Summer 2015 - Adam Smith (T’98) is currently starring in the LA premiere of David Ives' The Heir Apparent at International City Theatre in Long Beach. Last month, he starred in the world premiere of a beautiful new play, Untethered by Julia Edwards, which was performed inside a mausoleum to great acclaim. And in April, he returned to the Antaeus Company in Henry IV, Part 1 with a wonderful cast. He also had a small role in the film Taken 3 alongside Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker, which hit theaters earlier this year. And in the fall, he’ll return to teaching voice technique to BFA actors at CalArts.
Summer 2014 - Adam just finished his 4th year on faculty at CalArts School of Theater, alongside former Duke Drama instructor Rafael Lopez-Barrantes; he was in a fantastic, incendiary production of 12 Angry Men at the Pasadena Playhouse (directed by Sheldon Epps, with an incredible cast) over the winter, followed by a reading of a new play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman, and is currently rehearsing The Curse of Oedipus with the famed Antaeus Company in LA. He also recently shot a small role in the upcoming action film Taken 3, in a scene with Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker; and last summer, he served as an official judge for the PEN USA Literary Awards in the Drama category.
Summer 2013 - Adam Smith (T’98) finished up another year on faculty at CalArts, teaching Voice technique for actors (alongside former Duke instructor Rafael Lopez-Barrantes). He directed a one-man adaptation of a David Foster Wallace short story at The Actors' Gang Theater in LA, starred in a critically-acclaimed production of Intimate Apparel at the Pasadena Playhouse (with Vanessa Williams and Dawnn Lewis), appeared in NBC's “Scandal" (alongside stars Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn), starred in a "Hometown Buffet" commercial, took part in a reading of a screenplay with James Franco and Jonah Hill, starred in a short film (with fellow Duke alum Tate Henderson-Evans (T'98)), and recorded a number of VOs (including a recent video game in which he plays the villain, a German WWI scientist). He is also currently serving as an official judge for the renowned PEN USA Literary Awards in the Drama category.
Winter 2009 - Smith Last November, he shot an episode of "Medium" on CBS. Earlier this year, he participated in a staged reading at the Pasadena Playhouse with Beau Bridges and Annette O'Toole. He starred in an Alan Ayckbourn comedy, How the Other Half Loves at the International City Theatre, the professional resident theater of Long Beach, CA. In May, he went to NYC to hear a staged reading of W=S, a play he co-wrote with world-renowned physicist Ivan Schuller about Physics Nobelist William Shockley.
Summer 2009 - Adam Smith (T’98) received rave reviews in Chalk Rep's critically acclaimed production of Three Sisters, starring Desperate Housewives' Ricardo Chavira, in LA. He also did a few readings and workshops, including When You Wish, a musical about the life of Walt Disney. He played a public defender in the season premiere of Castle on ABC. And in late Sept/early Oct, he substitute taught for two weeks for Rafael Lopez-Barrantes (former Duke Theater instructor) at CalArts. He also starred in a benefit performance of Family Planning, a critically praised new play, in San Diego.
Spring 2009 - Smith finished a highly successful run of Three Sisters at the historic Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He played Tuzenbach, alongside Desperate Housewives’ Ricardo Antonio Chavira’s Vershinin. This was the inaugural production of Chalk Rep, and it received rave reviews from the LA Times. Last fall, he assistant-directed former Duke Theater professor Rafael Lopez-Barrantes at CalArts in an original “balagan” type of show, and has since substitute-taught some of his classes there.
Winter 2008 - Smith recently appeared in the world premiere production of Matter of Honor by Michael Chepiga and directed by Scott Schwartz at the historic Pasadena Playhouse. Earlier this past year he appeared in the feature film Zombie Strippers, a campy horror adaptation of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, starring Robert Englund and Jenna Jameson. He played the unfortunate/fortunate victim of Ms. Jameson.
Summer 2007 - Smith played lead roles in both a workshop of the new play Matter of Honor at the Pasadena Playhouse and a workshop of Brief History of Penguins and Promiscuity at GTC in Burbank. He also recently shot his first horror feature film, Zombie Strippers, as a lapdance victim to a stripper-turned-zombie, played by porn sensation Jenna Jameson (Adam adds, “this is NOT a porn, just a very campy horror movie”). Finally, as a playwright, his first full-length play W=S (co-authored with renowned physicist Ivan Schuller) received a reading at the Magic Theater in San Francisco.
Theater Studies