Sarafina Vecchio

Please note: While we navigate our way through this pandemic, I am happy and able to record any voice over project from my home using Source Connect, as well as teach, coach, and direct online over Zoom, FaceTime, and Skype!

Please click here to view my directing, teaching, and performance resume

I am happy acting on both stage and screen. I am also available for voice over, event facilitation, live events modeling, and hosting. 

Please visit www.PaonessaTalent.com to view my acting resume, as well as for any theatrical, on-camera, voice over, or live event bookings.

For the last few years, I have been fortunate to build my list of coaching clients from word of mouth recommendations. I work regularly with professionals preparing for on-camera and theatre auditions, incoming college students getting ready for school entrance auditions, and even young actors and their families who need security and guidance to find success in the audition room and navigate their way through the sometimes confusing entertainment industry.

I am also available for in classroom Shakespeare workshops for schools, theatre companies, and even corporations. I pride myself on my "on your feet" approach to taking the fear out of Shakespeare, using techniques and tools taught to me by the education department of The Royal Shakespeare Company. It is my goal to help students and actors learn to approach Shakespeare with confidence and a sense of adventure!

This fall I will be joining the faculty at Paramount School of the Arts in Aurora, IL. I am excited to start teaching Fundamentals of Acting in their prestigious Musical Theatre Institute. www.Paramountschoolofthearts.com

I am very grateful to be continuing working as an instructor at www.ActingStudioChicago.com through 2020. I have taught several different classes in my 6 years at ASC- this fall I will be teaching Level 3 Shurtleff, ShakesPlay!, Beginning Monologue, and acting for teens.

I am also thrilled to have recently taught a workshop on Teaching Shakespeare this past winter at Stratford Festival in London, Ontario! 

Look out for the upcoming podcast "Big Sandy", where I play a number of different characters telling the story of one woman's life growing up in Appalachia.

Had Covid-19 not hit the planet, I was contracted to spend Summer 2020 I traveling to Benzie County Michigan where I was to be directing "Julius Caesar" for Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre, which was to be presented in rep with "Merry Wives of Windsor", in which I was playing Mistress Ford. This does not mean the end of Lakeside Shakes! They will be back next summer for more outdoor theatre fun!

After directing last year's sold out production of "Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein" at ECC Musical Theatre in Elgin, Illinois, I was back again at the beginning of 2020 directing "Kiss Me Kate". Opened February 22 and closed just as the pandemic was changing the 2020 face of theatre in America.

As always, I am available year round for event facilitation for businesses, schools, non for profit groups, or any other organization who needs it! 

My acting career began at the age of 3 as a fidgety Christmas pageant angel in my hometown of Elgin, IL. Since then, I have appeared in hundreds of productions, eventually earning my Bachelor's in Theatre from Roosevelt University and a Post Graduate Award in Teaching Shakespeare from The University of Warwick, in conjunction with The Royal Shakespeare Company, in Coventry, England. I also worked for many years as a plus size model in Chicago, NYC and LA. Currently, I am part of the faculty at Acting Studio Chicago, teaching the Shurtleff Technique through scene study. I also work as a private audition and monologue coach, as well as a freelance director.

 I have appeared in several feature and independent films, industrials, and national TV shows. My voice has been heard on podcasts, corporate videos, cartoons, and live event demonstrations. My image has been in national magazines and runways as a plus and commercial print model.  And I have had the privilege of performing in the Chicago theatre community for most of my life.