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Our Students

Mark Bowen
Mark was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. After escaping Indiana University with degrees in Literature and Acting, Mark came to Europe to get cultured. It’s probable he will never leave. Studying Meisner technique at the Prague Playhouse has renewed his love for acting, which he shows off daily for The Bear Theatre and in Prague film projects. He also writes plays and short films for his fellow Playhouse actors, and has a novel clamoring to be finished. A career as a writer or an actor is a certainty, simply because Mark can’t do anything else. He loves baseball, cycling, and learning languages.

Jude Daniels
JD was born in Nigeria. He became independent when he moved out of his family home. As a child he fell in love with movies, particularly James Bond films. This passion fueled JD to leave Africa to realize his creative endeavours. In 2007 his dream came true when he booked a small role of Airport Security Guy in the most recent Bond film Casino Royal. He has also had small roles in Wanted and XXX. Studying at the Prague Playhouse acting class, JD hopes, in the future to play a big role in both independent and Hollywood films.

John-Paul “JP” Franke
JP was born into an American/German missionary family in Ciang Mai Thailand in 1987. Throughout his missionary life he has lived in seven different countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa and has visited over twenty countries in four continents. In the winter of 2006, after his travels in Africa with a traveling missionary group, he returned to his family in the Czech Republic. Shortly thereafter a friend introduced him to the Prague Playhouse where he got his first in-depth look into the world of acting. He has since been a full-time student of the Sanford Meisner acting method and looks forward to making acting a career.

Jim High
Jim grew up on the Isle of Wight in the UK and frankly, that’s just something you’ll have to deal with. He performed in productions of Chekov and Shaw in University before discovering a uncanny knack for delivering Stand Up comedy. After a stint on the circuit in London he roamed wildly around Europe and Africa before arriving in Prague and discovering the Meisner technique. He’s done several playreadings around Prague and performed in numerous short films as everything from a painter with a crisis of conscience to a street con-artist. He’s made several short films and he’s making more…

Jana Kotková
Jana was born and raised in Prague. She acted in amateur theatre throughout grade school. Jana is going to graduate from high school this year and hopes to pass her entrance exams to the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Nowadays she writes short stories and has had some of them published in Czech magazines. She is studying Meisner Technique in Prague and in January she will start singing and modern dance classes.

Nixon Lenana
Nixon Lenana Lenaiyara was born in Kenya. He started life from the “real scratch”: walking barefoot to school. He went from that to achieving his dreams of different professions and flying to famous cities in the world. He found talent as an actor while playing a female role in plays back in high school. Then Nixon came to study in Prague, while continuing to study acting. He has been featured in major Hollywood films such as Casino Royal, Babylon A.D, and Wanted. Nixon has had lead roles in two commercials for the US market (2007), and continues to pursue modeling. He still has many dreams yet to achieve as an engineer in movie production industry, acting and modeling. “GOD BE WITH ME.”

Paul Madden
Paul was born in Coventry, where he grew up around his fathers bar. His first move was to the west of Ireland University for ten years where he studied the Geo-Politics of Sub Saharan Africa, then he traveled to South East India and Istanbul where he taught English and Geography. The stage was always yearning and he realised it here in Prague while studying the Mesiner technique. Paul has appeared in numerous plays, several short films, and a feature shot in L.A.

Vendula Manfredi

Vendula started out as a professional skier representing the Czech Republic, then she traded in her ski boots for high heels to become a fashion model for Lee, Escada, and Burberry. Since then she has traveled the world as a model on various assignments to Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malayasia, Greece, and South Africa.

Vendula has a keen interest in song writing and has so far recorded two tracks for her first albumn. She started studying at the Prague Playhouse early in 2007, and has spent the last six months touring the Czech Republic with The Bear Theater in various roles from many different plays. She has also recently appeared in TV commercials for Budwiser and Orange in the UK market. She continues to be a loyal supporter of the emerging filmmaking talent in Prague, by appearing in many short films.

Peter Maivald
Peter returned to the Czech Republic after an extended stay in California, where he trained with Rick Mokler, Pope Freeman, and Tony Miratti in Santa Barbara. While there, he also appeared in Kathy Biesinger’s production of “The Three Musketeers,” “A Christmas Carol” at Seaside Theatre, and “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas” at Circle Bar B. In Prague, he’s appeared in a number of short films, including the lead in Gunnar Hauth’s “After I Gave Up.”

Barbara Pavlik
Barbara studied acting at Patio Muñoz, a unique artist’s community in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. It was there that she had her acting debut and played the female lead in a farce called “Cuentas a Pagar (Bills to Pay) .” Soon thereafter, she was inspired by a death in the family to write a play based on Ilse Aichinger’s “Spiegelgeschichte (Mirror Story)” which she adapted as “Una Historia al Revés” for a Mexican audience. “Una Historia al Revés” premiered in Xalapa on Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) at a community celebration, and Barbara played the female lead. She hopes, in the future, to adapt the play for a European audience.

Amelia Pieńkowska
Amelia started her acting career in the age of 10, winning the first prize in the National Oratory Competition for Primary School Students in Poland. Since then she won numerous amount of declamatory and oratory competitions, took part in a TV show for children and acted in an amateur theatre in her town. After receiving her higher education in the area of computer science, and communication management, she moved to her “beloved Prague”. In 2007 she discovered Prague Playhouse and joined the group, coming back to her real destiny – being an actress. Besides acting, Amelia loves Prague, mountains, dancing and communicating in different languages.

Tom Pentel
Tom has lived in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Boulder, Colorado. People who know Tom think he is an absolutely crazy freak. Tom believes that everyone is, in their heart and soul, a total freak. He discovered the benefits of being on stage at the age of ten, when his mustache fell off during a Sunday school theatrical production, and the audience roared with laughter. Ever since then he has wandered in and out of acting classes, has been in several theatrical productions, and has also featured in numerous short films both in the US and Prague.

John Poston
John was drawn back to acting as a fresh way of exploring creative possibilities to apply to his writing. In the hiatus between his early experiences as a student actor in Helena, Montana, USA, and his current work at the Prague Playhouse, John has visited the professional worlds of teaching, journalism, finance, and consulting. He acts in small roles in feature films and independents, stars in student and short films, and dabbles in Czech theater. John recently played a lowly office drone in the Universal Pictures feature Wanted, which is due out in March, 2008.

These photos were made possible by Vivid Casting Studio. We thank them for their support!

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