MARJORIE BALLENTINE trained extensively as an actor and apprenticed as a teacher directly under the tutelage of the legendary Stella Adler. Her training also includes work with Lee Strasberg, Uta Hagen, and Geraldine Page, as well as study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. From 1988 to 1991, she served as a faculty member of the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York, teaching Technique, Scene Study, and Script Interpretation to her classes, and as a member of the administration staff, she helped design and develop the curriculum. Today, Marjorie is one of the most sought-after acting coaches in Los Angeles and is considered by many to be one of the foremost living proponents of the Stella Adler technique. She has worked with and trained actors, such as Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Jessica Jones, Don’t Trust the B—in Apt 23) Nelsan Ellis ( Lafayette in True Blood; Martin Luther King, Jr, in Lee Daniels’ The Butler; Bobby Byrd in the James Brown biopic Get on Up and more), Gary Oldman, Owein Yeoman, Olga Merediz, Genesis Rodriguez, and others. She directed The Glass Menagerie Off Broadway, Vinegar Tom by Caryl Churchill at New Georges in New York City, Curse of the Starving Class by Sam Shepard (with her own theater company in New York); and In Los Angeles, she recently directed Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan with her newly founded theater company – BIG HOME. She has taught Directors’ Intensives in Brussels and Cuba, and Scene Study in Madrid.
