Directory Profile

José Angel Santana, Ph.D., is an educator, a Bravo Network “Arts for Change” award-winning director, an accomplished actor, and an innovator in the field of interpersonal communication. He was a student of the great Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of  the Theatre and appears throughout the documentaries Sanford Meisner Master Class, directed by Sidney Pollack and Sanford Meisner: The Theater’s Best Kept Secret.

As the Head of the Directing Actors Track at the NYU Graduate School of Film from 2008 – 2012, he taught, influenced, and continues to mentor some of today's most promising and award-winning young filmmakers. On March 15, 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated three of those filmmakers: Shaka King (along with USC SCA's Ryan Coogler), Chloé Zhao, and Mollye Asher, collectively for 12 Academy Awards.

He served as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Film, specializing in Directing Actors at the Columbia University School of the Arts, Graduate Film School, from 2014 - 2020, and taught the course he created at the School of Visual Arts, The Art of Connecting from 2007 until relocating to Los Angeles in the summer of 2020.

As a young actor, José Angel Santana received critical acclaim for his heartbreaking debut performance as "José - the Junkie" in Sidney Lumet's Prince Of The City, and audiences remember him as the "Strange Boutique Owner" with Madonna in the 80’s cult classic Desperately Seeking Susan. Among his other featured performances in film are “Benny” in Batteries Not Included with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, along with roles in Night Hawks, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Garbo Talks, and The Morning After with Jane Fonda.

In 1979, the New York Shakespeare Festival producer Joseph Papp assembled a Shakespearian repertory company made up entirely of black and Hispanic actors, the first such company ever formed. That summer, as part of The Black and Hispanic Shakespeare Company, Santana performed in Coriolanus, directed by Wilford Leach with Morgan Freeman in the title role and with his fellow apprentices Keith David and Denzel Washington, at the Delacorte Theater in New York’s Central Park to sold-out houses.

Santana has also originated roles in numerous works by some of our most important international playwrights. Among these are three world premieres of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet's works. These include The Blue Hour, directed by Mamet at the New York Shakespeare Festival; Edmond, directed by Gregory Mosher at Chicago's Goodman Theater and in its OBIE Award-winning production at the legendary Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village; and Mamet's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, directed by Mosher with Oscar nominees W.H. Macy (Fargo) and Lindsay Crouse (Places in the Heart).

In addition to his work with Mamet, he starred in Academy Award nominee Trevor Griffiths’s play Real Dreams, directed by Mr. Griffiths, and performed opposite two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey at the Williamstown Theater Festival. He also played a leading role to critical acclaim in Joe Cacaci's Self Defense, directed by Arvin Brown at the Long Wharf Theater and Off-Broadway, and in Eduardo Machado's The Modern Ladies of Guanabacoa, directed by James Hammerstein at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City. Also, portraying the title role of "Cruz Lopez" in Felipe Santander's Casa de Las Americas award-winning play El Extensionista, directed by John Dillon at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

In television, he co-starred alongside renowned playwright/actor and leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement, Miguel Piñero in the Emmy award-winning episode of Miami Vice - Calderon's Demise; as well as in episodes of Hill Street Blues, The Twilight Zone, and Beverly Hills 90210, and once again with Lindsay Crouse, in the Lifetime Channel movie Stranger In My House.

He is a lifetime member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York.

Teacher Statement:

Between June 3, 1981, and May 1982, I was a member of the company (as understudy to the role of "Bobby") in David Mamet's American Buffalo, starring Al Pacino, at the Circle in the Square Theater in New York City. The play performed to sold-out houses throughout its entire run. Despite this, our cast continued to rehearse the play every day before each evening's performance. I was extremely fortunate to participate in these rehearsals, led by Al Pacino. 

Over months, we worked meticulously to identify the specific given circumstances of each section of every scene in the play, from beginning to end. It was a relentless quest to find the most truthful moment-to-moment behavior between the characters, elevate the subtext, and mesmerize audiences like nothing else I had ever seen or taken part in.

My participation in these collaborative, improvisational rehearsals was a seminal experience in my life. I have carried the lessons learned during this time with me in all my work as an actor, director, and teacher ever since. The common language we developed in these rehearsals led to my assisting Mr. Pacino in preparing for his iconic role as “Tony Montana” in the movie Scarface.

These experiences taught me how to apply what I had first learned from my teachers Sanford Meisner, Stella Adler, and Mira Rostova in a way that deepened my understanding of their teachings – to bring drama to life as if it were happening for the first time, in every performance, for every audience. I strive to pass on these lessons to my students by guiding our work together as a constant search for 'the ring of truth.'