Seth Barrish and Jean Taylor

Teaches at The Barrow Group Acting School

Theater Direction: Mike Birbiglia's Thank God for Jokes, Martin Moran's All The Rage (Lucille Lortel Award for BEST SOLO SHOW), Mike Birbiglia's My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, (Lucille Lortel Award for BEST SOLO SHOW, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Solo Show), Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk With Me (Nightlife Award for OUTSTANDING COMEDIAN IN A MAJOR PERFORMANCE), Martin Moran's The Tricky Part (OBIE Award, Drama Desk Nominations for BEST PLAY and BEST SOLO SHOW), David Edgar's Pentecost (Drama Desk Nomination for BEST PLAY), Jon Maran's Old Wicked Songs (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award & Garland Award for BEST DIRECTION), and Good (Straw Hat Award for BEST DIRECTION), among dozens of productions spanning a 40-year career Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, in regional theater and internationally. Seth directed the NETFLIX special Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend and co-directed the NETFLIX special Thank God for Jokes.  He co-directed Mike Birbiglia’s feature film Sleepwalk With Me (winner of the BEST OF NEXT at the Sundance Film Festival. Theaters Seth has worked with include Berkeley Rep, New York Theater Workshop, The Long Wharf, The McCarter, The Geffen Playhouse, The Intiman, Sundance Theatre Lab, The Promenade, The Signature Theater, Asolo Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose Rep, The La Jolla Playhouse, Two River Theater, Playhouse 91, La Mama e.t.c., The Perry Street Theatre, Provincetown Rep, and The Barrow Group—a New York City theatre company where he is Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director. A professional acting and directing teacher, Seth recently served as a Master Teacher at the International Director’s Symposium in Spoleto, Italy, and is author of the book An Actor’s Companion–Tools for the Working Actor, published by TCG.  Seth was a consulting producer on Mike Birbiglia's film Don't Think Twice and a producer on Mike Birbiglia’s CD “Sleepwalk With Me Live.” As an actor, Seth appears regularly in film and on television.


Jean E. Taylor is a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Education, working extensively in their local programs and international consultancies. She received Lincoln Center’s Directors Emeriti Award in 2012. Jean teaches Theatrical Clown and Aesthetic Inquiry for The New School for Drama’s BFA and MFA programs and has taught Clown for The Barrow Group for over 15 years. She represented LCE at the International Teaching Artist Conferences in Oslo, Norway, Brisbane, Australia and most recently in August 2016 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
As a performer, Jean and director Eric Nightengale presented a trilogy of their devised work, True Hazards of Childhood, Pants and Skirts, and Elsinore or Bust for a month of performances at The Barrow Group in January 2016. Jean’s earlier devised work Wild Hair was developed and performed at Dixon Place, The Barrow Group Theatre, Mount Tremper Arts, and The Flynn Center in Vermont. Her current work, A Flagger’s Lament, will premiere in 2017.
Additional performing work includes The Reclamation with Hilary Easton + Company and Snatches, a play begun at the 78th Street Theatre Lab, performed at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London’s New End Theatre, and presented on BBC Radio 4. Also for the 78th Street Theatre Lab: Beckett’s Rockaby, Naomi Wallace’s One Flea Spare, and Arlene Hutton’s See Rock City.
Jean studied clown/movement with Philippe Gaulier, Ronlin Foreman, David Shiner and Merry Conway, among others. Her approach to theatrical clown has been published in Movement for Actors, Allworth Press. She is a board member for The Maxine Greene Center for Aesthetic Education and Social Imagination.