Faculty

R. A. White was a founding member of The Actors’ Gang, the influential, Los Angeles-based theater company. He worked as an actor, designer, writer and director for two decades in the Los Angeles and San Francisco theater communities, during which time he became the director of development for Tim Robbins' film company, Havoc Inc. There, he oversaw the development of the award-winning Dead Man Walking and the acclaimed documentary about writer-director Sam Fuller: The Typewriter, the Rifle & the Movie Camera. At the same time, he rose to become associate artistic director of The Actors' Gang, a fertile period in which its reputation was cemented as one of Los Angeles' most daring and vital theater companies.

His Los Angeles theater credits include, as playwright: Freaks; The Big Show; The Amazing Kozmo; and the stage adaptation of Nathanael West's A Cool Million: The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin, all at The Actors' Gang. His San Francisco directing credits include: bert sees the light at Intersection for the Arts; the world premiere of Pieces of the Quilt by Lanford Wilson, Philip Kan Gotanda, Migdalia Cruz, Erin Cressida Wilson, Danny Hoch, Naomi Iizuka and Octavio Solis; the West Coast premiere of Nicky Silver's Fat Men in Skirts; and the world premiere of David Barth’s The Last Frontier, all at The Magic Theatre.

White's first short film, Frank’s Book, starring John C. Reilly, won critical acclaim and key awards at film festivals around the world, including the Athens International Film & Video Festival, the HBO/U.S. Comedy Arts Festival and Shorts International, and received the Canal Plus Award at the Deauville American Film Festival. He has been a working screenwriter and script doctor in Los Angeles for the past decade, and is a proud member of the WGA.

White earned his B.A. in theater from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.