Ellen Geer

About Ellen

• Visiting Associate Professor
• Office: 2353 Macgowan
• E-mail:
• Phone: 310-205-1622

Biography

Ellen Geer has been Artistic Director for the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum since 1978. She helped the theater develop from a Sunday afternoon workshop performing Shakespeare, to a professional repertory theatre company now in its seventeenth season with a negotiated Actors Equity Contract. She has directed over 50 Theatricum productions, including Shakespeare, Tennesee Williams, Chekov, Thorton Wilder and Greek classics, and has mounted several of her own written works. She plays a leading role in bringing theater education to Los Angeles school children through several successful Theatricum sponsored programs, such as “School Days,” “Classroom Enrichment” and the “Academy for the Classics.” She continues her extensive acting career, which began at many of the major regional theaters; The Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, The American Conservatory Theatre of San Francisco and the Globe Shakespeare Festival of San Diego. Currently, her work in film and television supports her Theatricum habit. Some of her films include “Harold and Maude,” “Hard Traveling,” “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Phenomenon” and the “Odd Couple II.” She teaches acting to graduate students at UCLA with an emphasis on Shakespeare and other classics.