- Craig Ricci Shaynak
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Craig Ricci Shaynak Born Northport, New York Occupation Stage, television, film actor Website http://www.craigshaynak.com Craig Ricci Shaynak (born 1969), sometimes credited as Craig Shaynak, is a character actor based in Los Angeles, CA. He has been active in Chicago and Los Angeles theatre and more recently, national television and film.
Shaynak was born in Northport, New York. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Medieval Drama in 1991 and is one of a few American students of Medieval Pageant Plays. Under the tutelage of David Bevington, renowned Shakespeare scholar, he produced Everyman, the 16th Century morality play, as well as The Second Shepherds' Play in the original Middle English. In fact, Mr. Shaynak's first professional theatre production after university was to be the dramaturg for a production of The Mystery Cycle, an American adaptation of a British modernization of the Wakefield Cycle, but instead became his first professional acting experience. The adaptation was done by Nicholas Rudall, at the time, Artistic Director of the Court Theatre, and Bernard Sahlins, one of the founders of The Second City and SCTV.
Shaynak's latest film, The Informant, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon, opened in September 2009. Previous roles include an on camera appearance with Christian Bale in Harsh Times, and voicework in Happy Feet, Night at the Museum, and One Night With the King.
Craig recently returned from France where he performed his original piece Cowboys & Indians in French at the Festival d'Avignon. He also performed the piece in English at the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe where he also debuted his new children's show, Mr. Fizzywigg's Story Factory. Previous live theatre productions include Stealing Buffalo at the Gardner Stages in Hollywood, CA, Cowboys & Indians; Dot Not Feather at the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Fat, Bald & Loud at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Craig also works often with Vern Urich in plays written by author David Mamet (American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-The-Plow).
Craig has started a production company called Kingswell Productions named for the street on which he lives, coincidentally, the same street upon which Walt Disney had his first studio.[citation needed]
External links
Categories:- 1969 births
- American film actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Living people
- People from Long Island
- University of Chicago alumni
- American theatre actor, 20th century birth stubs
- American screen actor, 1960s birth stubs
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