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Lanny Harrison

Part-time Faculty
lannyh123@gmail.com
429 - 1 Wash Pl

Office Hours
Wednesday 1:00 TO 2:00

B.A., Liberal Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, 1965

Lanny Harrison, character actress, dancer, poet and visual artist, began her career in the New York Pantomime Theater in 1966. She has played character roles in Off-Broadway musicals and films, and, for the past 40 years, has written and performed one-woman shows which have toured America and Europe. She has been a member of The House, Meredith Monk’s theater company, since 1969, and has played leading roles in many of Monk’s productions, most recently being seen in the film version of QUARRY. Harrison’s recent shows include, Memoir: Poems, Dances & Songs, 1929 and ISBA -- Dreams, Memories, Other Lives. She has performed a number of theatrical duets, including Cooking Up A Storm, with her late husband, musician Collin Walcott; Acts from Under and Above with Meredith Monk; Sense and Nonsense, and Act Without Words II by Samuel Beckett, both with Steve Clorfeine. Harrison and Lily Pink have presented their vaudeville show, The Bat Sisters, at various venues in New York City and in upstate New York. Harrison teaches at the West Kortright Centre and at Naropa University. Her ongoing weekly workshop, “Characters in Motion,” now resides at Integral Yoga Institute. She was a member of the Shambhala Arts team at ALIA Institute in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At Gallatin, Harrison teaches a theater course integrating Eastern contemplative disciplines and movement and theatrical improvisation. Since 1973, she has practiced Tibetan Buddhism as a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and is certified as a meditation instructor. Harrison is at work on a sourcebook of her theater exercises Characters in Motion. She is in rehearsal with percussionist and composer Robin Daniels, and videographer and projectionist Christine Alicino, on their new show, Threshold.  

Performances, Productions, Exhibitions & Releases

2023

Back-to-Live! Characters in Motion

Lanny Harrison’s Back-to-Live! Characters in Motion theater workshops in Westbeth Community Room, Dec & Jan. 2022 -23. Participated in memorial for Pablo Vela at La MaMa Annex, Jan 2023. 

Teaching and Research Interests

character acting and performance; storytelling; dance; Buddhist and Taoist studies and practice 

Recent News

PERFORMANCES

Lanny Harrison has presented her latest show, Memoir, a collection of poems, dances and songs from 1971 to present in various venues in in New York City and upstate.

In 2016, Harrison, in collaboration with long-time theater partner Steve Clorfeine and percussionist Robin Daniels, presented Another Nomadic Event at Unison Center in New Paltz, New York. In Dec. 2017, Harrison and Daniels created and performed Holiday Show, for the 3rd year, at The Century Association in NYC. They are now at work on a new collaboration to be performed summer 2018 in Harrison's performance barn in upstate New York.

Lanny Harrison