TEACHING STATEMENT
“What is most important to me is to transform the, ‘class’ into an ‘ensemble of artists,’ who come to build a bond of trust and end up feeling supported and challenged to take a risk. That risk involves allowing oneself, emotionally, to reveal and understand, more and more, personal truth. I use a variety of exercises (Hagen, Meisner, Grotowski, my own) to help the actor create honest, compelling behavior to serve the story being told. Generally, we focus on three important ideas: Acting is doing. – The gasoline for doing is meaning. – It is of utmost importance to be present and, ‘in the moment’”
BIO
David Deblinger is an award-winning actor, writer, director, dramaturg, and co-founder of New York’s acclaimed Labyrinth Theater Company, whose career has brought him into collaboration with some of the most celebrated artists in American theater and film. His work has included projects with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell, Adrien Brody, Christopher Walken, Joe Pantoliano, John Patrick Shanley, and Stephen Adly Guirgis, alongside appearances in landmark and acclaimed television series including Sex and the City, Tulsa King, Godfather of Harlem, and Law & Order.
A longtime member of New York’s theater community, Deblinger originated roles in John Patrick Shanley’s Where’s My Money? and Dirty Story, as well as Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Our Lady of 121st Street, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. His acclaimed one-man show Shmoo, produced by Hoffman, received critical praise and foundation support. He currently tours with his solo work Lucky Penny, a tragicomic fusion of storytelling and music performed with renowned jazz vocalist Fred Johnson, most recently presented at The STRAZ Performing Arts Center in Tampa.
Deblinger’s work as a filmmaker has similarly paired him with major talent. He wrote and directed the short film The Call Back, starring Sam Rockwell, which won Best Short/Audience Award at the San Diego International Film Festival. He conceived and directed A Shakespearean Minute, recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award, and wrote and performed in the Labyrinth-commissioned pandemic film Hot Tea.
His screen work includes appearances alongside Sylvester Stallone in Tulsa King and Forest Whitaker in Godfather of Harlem, as well as roles in The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Law & Order. His film credits include Kiss Me Guido (first film bought by Paramount at Sundance Film Festival), Remember Me with Robert Pattinson, Life’s a Beach with Christopher Walken, Tax Man with Joe Pantoliano, Nothing to Lose with Adrien Brody, James White with Cynthia Nixon, A Price Above Rubies, and Kicked in the Head, executive produced by Martin Scorsese. As a director and dramaturg, Deblinger recently helmed Tracey Yarad’s award-winning and critically acclaimed All These Pretty Things, which is headed to New York for a limited Off-Broadway engagement. He also directed Susan Jacobson’s storytelling and dance memoir Collecting Driftwood, winner of the United Solo Festival Award for Best Physical Theater Performance.
In 2023, Deblinger assembled and directed an extraordinary ensemble—including Marsha Mason, Mercedes Ruehl, John Ventimiglia, Kevin Corrigan, John Doman, Dael Orlandersmith, and José Rivera—for a performance of excerpts from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road at New York’s Strand Bookstore. The evening featured a jazz quartet led by legendary musician David Amram, who had performed with Kerouac himself during the period in which the novel emerged. Deblinger also directed and developed Tomoko Miyagi’s Mad Mystic at TheaterLab. In 2024, he conceived and directed Let Freedom Ring, a multidisciplinary performance event at New York’s historic Great Hall honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington.
His theater credits also include work at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Theatre for a New Audience, The Old Globe, The New Group, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (winner Best Lead Performance for The History of Invulnerability by David Bar Katz at Cincinnati’s Acclaim Awards), Capital Repertory Theatre, and Penguin Rep Theatre. His new play, Dream Life: A Psycho-Active Farce, has been developed through readings at Labyrinth Theater Company, HB Playwrights Theatre, and The Paradise Factory.
Alongside his professional work, Deblinger has devoted a significant part of his career to developing the next generation of artists. He teaches acting and storytelling at HB Studio, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and Terry Knickerbocker Studio, bringing decades of experience as an actor, director, writer, and collaborative theater-maker into the classroom.
