It's hard for Judith to distinguish between a personal bio and a professional one. Her work is also her bliss.
Born in Maine, Judith grew up in New England, dropped out of Wellesley College in the '60s, and moved to New York City's East Village, where she was involved in the peace and women's movements. She was an organizer of "guerrilla theater" events such as the 1968 picketing of the Miss America Contest. When she moved to Berkeley, California in 1970, she was soon drawn to the classes of acting teacher Jean Shelton.
"Attending Jean's classes was like stepping through Alice's Looking Glass," says Judith. "It was a parallel universe, new and unique - absolutely absorbing. It became a spiritual laboratory - a way of understanding myself and the world around me. It was instantly my university, my hobby, my therapist, my church, my family - and although I sensed that soon it would be the way I made my living, the emotional and spiritual nourishment I got from acting has always remained its strongest pull."
The '70s were an exciting time to be in theater in the San Francisco Bay Area. A hotbed of experimental theater activity gave opportunities to talented new writers and actors. Judith flourished in this cutting edge, independent arena, performing leading and supporting roles (and winning numerous local awards for her performances) along with such contemporaries as Whoopie Goldberg, Sam Shepard, Kathy Baker, Joe Spano and Danny Glover.
While in San Francisco Judith became a working actor in television and film, working with directors John Korty, Paul Wendkos, Ralph Nelson, and Vincent Sherman, opposite such actors as Stephanie Zimbalist, Dennis Weaver, and Dyan Cannon. As the '70s came to a close, Judith, along with other "big fish" in the San Francisco talent pool, was drawn to Los Angeles, where she continued her acting career with roles on Hill Street Blues, Newhart, Little House on the Prairie, and other episodics, MOWs, independent films, and theater. She continued studying, with Stella Adler, Jack Garfein, Jose Quintero, and Harold Clurman.
Judith, an idealist with a passion to explore emotional reality, imagination, and the world around her through acting, found in Los Angeles a new creative path - teaching. The date of the first class she taught, March 4th, 1985, seemed prophetic, as she "marched forth" into her true and lasting vocation. Her first class, Acting for Non-Actors, was designed as a confidence-building recreational and creative outlet for people with no intention of becoming actors. Soon she expanded to classes for professional actors. Working as mentor and teacher to actors confirmed an observation she had often made as a working actor herself - that directors in film and television frequently know very little about actors or how to work with them. The challenge of improving communication between actors and directors fired her imagination and became a mission. Her unique ability to pull performances from non-actors gave her the key. In October 1988 she created a brand new course: Acting for Directors.
From the very first, the response was strong. Directors wanted and needed to know more about actors, how to communicate ideas to them, how to push their buttons, how to collaborate while maintaining an open and positive authority. Judith says, "I think many directors are simultaneously fascinated, intimidated, and repulsed by actors and acting. Actors are the tantalizing and dangerous 'other.' In my workshop, directors get a lot of information that they can't get elsewhere, but they also get a safe place to walk in the actor's shoes and to connect with their own creativity in new ways."
Many of Judith students are established, successful directors who wish to deepen their skills and renew their creative resources. Others are crossing over to feature filmmaking from non-fiction, commercial or music video directing; then there is a wide range of industry insiders crossing over to directing from producing, writing, camera or editing. There are also people established in their careers with no desire to move into directing, but with their own reasons for exploring the actor's terrain: for example, writers who raise their writing to another level by connecting with the actor's tools of script analysis and improvisation; or producers who need to clarify for themselves the roles of actor and director, so they can more effectively meet the creative demands of a project.
Today the thousands of directors, writers, producers, cinematographers, editors, casting directors, script supervisors – and even studio executives – who have taken the Acting for Directors workshop include the directors of such feature films as THE BELIEVER, which won the 2001 Sundance Grand Jury prize, and BABEL, 21 GRAMS, and AMORES PERROS. Directors of television shows include THE SOPRANOS, LOST, 24, CSI, COLD CASE, WEEDS, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, UGLY BETTY, DIRT, NIP/TUCK, PRISON BREAK, ER, THE PRACTICE, LAW AND ORDER, ALIAS, WEST WING, NYPD BLUE, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, FRIENDS, FELICITY, DREW CAREY SHOW, JUDGING AMY, GILMORE GIRLS, DAWSON'S CREEK, ED, THE X-FILES, etc. Many of her students have been winners and nominees for Academy Awards, Emmys, and awards of prestigious film festivals.
In addition, Judith has consulted privately with directors in pre-production for numerous projects, including studio and independent feature films, and television episodics and MOWs.
In the meanwhile, Judith continues to attract actors of sensitivity and imagination to her scene study and technique classes, where she reconnects actors with their confidence and creativity - their joy in acting. Her deep understanding of acting as a laboratory of life has led to her reputation as a miracle worker whose insights go to the heart of a scene, and to the soul of an actor. Her actors work regularly in all media.
Judith travels with her workshops for directors and actors to New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago; also Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and European cities including Amsterdam, Dublin, Berlin, Copenhagen, Cologne, Helsinki, Milan, Utrecht, Penzance, Belgrade, Geneva, Zurich, and Strasbourg.
She has been on the faculty of the American Film Institute and the Los Angeles Film School. She has been a guest lecturer at USC, Cal State Universities at Long Beach and Northridge, the Independent Feature Project/West, and Women in Film. She has been a monthly columnist ("The Right Direction") for MovieMaker magazine, and a host of the Hollywood Network "Director's Chat Lounge."
Judith's first book, "Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television", was published in September 1996 by Michael Wiese Productions. Her second book, "The Film Director's Intuition: Script Analysis and Rehearsal Techniques," was published in September 2003.
Judith runs her own studio in West Los Angeles, where she maintains a busy schedule of consulting and teaching for directors and for professional actors. She is married to John Hoskins, who works with her on the business side of things. They have a cozy Venice Beach home where they garden together on weekends and, when there is time, host a monthly Shakespeare night.
Her volunteer community service activities include director and producer of acting workshops and productions for developmentally challenged adults, for physically challenged adults, and for stroke and head injury survivors. She has also volunteered in the Brotman Hospital Life Transition Program, Recording for the Blind, and the Screen Actors Guild "Book Pals" program of reading in the schools.
Judith treasures her own and others' creativity and imaginative spark. This gives her passion for her work and joy in her life. Who could ask for more? She hopes to teach 'til she is eighty!