Faculty Directory
Professional Courses
Wendy Hammond
Dramatic Writing Faculty
Tisch Asia
Phone: +65 6500-1762
Email: wendy.hammond@mac.com
Courses Taught: Writing the Short Film
Biography
Wendy Hammond’s plays have been produced by New York City theatres
(Soho Rep, Second Stage, Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art), by
regional theatres (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf, S.L.A.C.,
Charlotte Rep, Purple Rose), and in London, Tel Aviv, Milan and Rome.
Her works include Julie Johnson (published by Dramatists Play Service and in an anthology by Smith & Kraus), Family Life: 3 Brutal Comedies (published by Broadway Play Publishing), Jersey City, and The Hole at the Purple Rose Theatre, which was nominated by the American Theatre Critics Association for best new American play, and Road Rage: A Love Story
which was commissioned by the Purple Rose developed at the O’Neill
Center, and in a workshop process at Steppenwolf Theatre starring Jeff
Perry and Amy Morton.
Ms. Hammond wrote the screenplay for Julie Johnson,
produced by Shooting Gallery Films, co-written by director Bob Gosse,
starring Lili Taylor, Courtney Love and Spalding Gray. The film
premiered in the Sundance Film Festival and played in film festivals
all over the world winning many awards including Best Feature in the
Barcelona Film Festival and an Audience Award in Berlin. She wrote the
screenplay for A Beautiful Life produced by Calla productions,
starring Jesse Garcia, Angela Sarafyan, Bai Ling, and Dana Delany. Ms.
Hammond wrote and directed the short film, Lehi’s Wife, through AFI’s Directors Workshop for Women, now in post-production. James Greene and Kathryn Joosten star in the film.
Currently she is working on a play, Ecstacy: The Enigma of Joseph Smith, an historical fantasy of the wild life of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church.
She lives with her beloved husband and amazing son.
David K. Irving
Chair, Department of Graduate FilmTisch Asia
Phone: (+65) 6500-1745
Email: david.irving@nyu.edu
Courses Taught: Film Producing Essentials
Biography
David Irving is a film director, writer and producer, and an Associate Professor in film production at New York University. He graduated with a BFA in Theatre from Denison University and an MFA in Film from California Institute of the Arts. David was recently the Chairman of the Undergraduate Film and Television Department at NYU.
David Irving's feature directing credits include "Night of the
Cyclone" (with Kris Kristofferson and Marisa Berenson), "C.H.U.D.
II" (with Robert Vaughn and Gerrit Graham), "The Emperor's New
Clothes" (with Sid Caesar and Robert Morse), "Sleeping Beauty" (with
Morgan Fairchild, Tawnee Welch and Sylvia Miles), "Rumpelstiltskin"
(with Amy Irving and Billy Barty), and "Goodbye Cruel World" (with
Dick Shawn and Cynthia Sykes).
David Irving has also written
and directed the following documentaries: "Romare Bearden: Visual Jazz"
(hosted by Wynton Marsalis), “Betye and Alison Saar: Conjure Women of
the Arts”, "Jacob Lawrence: The Glory Of Expression" (hosted by Ossie
Davis), "Dr. Lorraine Hale: Alive with Love", "Robert Colescott: The
One-Two Punch".
David Irving co-authored an award winning film
production textbook titled "Producing and Directing the Short Film and
Video" for Focal Press which is currently into its third edition.
david.irving@nyu.edu
William C. Kovacsik
Faculty, Dramatic Writing Department
Tisch Asia
Phone: +65 6500-1763
Email: wk24@nyu.edu
Courses Taught: Feature Film Script Analysis
Biography
William C. Kovacsik received his B.A. in English Literature from Drew University, and earned a J.D. from the Fordham University School of Law. In 1994, he received an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was on the faculty from 1994-2001, teaching all undergraduate courses in playwriting, as well as dramatic literature, theatre history, theatre lab, directing and acting.Mr. Kovacsik’s plays have been performed all across America. In 2005, The Masrayana was co-produced by the Prop Theatre and the Rasaka Theatre Company in Chicago. The Masrayana went on to win the Joseph Jefferson Citation Award as Best New Play in Chicago for 2005-2006. From February – March 2004, his play The Barksdale Confession was presented by the WorkShop Theater Company in New York.
Music of the Spheres, an historical piece dealing with the life of 12th-century mystic and composer Hildegard von Bingen, was staged by the Hartt School at the University of Hartford in May 2003. Pillar of Salt won the 2003 International Playwriting Contest dealing with religious and spiritual themes sponsored by Hanover College, and received a full production on the Hanover campus in February 2004. Pillar of Salt received a staged reading at New York’s WorkShop Theater in December 2006. Scales of Justice had its professional premiere at the Long Beach Playhouse in the fall of 2002, where it received favorable notices from a variety of area newspapers. Previously, Scales of Justice was named Best Play in the 1999 Dayton Playhouse FutureFest, where it was praised by critics from the Newark Star-Ledger and the Village Voice. Scales of Justice was published by Playscripts, Inc. in 2006.
In 1999, Lewis J. Stadlen (two-time Tony Award nominee, also known as Tony Soprano’s poker-playing dentist Ira Fried on HBO’s The Sopranos) starred in Mr. Kovacsik’s play Slice of Immortality in the Carnegie Mellon Summer New Plays Project, staged by noted Broadway and regional director Michael Montel. Slice of Immortality, a comedy dealing with the last days in the life of the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, was also performed as a staged reading by New York’s Lark Theatre Company in 1999, and was presented as part of the 2007 Western Region Playwrights Showcase sponsored by the Arvada Center in Denver.
Epistles won the 1997 Coe College Playwriting Prize. The Run of the River was named Best Play of the 1995 Pittsburgh New Works Festival by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Mr. Kovacsik has had several other plays appear in the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, including Move to First, The Alpha State and Bomber Wing. Priscilla’s Neurosis was a Critic’s Choice in the 2001 Samuel French Short Play Festival. Also in 2001, Kovacsik’s adaptation of The Chitrangada, a dramatic poem by Rabindranath Tagore, was performed at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre in Pittsburgh by Srishti Dances of India.
In addition to his work at Carnegie Mellon, Mr. Kovacsik has taught playwriting at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, where he founded the Advanced Playwrights Lab, and at the University of Colorado. He has directed in both academic and professional venues. Mr. Kovacsik practiced law on Wall Street, specializing in litigation involving municipal finance, securities law, domestic antitrust, international trade regulation and real estate brokerage. He has also consulted for several high-end firms in the wine industry.
John Wills Martin
Adjunct ProfessorTisch Asia
Courses Taught: Introduction to Acting
Biography
John Wills Martin has worked in film and theater for over twenty years. He was an Assistant Director and Dramaturge at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles where he worked on twelve new plays in development including two Pulitzer Prize winners, Angels in America and The Kentucky Cycle. John has directed classic and contemporary theater in Los Angeles at LATC and in Edinburgh at the Richard Demarco Theatre. Other directing credits include Hang Ong’s Paper and his own translation of Buchner’s Woyzeck.John has acted in such films a The Believer with Ryan Gosling, Hamlet with Ethan Hawke, in television (Deadwood, High Incident) and numerous theatrical productions. He has also worked as an acting coach for audition and for set-work for many years. His clients have included Elisabeth Shue and Peter Dinklage. John holds a B.A. in Theater from Bennington College and has an M.F.A. from the American Film Institute in Film Directing. While at AFI he directed several shorts and, most notably, produced the Oscar-winning short film My Mother Dream’s the Satan’s Disciples in New York. As an actor/director he has studied under Judith Weston, Harry Mastrogeorge and Charlie Laughton.
Pennie du Pont
ProfessorTisch Asia
Courses Taught: Master Workshop: The Audition
Biography
Pennie du Pont has cast such films as ROXANNE, THE KARATE KID, PEGGY
SUE GOT MARRIED, and ARIZONA DREAM for directors Fred Schepisi, John
Avildsen, Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica. She also did the
west coast casting on STAR 80 for director, Bob Fosse and ANNIE for
John Huston. After attending The Yale Drama School Pennie worked in
theater in New York, both on and off Broadway, and studied with Uta
Hagen. She was a founder of the City Center Young Peoples Theater and
produced THE SHRINKING BRIDE off Broadway, introducing Danny de Vito.
Pennie began casting films when Ray Stark hired her to do a search for
"Annie". She did five other films for Stark; then went to work for
Daniel Melnick's IndiProd casting such films as ROXANNE and
QUICKSILVER. She worked for Columbia and Tri Star until returning to
New York.
Matt Siegel
Department of Graduate Film
Tisch Asia
Phone: (+65) 6500-1746
Email: mjsiegel@nyu.edu
Courses Taught: The Basic HD Cinematography Workshop
Biography
Matt Siegel began his eclectic career shooting fashion and industrial photography for the clothing giant Esprit de Corp. His initial film work garnered the prestigious Kodak Cinematography Award, which included study at the Academy of Drama and Film in Budapest, Hungary. Since that time, he has been lighting and composing images for feature films, commercials, documentaries, episodic television programs, and music videos. This work reflects a diverse range from big studio Warner Bros. Pictures and high-end automaker AUDI AG to run and gun documentary filming with Discovery Network and ABC Wide World of Sports.
Commercials
The controversial Sprite "Extreme" spot earned a
CLIO award, advertising’s highest honor, while his highly stylized work
for NCAA/NIKE Woman’s Basketball has been recognized with a JOEY and a
TELE award.
Television
After a playful round of stop motion photography for
the WB network series "Phantom Investigators,” he made a tour of duty
as Camera Operator and 2nd Unit DP on the WB series "Everwood," on the
CBS drama "Joan of Arcadia," and on the Jerry Bruckheimer series "Just
Legal." Matt traveled the country for the ABC prime-time special on
women’s sports entitled "Game For Anything." Other network programs
include "Bridges, Skyscrapers, and Tunnels" for the Discovery Channel
and "Hervic In Cloudland" for the Nickelodeon Network.
Feature Films
Theatrical features include "Mexican Werewolf in
Texas," "Raising Genius," "Simon," and "Crime Partners." His latest
features "Miss Wannamaker County" and "Magic" (2008) are currently in
post-production.
He has also had success in the short film genre with Ripple and TallGIRL, which screened at Cannes and Sundance respectively. Other short format work has been screened at the Chicago, LA, Slamdance, and Toronto Film Festivals.
Technical Business
As the United States' representative to the
European DOP Seminar, Matt became involved with product development for
Eastman-Kodak. His role has evolved, now performing demonstrations and
teaching workshops around the world for Kodak and the VISION3 film
stocks.
He has also spent over ten years as an instructor for Aaton, ARRI, and Panavision cameras and as a consultant and teacher for Mole-Richardson and Kino Flo lighting systems.
Branching away from film and into high definition image acquisition, Matt has been active in R&D with SONY Entertainment's Lab24p and with the SONY/Panavision F-900R/24p and Genesis camera systems.





