Brittney Buffo – Executive Director

Brittney headshotBrittney is an actress, writer and teaching artist. She recently relocated from Los Angeles, where she was teaching playwriting and performance classes with The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company, The Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum and Virginia Avenue Project. In 2002, she ventured west to pursue stage and screen acting, and graduated with her BA in Theatre from Cal Poly Pomona University. Under the mentorship and direction of Linda Bisesti, a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher, Brittney has had the unique opportunity to work one-on-one with a disciple of one of the most sought after vocal technique teachers in the world.

Poster Senior ProjectThrough her training at Cal Poly, Brittney began her journey of discovering her own voice and personal truth. To culminate her experience, she performed her original one- woman show titled, “The Voice My Mother Gave Me Set Me Free,” as her graduate project. “Knowing how to connect language with breath and voice is a golden key to hang on the chain of the actor’s craft…” to quote Kristin Linklater (Columbia University Graduate Theatre Division of the School for the Arts; author of Freeing the Natural Voice and Freeing Shakespeare’s Voice), “…The exploration of one’s own voice is the search for the ring of truth… When the voice is blocked, held back, choked, suppressed, life gets blocked too. 
If you are an actor you need open free channels of vocal and physical communication and unblocked access to your emotional and intellectual energies…. You need to find the means to access your potential ability to express yourself beyond your defensive limitations — and this means you must exercise — your breath, your voice and your Self.” (www.kristinlinklater.com)

Brittney teaching2Since 2006, Brittney incorporates her unique experiences as an actress and a playwright, into teaching.She began teaching in Los Angeles with The Unusual Suspects Theatre Company and Virginia Avenue Project working with at-risk youth. Brittney facilitated original plays written by youth, culminating their values and ideas onto the stage for theatre performance. As a guest artist with The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Brittney has served as script supervisor for their yearly Youth Drama Saturday program, as well as teaching Shakespeare to students of all ages in their classroom enrichment programs in schools throughout Los Angeles.

Brittney directingShe has joined forces with Mike to combine their passion for personal growth and discovery through the arts. Together, they developed the HARA technique for high school students. Beginning with a 3-week guest artist workshop at Diamond Bar High School in the fall of 2010. Students responded to the techniques in the classroom as immediately applicable in their performances and in their personal lives. Brittney then decided to make Mike’s native home town of Monterey her own as well. HARA Motion Picture Conservatory has now blossomed into a year-round program for local youth. Brittney is proud to continue to develop the cutting-edge curriculum derived from personal experience combined with Laura Fine’s Energy System of Acting, Fay Simpsons’ The Lucid Body, and Kristen Linklater’s Freeing the Natural Voice. The HARA technique appeals to our natural energetic sense as artists. The unique approach unlocks and allows our Selves to flow into a stronger presence on stage and screen.

Summer 2011 classIgnited by her passion for carrying out the souls purpose to express itself, Brittney is excited to join Mike in encouraging new artists to courageously create their own media. The films created through HARA Motion Pictures can only be limited by the students own imaginations!