BOBBY MORESCO - Actor's Gym
The Actor's Gym was formed in 1978 in Los Angeles, and since its inception, Gym members have worked to develop their craft as actors, writers, and directors.
Some of the screen-work developed over the last 40 years includes Best Picture Oscar-winners Million Dollar Baby and Crash; the television show The Black Donnelly's; Katharine Lee McEwan's Solitary; and Mark Handly's Idioglossia which was later adapted into the movie Nell, starring Jodie Foster.
Some plays include Tennessee by Meade Roberts, Tennessee Williams collaborator and co-writer of the screenplays The Fugitive Kind and Summer and Smoke; Colin Quinn's An Irish Wake, which was produced at the Helen Hayes on Broadway. We're proud to say that Howard Skora's Miserable With An Ocean View, and Andy Rooster Bloch's Stella's Last J-Date, were both produced at The Whitefire Theater under the eye of 2016 Los Angeles Theater Producer Of The Year Bryan Rasmussen.
The next plays to come out of The Gym will be Sunday’s reading of Andrew McCullough's The Wondrous Thing That Sometimes Happens But There Is No Word For, Amanda Moresco's Where The Numbers End, which will be produced in March at The Whitefire Theater, and William Hoffman's Drift. We're all excited to be a part of these emerging voices in American theater.
The space here is too short to name all of the incredible writers, directors, and actors who've worked, and are working, on exciting new material at the Gym every Saturday, but my great thanks to each and every one of them. They are a constant source of inspiration.
On a personal note, I want to give my ever-lasting gratitude to my good friend and partner PR Paul, who was there from the beginning, and always to Bruno Kirby. Without Bruno, there would be no Actor's Gym.
Academy Award-winning writer, director and producer Bobby Moresco started out as an actor in New York City where he was raised in the Hell’s Kitchen district of Manhattan, three blocks and a world away from Broadway.
After studying acting with the widely respected Wynn Handman and Peggy Fuery, founders of The American Place Theatre and Loft Theatre, respectively, Moresco opened The Actor’s Gym in New York and then moved the company to Los Angeles in 1978. Still running today, with locations in LA and NY, the “Gym” specializes in developing new work for stage, film and television. The work created there has gone on to Broadway and garnered multiple awards including Emmys, Oscars and Golden Globes.
Throughout the ‘90s, Moresco focused much of his time on creating, writing and producing for television. Notable projects included Millenium, which earned him a Genesis Award, and EZ Streets, in 1996, which won the “Viewers for Quality Television Award” for best program of the year, as well as being named one of the best television shows of all time as recently as 2008. In 1998, he co-created and executive produced the critically acclaimed series Falcone, and was nominated for two Emmy Awards. In 2007, Moresco returned to television with The Black Donnelly’s, co-creating and executive producing the series for NBC starring Jonathan Tucker and Olivia Wilde.
In 2012, Moresco wrote The Hundred Code, a new pilot for NBC that he’s slated to direct. His partner Paul Haggis is executive producing along with Bobby.
Moresco’s stage work includes writing and directing over 30 plays Off and Off-Off Broadway and fulfilling a childhood dream, he directed Colin Quinn in “An Irish Wake” at the Helen Hayes on Broadway.
On the big screen, Moresco co-wrote and produced the breakout film of 2004, CRASH. The drama, directed by Paul Haggis and starring an ensemble cast including Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Ryan Phillipe, Thandie Newton and Ludacris, was released by Lions Gate Films on May 6, 2004. In 2005, at the 78th Academy Awards®, Moresco and Haggis were awarded an Oscar for co-writing the film. In addition to winning in the Original Screenplay category, CRASH won additional Oscars for Best Picture and Achievement in Editing. Moresco also received the WGA, Bafta and Critic’s Choice awards for his work on the screenplay.
Moresco’s other features include, MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2005 Academy Award Winner for Best Picture), which he co-produced and developed with Paul Haggis; and 10TH & WOLF, his directorial debut starring James Marsden, Giovanni Ribisi, and Brad Renfro.
CRASH, the film, inspired the television series, also entitled Crash on the Starz Network. Moresco executive produced the first season, in addition to directing two episodes. The series starred Dennis Hopper, Eric Roberts, Ross McCall, and Jocko Sims, among others.
Moresco recently finished writing the feature HUBRIS for Universal, to be directed by Academy Award Nominee Todd Field (Little Children, In the Bedroom). Also slated for production in 2012 is “Castro’s Daughter”, a script he wrote with Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, to be directed by Academy Award Nominee, Michael Radford (Il Postino).
Staying true to his independent spirit, Bobby’s currently developing several other films including “The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk”, based on Susan McDougal and the price she paid for refusing to testify against President Clinton during the Whitewater investigation; as well as a retelling of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play, A THOUSAND CLOWNS; and a bio-pic of famed gangster, Lucky Luciano, focusing on his role in helping the Allied war effort in World War II.
Bobby’s recent projects are a feature he’s developing with writing partner Paul Haggis, based on the life of Dewey Bozella who spent 26 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit, and THE HARBOR an indie noir piece Bobby wrote and is slated to direct in the Spring of 2013.
Bobby is married to Barbara, his wife of 35 years, and lives in Los Angeles.