School of Theatre Arts

Lyuda Kizer was born in the Ukraine and trained at the prestigious and highly selective Schukin Theatre Institute at the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow. She worked as a professional film actor for two years, and spent 16 years in the company at the Tolstoy Repertoire Theatre in Lipetsk. While there she performed classical and contemporary plays, creating more than 40 characters, which is quite a feat for a Russian repertory theatre. After marrying an American, she moved to the U.S. in 1993 where she had to learn English and adjust to a whole new culture. She took every opportunity she could find to perform. Lyuda participated in a reading of Ionesco's Exit the King with Chicago's Breadline Theatre and the Alliance Francaise. Lyuda has worked as an actress at Cemetery Walk (she wrote her monologue for the play) and performed at Heartland Theatre in Bloomington in a show titled Russian Dressing. At Illinois Wesleyan, she teaches Acting and used to teach Russian language. She has been teaching at SoTA since 1995. Lyuda speaks Ukrainian, Russian and English.

Education

Pedagogical Institute, Sumy, Ukraine; Shukinskiy Institut at the Vakhtangov Theatre School, Moscow, Russia

Additional Training

Teacher certificate on Meisner Technique, MICHA Teacher Certificate on Michael Chekhov Technique.