Dean Yacalis

Odysseus began his theater studies, at the University of Texas, during the tenure of one the great theater pioneers of the century, Jerzy Grotowski. Grotowski and his seminal, Towards a Poor Theater, had a significant influence, on Odysseus' evolving vision of how deep the acting process could go and on his quest to re-imagine the decaying function and form of theater. Before he left, Grotowski staged a reading of Odysseus' first play, To The Sea. Odysseus continued his studies at London's Drama Studio. He made his professional acting debut, in Edward Albee's American Dream, at the Young Vic Studio, on London's West End. Odysseus left London to further his education at the New York City acting academy, Circle-in-the-Square. It was a golden time for the Circle academy, resident instructors included: the head of Yale's graduate theater program, and the founder of Williamstown theater, the Nikos Psacharopoulos, the legendary sense memory instructor Terry Haydn and Jacqueline Brookes. Before touring with the Broadway production of Tony and Tina's Wedding, Odysseus made his Broadway debut, as the painter Modigliani, in the play of the same name, by Dennis Mcintyre another UT graduate. Odysseus launched his Los Angeles acting career in the long running, powerful ensemble play, Monsoon Christmas, with a cast that included director/actor Burr Steers and comedian Lewis Dix. His first screen appearance was un-credited, opposite Al Pacino, in Martin Bregman's Sea of Love. Odysseus landed his first lead film role in Warner Bros, Born to Ride. His premiere as a director was an original adaptation of Fassbinder's, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, which won every major theater award in Los Angeles, including the prestigious Director of the year, at the annual LA Weekly Theater awards. Throughout the nineties, he directed more than two dozen works, in the LA area, a streak that culminated with his World premiere adaptation and staging of Euripides', The Bacchae, which cemented his importance to Los Angeles Theater and garnered him another slew of awards including production design of the year, at the annual LA Weekly award ceremony. During that time he also helped to develop and produce Tony Spiridakis', The Last Word. Over the past decade, he has written five screenplays, two novels and a non-fiction book on inspirational parenting. Two of his Sci-fi screenplays, Dreamweavers and Anonymous Light are in development with New Work Films. He is in pre-production to direct his latest script, Anarchism, a modern Greek tragedy set against the backdrop of the volatile Athens underground.