We honor these founding members of the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, whose artistry and love for Aesthetic Realism’s way of seeing the drama and acting moved audiences for many, many years.
Anne Fielding (1933–2023)
Statement from the Company: With much feeling we say that Anne Fielding—one of the greatest actors in the world, and longtime director of this theatre company—passed away, shortly before her 90th birthday. Read more
Anne Fielding was an Obie Award-winner for Distinguished Performance for the role of Sasha in the first American production of Chekhov’s Ivanov, which she was invited to recreate for the CBC television production of the play in Toronto. With the American Shakespeare Festival Company in Stratford, Connecticut, she appeared in productions of: Antony and Cleopatra, starring Katherine Hepburn; The Winter’s Tale; Richard II, starring Richard Basehart; and Henry IV, Part I, starring Roy Scheider, Hal Holbrook, and Sada Thompson. She played Juliet in the New York Shakespeare Festival school tour, directed by Joseph Papp, and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Central Park.
Anne Fielding had the honor to attend Aesthetic Realism classes taught by Eli Siegel beginning in 1953, and she studied in professional classes for consultants and associates taught by Chair of Education Ellen Reiss.
Ms. Fielding was born in New York City; graduated from the School of Performing Arts where she studied with Sidney Lumet; later studied acting with Michael Howard and musical comedy with Charles Nelson Reilly. She was a member of Actors’ Equity and AFTRA, and one of the authors of the book Aesthetic Realism: We Have Been There (“I Believe This about Acting”). She taught acting based on Aesthetic Realism at the HB Studio in Manhattan.
Off-Broadway at the Greenwich Mews Theatre, Ms. Fielding portrayed Mary Boyle in Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey. Other Off-Broadway productions include Montserrat by Lillian Hellman; The Beaver Coat, by Gerhardt Hauptmann; Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw; in summer theatre she played The Girl in The Fantastiks.
Among roles Ms. Fielding has played in productions by the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company of Eli Siegel’s lectures on the drama are: Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; Othello, in Shakespeare’s Othello; Lady Sneerwell and Sir Peter Teazle in Sheridan’s The School for Scandal; Petruchio in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew; Arnolphe in Molière’s The School for Wives; Fay Fromkin in Arthur Kober’s Having Wonderful Time; Cassius in Julius Caesar; the Nurse in Strindberg’s The Father.
She was teacher of the “Acting, Life, & the Opposites” class at the Foundation, and was one of the instructors—with Barbara Allen, flutist and Edward Green, composer—of The Opposites in Music class. She was also a consultant with There Are Wives and one of the teachers of the monthly Understanding Marriage! class at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation.
In 1956, she married the late Sheldon Kranz, Aesthetic Realism consultant, editor and poet, whose poems appear in the book Personal and Impersonal: Six Aesthetic Realists.
Timothy Lynch (1957–2016)
Statement from the Company: In 2016, our beloved colleague Timothy Lynch, actor and singer, died. We are tremendously affected by the loss of our great friend. Read more
Timothy Lynch studied at the New York Academy of Theatrical Arts, the Stella Adler Conservatory, the New York Theatre Workshop, and the Aesthetic Realism Foundation.
He appeared in many Off-Broadway shows and in regional theatre, as well as in a variety of daytime television series. His New York theatre credits included The Lower Depths, Invitation to a March, Abercrombie Apocalypse, Out of the Frying Pan, The Moon Is Blue, and the American premiere of Ibsen’s little known Love’s Comedy. With the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, he played such diverse roles as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Marc Antony, and Sir Toby Belch; Sheridan’s comic characters Sir Joseph Surface, Mr. Snake, and Don Ferolo Whiskerandos; Sean O’Casey’s Captain Boyle; and more.
Mr. Lynch said that when he began to study Aesthetic Realism in 1983, not only did his life change tremendously for the better, but so did his acting. Testimony to that fact can be found in a New York Times review of a production he was part of shortly after he had begun to have Aesthetic Realism consultations: he said it was because of what he was learning in them, and the new knowledge and feeling he had, that he was able, for the first time, to give a character the fullness and authenticity that the reviewer describes him as giving.
He was immensely proud and happy to be married to Ellen Reiss, poet, critic, and Aesthetic Realism Chair of Education.
Derek Mali (1936–2021)
Statement from the Company: Derek Mali’s range as an actor—from comedy to tragedy, from Shakespeare’s Malvolio and Julius Caesar to Sean O’Casey’s Joxer Daly—stirred theatregoers for decades. He is missed by many.
Actor and Aesthetic Realism consultant Derek Mali loved the theatre from an early age. He was born in New York City and educated at the Buckley School and Groton. He attended Yale and New York University, and graduated from Denison University with a BFA Degree in Theatre Arts.
Mr. Mali began working in the theatre as an apprentice at the Chase Barn Theatre in Whitefield, NH, during which he played the Crumbling Butler in Jean Anouilh’s Ring around the Moon, and Philip Clandon in G. B. Shaw’s You Never Can Tell. In NYC he co-produced the off-Broadway shows Call It Virtue (1963) and The Cat and the Canary (1965). He went on to become a company manager and a general manager, and managed over 40 Off-Broadway productions, including MacBird, Just for Love, America Hurrah, and the first multi-media musical, Your Own Thing; and on Broadway, Bob & Ray: The Two and Only. He was a member of Actors’ Equity and ATPAM (Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers).
Derek Mali had the honor to study Aesthetic Realism in classes taught by Eli Siegel from 1970-1978, and to continue his study with Ellen Reiss, Chair of Education. He was an Aesthetic Realism consultant for over 40 years, and presented seminars at the Foundation on such subjects as “Justice & Comfort: What’s the Relation?,” “The Mix-Up in Everyone about Coldness & Warmth,” “How Much Should a Man Care For—Besides Himself?” and ”Do We Know What’s Best in Us?–& What’s Worst?” With the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company, he has taken part in Eli Siegel’s masterful considerations of many works: in roles including Bounderby in Dickens’ Hard Times, Joxer in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Brabantio in The Taming of the Shrew, and Reverend Wrigley in The Flattering Word.
He was happily married to biology teacher and Aesthetic Realism associate Sally Ross.