Chris Fields
Chris Fields is a director, actor, teacher, and producer.
As an actor, he has appeared on Broadway in James Duff’s Homefront with Carroll O’Connor and Frances Sternhagen directed by Sir Michael Attenborough, off Broadway in Gary Sinise’s original Steppenwolf production of Orphans, Michael Greif’s Machinal at both Naked Angels and The Public and the world premiere of David Ives’ Words Words Words at The Manhattan Punchline, to name just a few. Regionally, he’s worked at The Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, The Philadelphia Drama Guild, The Rep Theatre of St. Louis, The Missouri Repertory Theatre and was a proud member of the acting ensemble for Lloyd Richards at The Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. On film: Alien3, The Game, Fight Club and Zodiac for David Fincher as well as Jurassic Park, Apollo 13 and Stargate among others. He’s also appeared in numerous hour, half-hour, mini-series and mow’s on television.
In 1995, he founded the Ojai Playwrights Conference serving as Artistic Director until 2000. While there, he was responsible for bringing David Lindsay-Abaire and Adam Rapp to Southern California as well as workshopping Betty’s Summer Vacation by Christopher Durang and David Ives’ Polish Joke, among many others.
He founded The Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles in 1996 and, to date, as Artistic Director, he’s produced over a hundred plays. All of them premieres. Along the way, they have been nominated for and won numerous Ovation, LA Weekly, LADCC, Stage Raw and Scenie awards, Most recently, he directed the critically acclaimed Handjob by Erik Patterson as well as producing Poor Clare by Chiara Atik. He has won the LADCC Award for direction for Tommy Smith’s Firemen the LA Weekly Award for Gary Lennon’s A Family Thing and the Stage Raw for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Gloria.
He began teaching as an Adjunct Professor at SUNY Purchase in 1989 and since then has maintained a private studio in New York and Los Angeles. Over the years, his students have included Peter Facinelli, Danny Strong, Dave Giuntoli, Zach Quinto, Christine Estabrook, Kirk Acevedo, Emily Bergyl, Sprague Grayden, Mitch Pileggi, Sarah Carter, Emily Rose, Michael Learned, Ethan Embry, Sarah Jane Morris, Meghan Ory, Grant Shaud and Scott Wolf, to name a few.