Professor of acting named new leader of FSU/Asolo Conservatory

For 16 years, Andrei Malaev-Babel has been teaching students in the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, using distinctive techniques to prepare his students for the wide variety of roles they may someday get to perform on stage, film and television.

Now, he has been appointed as the director of the three-year graduate acting program that operates in Sarasota in collaboration with Asolo Repertory Theatre.

Malaev-Babel, who had served as head of acting since 2013, was named this summer by the Florida State University College of Fine Arts and School of Theatre to succeed Greg Leaming, who retired in July after 17 years running the program.

Arts Newsletter: Sign up to receive the latest news on the Sarasota area arts scene every Monday

Van Wezel’s future: Leaders answer your questions about new Sarasota Performing Arts Center project

Changing leaders: Sarasota theater company fires artistic director after only seven months

In a statement announcing his appointment, James Frazier, dean of the FSU College of Fine Arts, said Malaev-Babel is “a true leader in the field of actor training and we are thrilled to be engaging him in this new role.” And Linda DiGabriele, the managing director of Asolo Rep, said his “passion for training young artists is inspiring, and we welcome him enthusiastically to this leadership position at the Conservatory.”

Program faced challenge from students over diversity, race

His appointment comes two years after the program faced a challenge from some students who issued a call to action about the lack of diversity and race-related issues in the graduate acting program and at Asolo Rep, where the students perform during their third year.

The call to action was in response to a statement issued by Asolo Rep in June 2020 in  solidarity with Black Lives Matter in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Asolo Rep, like many other arts organizations around the country at the time, posted a statement that it was taking a stand against “oppression, racism and hate.”

The students said it was a false statement, citing a history of neglect of Black writers, faculty members and guest artists in the Conservatory program and the limited number of plays by Black writers and other people of color produced by the theater over the previous 20 years.

Meetings and negotiations with university officials led to some changes in the program, the lineup of guest artists and the production of works by Black artists and Black directors.

A look inside the FSU/Asolo Conservatory: Students get technical in acting class

Directors leaving: Asolo Rep leaders will step down in 2023 amid a wave of theater changes nationwide

Building the future: Asolo Rep expands production operations with new rehearsal facility

Musicals and dramas: Asolo Rep announces new season of shows, framed by 'Cabaret' and 'Man of La Mancha'

A task force was created involving students, leaders of the conservatory, Asolo Rep and FSU on how to better diversify programming and the curriculum.

“Tremendous work has been done and progress has been made but I think we still have work to do,” Malaev-Babel said. “The students who penned the letter graduate and it would be easy to forget what was promised, but we can not do that. That’s why I want to continue building bridges between our current students and our alumni.” He said it is important to make sure the students “feel that the climate is changing, the dialogue is changing and the culture is changing.”

Andrei Malaev-Babel touts expertise, stability

Malaev-Babel, 55, said he brings special expertise to the job because of his long involvement with the school and profession.

“You need the integral knowledge of the educational process, you need to have someone who loves students and admires them as true artists and independent professionals, not just as students,” he said. “This is a graduate school and you must be treated like a professional and act like a professional.”

He also said he brings “a certain pinch of stability” at a time of great change and transition for conservatory and Asolo Rep, where Di Gabriele and Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards plan to step down from their positions next summer.

The conservatory works in partnership with Asolo Rep. The students study acting, movement, speech and other disciplines in their first year, before moving on to presenting their own season of four plays in the second year. They also work as understudies for Asolo Rep productions. By their third year, they become members of the Asolo Rep acting company.

Malaev-Babel said the relationship between the two institutions is strong and he has been meeting with Di Gabriele and Edwards “about how we can improve this collaboration and move forward.” One issue they have discussed is securing affordable housing for the students.

“Asolo Rep and the conservatory and the main campus in Tallahassee are committed to developing housing for our students or we will lose them to our competitors,” he said. “That is one way we can work together as one institution with the same needs. These students are integral to the Asolo Rep program even as they are at the heart of everything we are doing.”

He plans to continue as the lead acting teacher and to hire a faculty member to fill the vacancy left by Leaming’s departure who might focus on text analysis and help students with their understudy assignments.

In announcing the new season of four shows for the second-year students, Leaming left two slots open for his successor to fill, and the schedule has since been rearranged. it will  open with a stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” by Kate Hamill, running Nov. 1-20. It will be directed by James Dean Palmer, who staged “Arcadia” in 2018 and “Julius Caesar” in 2017. 2008 graduate Marcus Denard Johnson will stage Lydia Diamond’s “Stick Fly,” running Jan. 3-22.

Kirstin Franklin, a 2010 graduate who has directed several productions at Sarasota’s Urbanite theatre, will stage J.B. Priestley’s mystery “An Inspector Calls” (Feb. 21-March 12). The season will close with Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” to be directed by faculty member Jonathan Epstein, who specializes in Shakespeare. It runs April 4-23.

“We also will have some alumni in to teach workshops,” he said. DeAnna Wright, a 2019 graduate with experience in theater, film and rhythmic movement will be a Visiting Assistant Professor this year.

“DeAnna is a powerful actor, and she embodies her FSU/Asolo Conservatory training,” Malaev-Babel said. “We have a lot of connections with our graduates that we want to use,” he said.

He also is hopeful of bringing back the Dog Days Theatre, which Leaming launched in 2017 as a summer entry to provide work for alumni and actors in the community. It ran for three summers before a pandemic pause.

“It’s a great idea, bringing together our illustrious alumni who are doing a tremendous job as professionals and local actors in the community. That fusion is a brilliant idea and that must be continued,” he said.

Malaev-Babel is a specialist in the acting style and lessons of 20th century Russian Nikolai Demidov, whom he describes as “the closest associate to Konstantin Stanislavski.”

Demidov was the first editor of Stanislavski’s book “An Actor Prepares” and the first director of the Moscow Art Theater School, but he grew to disagree with Stanislavski “and knowing from recent Russian events, you don’t disagree with Russian authority,” said the Russian-born and trained Malaev-Babel. “He suffered a great deal from disagreeing with Stanislavski. For decades his work was forbidden from being taught in Russia.”

The style is “ultimately aimed at making an actor an independent co-creator, improvisational and self-reliant kind of actor. Someone who is free on stage, who knows how to prepare and can take anything from a director, be it blocking or line reading and find a way to make it their own.”

Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota acting school FSU/Asolo Conservatory gets new director