Step Into Excellence!

At Actor's Gymnasium, we believe that the guidance of exceptional mentors can transform your artistic journey. Our renowned instructors bring a wealth of experience, expertise, and innovation to every class, ensuring that you receive top-tier education and training.

Ready to Excel? Meet Our Pro Training Faculty Instructors!

Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi (PROGRAM DIRECTOR), is Artistic Director of The Actors Gymnasium. She also serves as master teacher and director of The Professional Circus Training Program and is a faculty member at Northwestern University’s Department of Theatre. Sylvia is a second generation circus performer who grew up touring with various circuses, including Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey. In 2019, she and her family, The Hernandez Troupe, were inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame for their monumental contributions to the world of circus. Sylvia is an ensemble member of the Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre Company, where she has worked on over 20 productions. She has received 4 Joseph Jefferson Awards for her work with Lookingglass (Lookingglass Alice, Hard Times, Baron in the Trees) and Marriott Theatre (All Night Strut), and a total of 5 Joseph Jefferson nominations. In 2018, she won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and a Robby Award, both for designing the acrobatic/aerial choreography of the South Coast Repertory staging of Moby Dick. Other theater credits include The Lyric Opera, Writer’s Theatre, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago Children’s Theater and The Goodman. Sylvia is the recipient of The 3Arts Award for Design (2014), and also received an Award of Honor for Outstanding Contributions by The Illinois Theater Association.

Adeoye / DÉO (he, him) is an interdisciplinary Performing Artist. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where earned his BA in Law, Letters, and Society, and of The George Washington University, where he earned his MFA in Classical Acting.  He is certified as a Meditation Guide, as a Yoga Teacher, and as a Pilates Trainer.  Having been a student at The Actors Gymnasium, it thrills him to join the faculty. Adeoye has performed in Regional Theatres across the country and around Chicago, including Lookigglass Theatre, where he serves as an Actor and as a Teaching Artist.  Adeoye is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Quicksilver Shakespeare Company, an experimental ensemble of Artists committed to Diversity and Inclusion in Performance, currently producing #QuicksilverQuarantine in the digital Zoom Space. quicksilvershakespeare.org

David Catlin is a founding ensemble member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company, the recipient of the 2011 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Catlin is a theatre-maker who acts, writes, directs, and teaches. His work has appeared in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Syracuse, Louisville, and Princeton, New Jersey. Catlin has appeared in, directed, or written & directed over thirty-three productions for Lookingglass. Recent Lookingglass acting credits include Arabian Nights, directed by Mary Zimmerman, and Our Town, directed by Anna Shapiro and Jessica Thebus. Recent directing credits include Black Diamond (co-direction) and Metamorphosis. Recent writing & directing credits include Icarus, Lookingglass Alice, The Little Prince and Moby Dick. Catlin helped found Dark Harbor Stories, a film development company. He was a producer for (and appeared in) the independent film Humanoid. David can also be seen in Since You’ve Been Gone (Miramax/Film Colony/Lookingglass). He also teaches acting at Northwestern University, and is a frequent director of productions at the School of Communication’s Theatre and Interpretation Center.

Amanda Crockett has been passionate about laughter since she started clowning alongside her father at age 9. She created and performed a principal character and hat juggling role for Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson ONE, won an Audience Choice Award at the Krystallpalast in Germany and has been called a “virtuoso” by clown luminary Avner the Eccentric. After training at Circus Smirkus and the Celebration Barn Theater, Crockett graduated from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater and went on to study circus in Australia, Chicago and San Francisco. After 25 of years of experience onstage, she is most well-known for her uniquely skilled and hilarious fusions of comedy, trapeze, mime and hat juggling that have made audiences around the world fall in love with her.

In addition to performing, Crockett has coached circus and physical theater around the US and South America since 1999, and has taught locally at Second City, Actors Gymnasium, Aloft, CircEsteem, and as an artist in residence at Kendall Elementary. In 2015, she was Program Director of Aloft’s Full Time Training Program and became Creative Consultant for Circus Flora in St. Louis. She is a NASM certified personal trainer and Performance Enhancement Specialist and is constantly seeking to learn more to enhance her own training and that of her students. Most recently, Crockett was a headlining performer at the 2016 IJA Festival, was a principal performer in Circus Flora’s 30th Anniversary show, Pastime, and was featured in the Actors Gymnasium’s Quest.

Adrian Danzig was Producing Artistic Director of 500 Clown,  a Chicago-based Clown Theater ensemble that toured nationally. He  performed the shows in the 500 Clown touring repertoire: 500 Clown Macbeth, 500 Clown Frankenstein, 500 Clown Christmas, and 500 Clown Trapped. More recently he performed as a Dancer / Actor / Clown with Lucky Plush Productions The Better Half and in The House Theatre’s A Comedical History for Mr. Punch, he payed both Antipholi, in California Shakespeare Festival’s production of A Comedy of Errors, Caliban in The Feast : an Intimate Tempest at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Medvedenko in The Seagull at Lake Lucille Chekov, Orlando at The Court Theater. In addition he has performed in shows at The Goodman theatre, The Second City, Steppenwolf Studio, Berkeley Rep, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Public Theater, and with Shakespeare & Company and Lookingglass Theatre Company. He has performed his solo works at The Kitchen, P.S. 122, The Ontological Hysteric Theater and Soho Rep. He was an early Neo-futurist and a founding member of Redmoon Theater. He has studied clown with Ctibor Turba, Philippe Gaulier, Ronlin Foreman, Dominique Jando, Els Comediants, David Shiner, Avner the Eccentric and was a clown with Big Apple Circus Clown Care for 7 years.

As a teacher, in addition to hundreds of workshops and master classes around the country and internationally, he was on faculty at The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University for 7 years where he taught Movement, Acting, Comedy, Circus Arts, and directed devised works. He has created 500 Clown based workshops for doctors, business schools, hotel employees, division 2 athletes, incarcerated youth and Chicago-based performers, social workers, and other interested types.

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Join us at Actor's Gymnasium for an extraordinary opportunity to learn and thrive under the guidance of these exceptional instructors. Each brings a distinctive blend of expertise, creativity, and passion to help you reach new heights in your performing arts journey!

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PRO Training

Take your performing career to new heights. Our Professional Circus Training Program is the clearest expression of our mission to develop well-rounded, physical performers.

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See The Impossible Made Possible

Why learn circus stunts if not to perform for an audience? We have regular shows and events that are just as special for spectators as they are for us.

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