A Brief History of Playhouse West's Annual Film Festival

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Playhouse West is a training ground for actors, writers and directors founded by Robert Carnegie and Jeff Goldblum in 1981. As an adjunct to our on-going acting classes, we produce plays in repertory, using exclusively our current students, which are directed and often written by Playhouse West staff members and students. The Playhouse West theatrical production of "Welcome Home, Soldier" won "Best Play of 1991" and is currently the longest running play in L.A., now in its 15th year. Modeled upon the Group Theatre of the thirties, and owing much to its founders, Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, and Elia Kazan, Playhouse West has been dedicated to keeping alive and promulgating a passion for realistic acting and the presentation of ensemble productions that address the current social moment.
This idea of an ensemble of actors who train and do plays together has grown to include film productions. In 1995, our long-time staff member, Jeff Goldblum, directed a film for Showtime, Little Surprises, which starred an ensemble of Playhouse West actors along with such notables as Rod Steiger and Julie Harris. This short film went on to garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Motion Picture Short.
Progressively over the years, more and more film projects have been initiated, written, produced, directed and acted almost exclusively by our members. This eventually prompted, in 1996, the conception of the Annual Playhouse West Film Festival. Every year now we hold our three day film festival dedicated to showing the best films that have either been written, produced, directed or are starring our current or former students. Some of these films have gone on to gain notoriety and acclaim.
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