educators

Erica Arvold

Erica Arvold​, owner and CEO of arvold., has spent 30 years as a casting director, educator, speaker, producer, writer, director and an advocate for screen artists. Erica has contributed to, participated in, or helmed the making of over 140 films, 85 television shows, and countless multimedia & commercial projects. 

Casting credits include Dopesick, Charm City Kings, The Daylong Brothers, The Evening Hour, Freaky Friday the 13th, The Good Lord Bird, Harriet, House of Cards, Lincoln, Loving, The President is Missing, Red Notice, Swagger, and Turn: Washington’s Spies. Erica directed the short films Thursday and Here Today, for which she won ‘Best First Time Director’ at Indie Short Fest Los Angeles. She has served as a producer on projects including Coming Through the Rye, Elemental, House Hunting, Josephine, Texas Rein, Time Machine Guitar, and Wish You Well. Erica’s early career, with thanks to her mentors, includes films Backdraft, Charlotte’s Web, Gods & Monsters, The Horse Whisperer, In Her Shoes, A League of Their Own, Love Jones, Mad City, Rudy, and Runaway Bride.

Erica has worked with ABC, AMC, Amazon, Apple TV+, Blumhouse, CBS, Disney, Dreamworks, Focus, Fox, Hallmark, HBO, History, Imagine, NatGeo, Netflix, Paramount, Scott Free, Showtime, Sony, SYFY, Universal, USA, and Warner Brothers as well as many independent filmmakers and creatives. She has been nominated for CSA’s Artios Award five times, inducted into First Lady of Virginia’s Opportunity Hall of Fame for contributing to the economic growth in the state, and is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Casting Society of America, and Producers Guild of America. 

As an advocate for artists, she has spoken, moderated panels, and mentored filmmakers at Austin Film Festival Screenwriters Conference, Independent Television Festival, Richmond International Film Festival, and Virginia Film Festival, among others. 

In 2010, Erica founded arvold.education to cultivate artistic growth in actors and filmmakers, which quickly expanded into offering classes for all humans. Her collaboration with master teacher/actor/director Richard Warner is now Arvold Warner Studio, and focuses on actor training. Her rehearsal for life program, META, focuses on positive personal and professional acceleration for all humans. META is often invited into the business and leadership world of corporate coaching, applying tools and methodology of actor training to learn effective communication, engagement, and trust.

Erica is grateful to the many filmmakers, actors, and humans who have entrusted her to collaborate over the years. Her company ​arvold.​ is headquartered in Charlottesville, VA and has offices in Atlanta, GA.

 

Richard Warner

Richard Warner taught acting at the University of Virginia for 30 years, where he coached such luminaries as Tina Fey, Ben McKenzie, Sean Patrick Thomas, Jason George, Sarah Drew, and Emily Swallow.

He was awarded UVa’s Outstanding Teacher Award, the Mayo Distinguished Teaching Professorship and was selected as an inaugural member of the University Academy of Teaching. An active member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA, he has acted in over one hundred roles in film, TV, and professional theater. His acting credits include Spielberg’s Lincoln, Patriot Son (winner of the 1998 LA Film Fest indie short category), Waking Marshall Walker, and Homicide: Life on the Street. His stage direction/acting credits include Hamlet, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, A Raisin in the Sun, Laramie Project and Driving Miss Daisy. Richard currently divides his time between New York City and wherever he is called as an on-set acting coach.

Lauren Buglioli

Lauren Buglioli grew up in Los Angeles, CA and London, England, working from childhood in film, television, and theatre.

Her training includes London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, LAMDA, NYU, Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, UCB, Arvold Warner Studio and Mornell Studios, amongst others. She most recently worked on Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan and the feature, Brutal Bridesmaids. Lauren is also a voiceover artist and currently the voice of her favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel.

She has a Degree in Early Childhood Education and Special Education from NYU and over 15 years teaching experience, varying from NYU Tisch’s Teen Summer program, teaching drama and dance to children with Down Syndrome and working as a Head Pre-K Teacher at Avenues: The World School in Manhattan. 

She is a spin instructor, proud self-development nerd, Beygency member, and an avid hugger.

Evan Bergman

Evan Bergman is an actor, theatre director, and educator.

Evan has been an acting instructor at the University of Virginia, Ohio University, University of Kentucky, and Transylvania University. He teaches acting for various studios in Atlanta and founded Actors Room Atlanta where he does private acting coaching and self-taping for actors.

Most recently Evan played the french chef, Charles, in the Adult Swim Pilot Lusty Crest which won its comedic category at SXSW 2020. Recent stage credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, Burn This, Big Love, The Merchant of Venice, and Peter and the Starcatcher.

Evan trained in the Meisner Approach to acting with renowned master teacher Maggie Flanigan at her two-year conservatory in NYC. He also trained in Viewpoints and Suzuki with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in their Saratoga Intensive.

Evan holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting, awarded by the University of Virginia.

 

Courtney Jamison

Courtney Jamison is an award winning multi-hyphenate artist born and raised in Richmond, Virginia.

She participated in her first show with the non-profit School of The Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC) at the age of 11. During her experiences with SPARC, she served as a performer, stage-manager, assistant director, and intern. This well-rounded experience fostered a love of the theater, music, film, community involvement, activism, and mentorship through the arts. Courtney attended James Madison University, where she studied Musical Theatre. She is also a graduate of The Yale School of Drama MFA Acting Program, where some of her credits include: Slave Play, If Pretty Hurts…, Some Bodies Travel, The Three Sisters, Passion, and The Winter’s Tale. Other theatre credits Include: School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play (MCC Theater); Assassins (Yale Repertory Theatre); Dreamgirls and The Color Purple (Virginia Repertory Theatre). Television/Film Credits: Paper Friends (BET HER) and Alternatino with Arturo Castro (Comedy Central). With her brother Jai as director, Courtney starred in the short film, Slave Cry, which won the 2019 Commonwealth Award for Best Short Film at the Virginia Film Festival. Her directorial debut, Day 74, recently won the 2020 Curbside Shorts Film Challenge Grand Prize sponsored by Women in Film LA, IMDbPro, and Re-Frame Project. She believes deeply in the power of art as a form of activism to change minds, open hearts, spread empathy, and give all of us more insight into our own humanity. Courtney now lives in Los Angeles. She enjoys photography, traveling, cooking delicious Vegan meals and staying active. She’s also a huge nerd for text analysis!

Eva DeVirgilis

Hailing from NYC, Eva DeVirgilis brings her experience as an actor, coach, and keynote speaker to the Mid-Atlantic region.  Eva teaches Acting Extravaganza and additional beginning acting classes for arvold.education.

Eva studied with prominent actor Vincent D’Onofrio and credits him for teaching her the foundation of acting craft.  She shares techniques she learned from Mr. D’Onofrio in her On-Camera Acting Intensive classes. She was recently seen on stage in Sam and Carol, a role created for her by New York Times best-selling author, David L. Robbins; and is starring in Robbins’ next world premiere, The End Of War. Eva has been featured on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Turn: Washington’s Spies, Legends & Lies: The Patriots, along with numerous other TV, film, commercials and web series. Known for her comedy, she performs improv regularly at the Coalition Theater in Richmond, VA. An activist for radical self-acceptance, Eva speaks across the country to women about ‘Ending the Apology.’ Her inspirational TEDxTalk, In My Chair, is the most watched talk in TEDxRVA history. Eva has a BFA in Musical Theatre from The New School University, NYC, and is an adjunct professor at VCU School of Business. Learn more at EvaDeVirgilis.com

Judith Reagan

As a teacher and coach with more than twenty years’ experience at the University of Virginia as Associate Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and in the Department of Drama, Judith Reagan has coached oral presentation for faculty and students at UVA, JMU, Tulane, Cornell and Georgetown and has worked with legal, medical, engineering, and business professionals.

She’s taught at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, the Virginia Municipal League, the Virginia Association of Government Archives & Records Administrators and TEDx Charlottesville. She is interested in cultural aspects of language and communication and is delighted when participants in sessions include those for whom English is their second (or fifth!) language. She enjoys sharing techniques actors use to help those in other professions develop a more intentional, confident approach to public presentation.  As fear of public speaking is acute for many, how actors handle stage fright is a topic of keen interest! Crafting a personal plan for effective preparation and delivery can disarm anxiety so in Judith’s sessions are active, on their feet, learning exercises that develop vocal and physical flexibility and stamina and a calm state of mind. Exercises are fun and obviously effective, motivating many participants to use them regularly, incorporating them into their real and busy lives. Rather than simply better understanding concepts related to speaking, attendees can emerge with a practical, customized plan for improvement.

Judith is a longtime member of Actors’ Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA. In Virginia she has performed at Theatre Virginia, Heritage Rep, ShenanArts and Wayside, and has worked onstage in NYC, Washington DC, and at regional and summer stock theatres in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Television credits include a national commercial, appearances on daytime drama, and five years as a weather reporter for Charlottesville’s NBC affiliate.

Scott Wichmann

Scott Wichmann is an award-winning stage, film and television actor who has served as Actor-in-Residence at the University of Richmond and as adjunct public speaking professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business.  He teaches Acting Extravaganza and additional beginning acting classes for arvold.education.

Scott is a native of Pittsfield, Massachusetts whose credits include Loving, Lincoln, Shooting the Prodigal, Turn:Washington’s Spies and the Hallmark Movie Channel film Lake Effects. In 2016 Scott was featured as his hero, John Adams, on both the FOX News Series Legends and Lies:The Patriots and in the musical 1776 at Virginia Repertory Theatre. Other VA Rep credits include The Producers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Say Goodnight Gracie, Fully Committed, Last of the Red Hot Lovers and This Wonderful Life. He can be seen in the world premiere play The End of War at VA Rep in March 2017.  Scott is an accomplished cabaret performer, director, and author of several educational plays for Theatre IV America. He holds a B.A. in Theatre and Speech from Wagner College, Staten Island, N.Y., and proudly serves as a Mass Communications Specialist in the U.S. Navy Reserve.