New Faculty Member Q&A: Zachary Fine

Assistant Professor of Acting Zachary Fine is an actor, writer, director and teacher who has taught in actor training programs throughout the country. He most recently taught at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Fine is the recipient of the 2015 Helen Hayes Award for his work in Fiasco Theater Company’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and his Broadway credits include China Doll with Al Pacino. Fine holds an M.F.A. from the University of Tennessee and a B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) from Oberlin College. He also has trained in Paris at the renowned Ecole du Philippe Gaulier.

Tell us about the classes you’ll be teaching this year.

This coming year, I’ll be teaching Acting I, a voice and movement course, as well as a Shakespeare course. Acting I will be an intro to acting course where we will explore some of the basic and foundational concepts of acting. In the spring, I will teach a course called Voice and Movement, where we will focus on introducing students to the art of clowning, play, and improvisation. In this class, students will engage in exercises to help them discover what makes them funny, how they engage with an audience, how to improvise, and how to create original material. We will also focus on the power of play as a tool for increasing the actor’s kinesthetic response to impulse. I will also be teaching in the spring on Acting Shakespeare, where students will gain tools to bring Shakespeare’s great characters to life for a contemporary audience. We will learn how to work with verse and prose, and apply all the tools of acting, clowning, and play to these unique and brilliant plays.  

What attracted you to the Department of Theatre and Dance and The University of Texas at Austin?

I recently taught a few workshops at the University of Texas at Austin and was immediately struck by the community. The students and faculty inspired me. It was clear to me that the department has a rich and exciting combination of talent, passion, commitment, and curiosity flowing through the building each day. This instantly made me want to jump into the sandbox and join this community.  

How did your professional pathway lead to your current artistic focus?

All my professional work has been rooted in a fascination with stories. I’m obsessed with stories. I love being in them, thinking about how they work, how we bring them to life, and how we share them with an audience. I started as an actor, then became a clown, then a writer, then a director. My current artistic focus remains as multifaceted as it was when I began. Much of my professional work has been rooted in the comedic world, and a significant portion of my artistic focus is on understanding and executing comedic material. But underlying all of that are the same building blocks for drama. Truth, courage, curiosity, and a willingness to fail and try again fuel my artistic focus. My passion is to push the envelope to make something wild, unpredictable, and delightful. 

What’s something that students and colleagues should know about you?

I’m from Chicago, and I love deep-dish pizza, dark beer and great coffee. I speak Spanish decently and am always trying to improve. I also love 19th-century literature. Well, all literature. And I have watched way too much TV.  

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not teaching/performing/working?

I love spending time with my partner, Arielle. We enjoy traveling together, hiking, exploring mountains and rivers, and cooking together.