Our Team
Tod Engle (actor/producer)
Tod staring acting when he was nine being directed by Paul Newman in the movie Rachael, Rachael.
Tod's other films include: Love in the Age of Dion, It Had to Be You, Curtain Call, Love the Hard Way, Second Glance, High Society: On the Hook and Cycle Unknown. Tod was an instructor at Weist Barron and holds a communications degree from Fordham University.
Tod's TV apperances have been on "Law and Order: SVU," "The Sopranos," "Hope and Faith," "The Onion News Network," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Late Show with David Letterman," "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and "One Life to Live." He also played opposite Tina Fey and Jon Stewart in "A Night of Too Many Stars."
He has appeared in numerous New York stage productions in lead roles of "Faust," "Titus Andronicus," "Richard III," "Richard II," " The Three Sisters," The Cherry Orchard, and "La Locandiera" among others.
Teaching Philosophy
"Acting has been a joy for me since I was a kid. Both of my parents were actors so I always saw, and have always had, a love for this business. When teaching acting for commercials we are met with a very unique challenge. How do we tell a story and create a character in 15 or 30 seconds with one line, one word, or just a reaction? It is about learning to make it simple. I believe we all have something special about us as people and actors. I try to find that in each actor and let them see it in themselves."
Tod is a memeber of Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild.
Frank S. Petrilli (director/writer)
Frank is the Creative Director of Hurricane Development, a developer of screenplays and spec scripts for film and TV. He is also a Producing Partner of DERELICT Films, an award winning, low-budget Independent Film partnership specializing in "Art House meets Grind House" features with films already in distribution.
Frank was the Business Manager and Production Head, for ten years, with Hylen Sharp Advertising in Manhattan and Connecitcut, which was affiliated with Hachette Filipachi Magazines (ElLLE, ELLE Decor, Premiere, Woman’s Day, Road & Track, Car & Driver, Car Stereo Review, to name a few) and whose client list included SONY, JVC, ONKYO, MB QUART, MIRAMAX Films, October Films, World Wrestling Entertainment. For HFM, Hylen Sharp developed SONY Style Magazine as well as INDIE Magazine, a bi-monthly publication about the growing Independent Film business of which Frank was the Managing Editor. He was also associated with the Austin Lawrence Group, an advertising and PR company in New York, Connecticut and the UK. He also worked for Pickwick Entertainment, a distributor of film & music, which embodied The Moss Music Group and Marketing Int'l Video. Frank also was withThe Listening Library, the original company to put books on an audio medium for the visually impaired and students. Guest readers were Meryl Streep, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, to name a few.
Frank was an instructor at Weist Barron. He has “guest directed” stage at Manhattanville College and instructed Theater at Sacred Heart University. Frank also was an adjunct stage director & on-camera instructor at Western Connecticut State University. He was a Technical Theater instructor for The Greenwich, CT Board of Education. He is also an instructor and director of Theatre, Film Appreciation, Art of the Cinema and Dramatic Writing for The Stamford Board of Education Continuing Ed Program. Frank also chairs “Reel Writers,” a weekly workshop for screenwriters and other dramatic writers.
Frank is the Producing Artistic Director and co-founder of the Acme Stage Company, the former Artistic Director of New York’s Theatre Ten Ten, and former Managing Artistic Director of the Oakwood Players Theater in Los Angeles at The Actor's Alley. He directed many Summer & Regional Theater productions in New England. But, his great love as a director is collaborating with writers on the development of new works.
Frank’s training is as diverse as his directing credits, having studied at the New York Academy of Theatrical Arts with actors Bruce Dern, Gordon Phillips,Elaine Shore and Norman Barrs; trained with Bob Balaban and Austin Pendleton at the Hartman Theatre Company Conservatory, and again with the prestigious Broadway director Jose Quintero at New York’s Van Dam Theater, with the acclaimed Shakespearean actor Morris Carnovsky and well-known actor/author, Delia Salvi, in Los Angeles; “Shakespeare” with Sarah Keevill and Mary Johnson of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Stanislavsky Acting Technique with Beatrice Heddericg. His cinema training includes studies at the University of Bridgeport with Michael Kerbel, Warren Bass, Anton Wilson and Richard Neubert.
Frank has memberships and associations in the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, The Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America, east.