Opportunities opened for Alyssa as a designer and a director that set the stage for her professional career. While playing the role of the nemesis in a production of The Blue Bird, Alyssa was also hired by the director to design masks for the show. Mask-making came naturally to the daughter of visual artists who created elaborate costumes each Halloween.

Love of physical theater led Alyssa to intensive studies in Commedia Dell’Arte (comedic 17th century Italian street theater), corporeal mime, and clown and mask performance at the Dell’Arte School in Blue Lake, California, from which she graduated in 1992. She further advanced her skills in master classes with Sue Morrison, Ole Brekke, and Scott Kelman.

With numerous directing credits to her name including Scapin, Reckless, Parallel Lives, and Marvin’s Room, Alyssa wrote and directed Orlando Eats Children with Wine as well. She is now developing her own company, the Ravenwood Performance Group. Her areas of creative expertise include:

DIRECTING: Alyssa has served as director and assistant director for theater companies, universities, and school productions across the United States. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the Portland Theatre Drammy Award and the Regional Arts and Culture Council Grant. Coming from both sides of the curtain she characterizes herself as “a director who empowers her cast and crew more than most. I encourage them to be bold and engaged, to make daring choices, and try new things.” Her expertise at staging productions allows her to coach ensembles to create improvisational scripts, choreographed with appropriate movements and gestures. She also guides solo performers in the full development of their acts.

TEACHING: Alyssa consistently receives rave reviews for her workshops. The physical theater and mask technique expert works on location to share her knowledge with actors, producers, directors, and school-age children. She innovated her popular Physical Boot Camp Theatre ™, individualized to the needs of each production, to provide actors with the necessary training to achieve excellent “in the moment” results. This keeps both the actors and the audience thoroughly engaged in the play, a different performance every time.

MASK AND MAKEUP DESIGN: Alyssa is recognized in the theater community worldwide for her superb character masks with expressive faces. She emphasizes the importance of providing actors with correct mask techniques so that performances appear heartfelt and magical at once. Makeup design is a natural extension of Alyssa’s artistic talents. She creates both fantasy and realistic effects makeup for theater, film, and television.

Here, Alyssa shares some of her present ambitious and diverse professional plans. In the early stages, her Ravenwood Performance Group is experimenting with alternative dimensions in physical theatricality, finding ways to incorporate mask, clown, and abstract expressionism into productions. Soon, Ravenwoodmsks.com will offer superb new mask designs in the U.S. and abroad, including the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters, Pinocchio, and fairies. Her innovative teaching workshops, including the movement techniques of Scott Kelman, continue to develop actors in clown and mask performance.

Inspirational and multi-talented, a creative force in the world of physical theater, this is Alyssa Ravenwood.

- Ellen Seiden
© 2008

Photo credit
The Press Enterprise
Bloomsburg Pennsylvania
May 20, 2000