Robert Murray Duncan

Robert is an actor, director, and writer. He directed Memorial Day, the most successful production to date of The Road Theatre Company's "Off-Road" series, about a veteran's experience with post-traumatic stress. The play was created within the Actors Studio (NYC) by lifetime member and writer/actor Brian Delate, under the guidance of Ellen Burstyn. Robert is writing, directing, and editing the documentary on the creation of this work and Brian's experience of performing the play in Hanoi. For television, Robert appeared in Days of Our Lives and performed many Guest Star roles in such shows as Stargate SG-1, First Wave, The New Addams Family, and Dead Man's Gun. Based primarily in New York City and Los Angeles Robert has worked on television shows and theatre productions throughout the United States. (Actors Studio (NYC), Atlanta Theatre for Actors, Duke University Theatre, Florida Studio Theater, Matrix Theatre (LA), Public Theatre of Maine, San Diego Rep, Tiffany Theatre (LA), York Theatre Company (NYC)). At the York Theatre Company in Manhattan, he starred opposite Robert Lapone in "Clothes for a Summer Hotel" by Tennessee Williams. Robert was a member of the Circle Repertory Company Lab Theatre in New York City - and acted in new plays where he was inspired by such talents as writers Lanford Wilson and Craig Lucas, and actors Judd Hirsch, Frank Langella and Cherry Jones. Along with Joan Allen, director Marshall Mason, and writer Lanford Wilson, Robert worked in Los Angeles as understudy to John Malkovich in the premiere production of "Burn This" at the Mark Taper Forum and later performed the role for the highly successful production at San Diego Rep. With actor Christopher McDonald and Joe Hart, Robert appeared in the long-running hit "Bouncers" at the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles and went on to earn a Dramalogue Award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Performance for his work in "Judevine" at Hollywood's Matrix Theatre. He produced and directed theatre productions of "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," "Savage in Limbo," and "Escape from Happiness." Robert returned to study the craft of independent filmmaking at New York University's School of Professional Studies. He created, co-produced and directed the pilot episode for an animated children's program entitled "LAND OF ZI," which introduced children to the Chinese written characters. This series has taken him to the Chicago International Children's Film Festival 2008, and to Italy for Cartoons on the Bay 2008. The show was also nominated at Anima Mundi Cellular 2008 (Brazil), AniMadrid 2008 (Spain), and CINANIMA 2008 (Portugal). Business aspects saw Robert travel to Seoul, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and also to Cannes, France, to attend MIPCOM marketing event. His first experience with animation was when he spent two years working at Disney Feature Animation Studios as the Live-Action Reference Actor for the character of John Smith in "Pocahontas." Over a ten-year period, Robert was a professor at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) where he taught a course entitled Acting for Animators in the Character Animation Department, and in the Experimental Animation Department, he has instructed student animation directors on the craft of directing voice-over actors. He invited his CalArts students to demonstrate their abilities in a lecture series on the Meisner Acting Technique at DreamWorks Animation and again in a directing workshop, Robert created specifically at the request of "Kung Fu Panda" director John Stevenson. He has been a guest teacher at New York University School of Professional Studies where he instructed film students in directing actors for the camera, and the film director communication process. Robert first trained as an actor in the Master Acting Class at the University of Alberta's Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada. He is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.