elizabeth also wrote and directed a bilingual Day of the Dead play, Amor Añejo, for Milagro Theatre in 2019. She is currently writing and devising a new theatre project The Sphere of Human Folly. 

Elizabeth has served as Artistic Director or Co-Artistic Director of four classical theatre companies. The Beacon Project in New York, The Classical Theatre Lab in Los Angeles, her international company ICAP in Los Angeles and The Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon in Portland.  

As a director, she is known for her revisionist productions of classical plays.  Some of her projects include: King John, The Tempest, The Trojan Women, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Mary Stuart, Lion in Winter, The Man of Mode, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Iphigenia in Aulis, Troilus and Cressida, Oedipus the King, Ladies Man, The Rope, Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like it, The Rehearsal, The Roman Actor, Poor Bitos, The Liars. 

 She has also directed or devised contemporary work including: Oedipus El Rey, Watsonville, Some Place Not Here, Night Breath, American Night, The Gift Horse, November, Somewhere Between the Sky and Sea, Landscape of Dreams in Seven Movements, Notes on Drowning, Playing with the Gods, and Amor Añejo.

As an actress Elizabeth has appeared in regional theatres in the United States, and internationally. Last summer she appeared in The Oldest Profession by Paula Vogel for Profile Theatre in Portland.  Other regional theatre appearances include: 9 Parts of Desire (Best Actress award: Raleigh NC), Escaped Alone, Not My Revolution, The Absence of Wanting, We Made Bread, Year of the Rooster, Vanya, Sonya, Masha and Spike, String of Pearls, Iphigenia in Aulis, Phaedra, Evanescence or Shakespeare in the Alley, King Lear, Macbeth, Trojan Women, Hyde Park, Night Breath, The Lucky Chance, Charley’s Aunt, Boston Marriage, Summertime, The Bald Soprano, The Way of the World, and Whale Watchers.

Elizabeth has created an online course Fear of Shakespeare and she teaches and coaches actors in many countries.  She has taught classical theatre at The Lee Strasberg Institute and Theatre of Arts in Los Angeles, The Portland Conservatory and has guest taught a variety of workshops from Shakespeare, Greek Theatre, Restoration, Myths and Masks and The Evolution of Theatre at festivals and schools in the USA and internationally. 

She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, ACTORS EQUITY, SDC STAGE DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHERS, & is a member of MENA (Middle Eastern National Association)