Jack Garfein is a renowned director, producer, and acting teacher. In 1949, he studied directing with Lee Strasberg at the American Theater Wing and in 1951 he was invited to attend The Actors Studio. During that time, he directed END AS A MAN (1953), which received rave reviews and transferred to Broadway. In 1955, he was the first director invited to become a member of The Actors Studio and in 1967 he founded the West Coast branch of The Actors Studio. Paul Newman underwrote the total initial financial expense for the formation of the LA Studio.  He co-founded and served as the artistic director of the Harold Clurman Theater and the Samuel Beckett Theatre, both of which are part of New York’s Theatre Row. His Off-Broadway directing and producing credits include: THE LESSON (1978), THE PRICE(1979), BIRDBATH (1982), ENDGAME (1984), ROMMEL’S GARDEN (1985), and FOR NO GOOD REASON/CHILDHOOD (1985). He has worked with writers such as Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, and Sean O’Casey and directed actors such as Uta Hagen, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Elaine Stritch, Jean Stapleton, and Doris Roberts. He is credited with discovering Ben Gazzara, Steve McQueen, George Peppard, Bruce Dern, and James Dean. 

Jack Garfein was born in Czechoslovakia in 1930. During World War II, he survived 11 concentration camps, losing his entire family in the process. He arrived in New York at the age of 15, where he won a scholarship to the Dramatic Workshop at The New School. His Broadway directing and producing credits include: End as a Man (1953), Girls of Summer (1956), The Sin of Pat Muldoon (1957), The Shadow of a  Gunman (1958), The Price (1979), and The American Clock (1980). He has directed two films: “The Strange One” and “Something Wild.” He has been teaching acting for the past 40 years in cities such as Paris, New York, London, Berlin, Madrid, and Vienna. In 1985, he founded his own studio, Le Studio Jack Garfein, in Paris. His book Life and Acting: Techniques for the Actor was published in 2010 and details his unique acting technique.