Frank Pagliaro: Actor, Director, Playwright, Producer
Let's make the thing!
Thanks for visiting my website. Here you'll find information about my background, skill sets, and recent/upcoming projects. My passion is classical/early modern theatre - I'd be happy to alternate between Shakespeare and Chekhov for the rest of my life - but I also enjoy working on new plays or in front of a camera.
Please reach out if you have a project in mind...you can check out my Actors Access profile here and my Backstage profile here.
About Me
Born in Massachusetts, I cut my teeth on the stage of the Harwich Junior Theatre, America's oldest children's company (it's now known as the Cape Cod Theatre Company). My mom enrolled me in HJT's Creative Movement class when I was five, and there I found my first, my truest, my most maddening passion.
I continued my love affair with the theatre at Williams College, where I led the school's improv troupe and worked for the Theatre Department Scene Shop while majoring in English, History, and Jewish Studies. Upon my graduation cum laude, I received the Louise J. Ober '64 Theatre Award in Creativity for my outstanding contributions to the performing arts at Williams. I then moved to Brooklyn, enrolling in programs at UCB and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. I graduated from Adler's evening conservatory in 2019, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, I trained at the Double Edge Theatre Company in Ashfield, Massachusetts. I moved uptown in 2022 and now live in Inwood.
Recently, I've been exploring directing, and was thrilled to helm a multilingual production of The Cherry Orchard that ran at the end of January in the East Village (read about it here, or listen to a podcast that featured us here). I've also joined a monthly sketch comedy team at The Peoples Improv Theater, and we've sold out every show. I'm having a play of mine produced by a fantastic uptown theatre company, and, in an effort to be of service, I'm volunteering my time with acting classes at drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers in Long Island City and East Harlem. These classes take place under the auspices of the Arts Justice Division at Adler. I'm taking a class at Adler myself this summer: "Awareness Without Judgment - Adler Technique Teacher Training."
About My Career
SELECTED THEATRE CREDITS
Iphigenia in Tauris
Orestes
American Thymele Theatre - New York
Three Sisters
Nikolai Lvovich Tuzenbach
Columbia University - New York
The Cherry Orchard
Leonid Andreivitch Gaev
Williams College - Massachusetts
The Cherry Orchard
Director & Co-Producer
Under St. Mark's Theater - New York
Measure for Measure
Lucio
Curtain Call - Connecticut
The Winter's Tale
Antigonus/Shepherd
Williams College - Massachusetts
The Lobby (World Premiere)
Miles O'Riordan
The Dressing Room Theatre at Curtain Call - Connecticut
Waiting for Lefty
Director & Producer
The Institute for the Musical Arts - Massachusetts
The Landstuhl Chronicles (World Premiere)
Sgt. Lee Harris
Kraine Theater - New York
Escape from Happiness
Tom
Stella Adler Studio of Acting (postgrad job-in) - New York
Between Riverside and Crazy
Lieutenant Caro
Stella Adler Studio of Acting (postgrad job-in) - New York
The Obituary (World Premiere)
Richard
Nutley Little Theatre - New Jersey
Broken Glass
Stanton Case
Williams College - Massachusetts
Gloria
Assistant Director
Stella Adler Studio of Acting - New York
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
Sir Edward Clarke
Williams College - Massachusetts
The Miracle Worker
Jimmy Sullivan
Cape Cod Theatre Co. - Massachusetts
A Streetcar Named Desire
Mitch
Williams College - Massachusetts
Antigone (Modern Adaptation)
Ghost of Eteocles
Theater Dionysus - New York
Move the Logo (World Premiere)
Playton
New York Theater Festival - New York
Halloween Prom Night (World Premiere)
Eric
AlphaNYC Theater Co. - New York
'Til Death Do Us Party
Charlie / Co-Producer
Infinite Monkey Theatre Co. - New York
Contact me for information about my film, TV, improv, and sketch comedy experience.
News and Updates
My Little Corner of the World
Chimp Cocktail - A Sketch Show
Aug 10 @ 9pm; Sept 20, Oct 18, Nov 15, & Dec 13 @ 7pm (The PIT Loft - Chelsea)
Chimp Cocktail brings together the most brilliant sketch comedy minds of the post-World War II, pre-World War III generation. These courageous morons have joined forces to come up with one full hour of outrageous giggles and guffaws. Whether you’ve been experiencing fever dreams all spring or would like to experience one for the very first time, Chimp Cocktail will be an absurd response to our absurd times. We've sold out our first three shows and plan to do the same for our fourth in July.
Tickets here - we perform monthly at The Peoples Improv Theater Loft (154 W 29 St), and we look forward to headlining the The PIT's October SketchFest! This show is produced by Infinite Monkey Theatre Company.
Bread of Life - A New Gospel in Two Acts
Spring 2025 (Fort Washington Collegiate Church - Washington Heights)
In the winter of 2015, while teaching history, philosophy, and theology at a Catholic boarding school, I started to ask myself a question: given the universalist message of Christianity, for whom does Jesus have nothing to offer? For whom might he not be a redeemer, but actually a destroyer? From this question flowed more questions: what role does faith play in family life? What roots us in a land or a people? And how do we prioritize our public and domestic obligations?
Bread of Life was born from these queries, telling the story of St. Peter's family and what they do when the future first pope decides to follow that deadbeat from Nazareth. The play will be produced by the UP Theater Company this spring at the Fort Washington Collegiate Church on 181st Street, where we'll enjoy a three-week run. Ticket link to come!
"As actors, you must realize that what you see is a miracle simply because it exists."