Project Life Stories Studio
Instructors' Bios

Tanya Taylor Rubinstein has been studying, performing, writing and directing for the past 30 years. She attended the acting departments at Carnegie-Mellon University, Emerson College and studied at HB Studio with Bill Hickey. She moved to Santa Fe in 1991 and created her first one woman show “Honeymoon in India” in 1995. Her mentor was the late Spalding Gray and she has devoted her life’s work to the exploration of solo performance and personal narrative in various forms; one person shows, solo improvisation and storytelling, group monologues as a therapeutic process, writing memoir and creating healing process’ with writing, presence and theater as the tools. She is a creative innovator and visionary, weaving together aspects of theater, storytelling, memoir, emotional healing and the pursuit of enlightenment in an entirely original package. As she says “I create my work from being authentically myself and encourage my students to create from that place within themselves”. The goal of the work is proficiency in craft (acting, movement and voice) married with originality of thought. She has facilitated/ created fifty+ shows, and is co-editor of the book, The Cancer Monologue Project. Her work can be viewed at www.projectlifestories.org  

Ursula Drabik is an actor, singer, dancer, announcer, director, and teacher. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, she has worked as staff and freelance for WGBH Boston public television and radio, and for the American Repertory Theater, the Institute of Contemporary Dance, the Performing Arts Ensemble, the Ehrlich Theater, Grey Fox Productions, The Muse Project, the People’s Theater, and the Boston Shakespeare Company, and was also a founding member of The Open Door, the oldest continuously operating theater company in Boston. 

Since moving to New Mexico for an outer landscape that suited the inner, Drabik has been a member of Theaterwork and has worked with the Santa Fe Actors’ Theater, the Armory for the Arts, the Santa Fe Dance Foundation, the Center for Contemporary Arts, Shakespeare in Santa Fe, Subject to Change Jazz Trio, Damaged Goods, Every Other Breath, Soundtrack Productions, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Dance School, the Children’s Dance Program, 20th Century Unlimited, the Theater Residency Project, The Blond Leading the Blond Productions, Santa Fe Stages, and the Santa Fe Shakespeare Company’s School Tours.

Kathleen Fontaine - With a background in all things performance (stand up, improv, sketch comedy, film, tv and radio appearances) this Virginia native is a powerhouse of energy.  Fontaine attended Simmons College in Boston where she majored in communications media and later studied  performance art/video at the California College of Arts and Crafts.  This segued into 10 years in  Los Angeles where she not only acted, but directed and produced.  Fontaine stars in the independent feature film "Some Prefer Cake" and the short festival favorite "Family Recipe."  She also co-created, co-wrote and starred in the cable series "Nude Coffee."  She has performed throughout the United States and Europe (most notably Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and a solo show in Oslo Norway).  Fontaine is ecstatic to be able to call Santa Fe home and she is honored to be a part of this wonderful creative community.

Michelle Vest has a background in ballet and modern dance. She has studied expressive arts therapy at Tamalpa Institute in California under the direction of Daria Halprin-Khalighi, and improvisation with Soto Hoffman and Ruth Zaporah.  She has performed with Anna Halprin in her Sea Ranch Collective, and has worked in ensemble and solo in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Her latest solo performance, "Sole Survivors", was developed under the direction of Tanya Taylor Rubinstein.  A graduate of St. John's College, Md.

Vest lives in Santa Fe with her husband, their son, a cat and a fish.