About
How it all began– the early years
I began my performance career as a ballet dancer. I began ballet classes at four years old. By the age of 13, I had become a junior corps member and then senior company soloist with the Wisconsin Ballet Company under Bess and Tibor Zana in my beloved hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, AKA “Mad City.” Our company performed an annual season in Madison, hosting world renowned guest stars that included Natalia Makarova, Ted Kivitt, Edward Villella, Patricia McBride, Maria Tallchief and Rudolph Nureyev, among others. We also toured the Midwest, performing concerts in underserved small towns and rural communities. Once, we even performed for inmates inside the Waupan State Prison. During summers, I studied ballet, jazz dance and theater at Interlochen School of the Arts in Michigan and Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada.
The acting bug hit me in high school, where I starred in, choreographed and/or assistant directed productions, including Barefoot in the Park; Bye Bye Birdie; Life with Father; West Side Story; and The Music Man, among others; and competed in Forensics. After graduation I attended Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where I graduated with degrees in Theater and Oral Interpretation/Performance Studies. I was blessed to study with master teachers Dr. Wallace Bacon; Dr. Linda Jenkins; Dr. Frank Galati; Dr. Lee Roloff; Dr. Carol Simpson-Stern; Dr. Bonnie Raphael; and Ron Parady, among others. While in college, I also kept up with my dancing, taking company jazz dance classes with the late, great Gus Giordano and members of his professional troupe, Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Company.I completed internships with theater companies in the Twin Cities area, including Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis (acting, dance, costumes, makeup and wigs) Actors Theater of St. Paul (acting); and Dudley Riggs’ Brave New Workshop (improvisational comedy).
Professional Career
After spending a year working and studying at various theaters in the Twin Cities, I felt ready to head to the East Coast to start my professional acting career. My first theatrical engagement was spending a season in the apprentice acting company at the Tony-award winning Actors Theater of Louisville (ATL) under Jon Jory. In addition to taking classes and working on stage crews, I appeared with the professional acting company, playing several roles in ATL’s Humana New Play Festival; Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM; and a series of children’s shows, cabarets, and apprentice productions that toured Kentucky. A few months after moving to New York the following fall, I experienced a “dream come true” big break; I made my professional, Actors Equity, New York and Broadway debuts simultaneously as Irene in Sir Ronald Harwood’s award-winning backstage drama, THE DRESSER, opposite Sir Tom Courtenay and “Sir” Paul Rogers, and directed by Michael Elliott, which was nominated for several Tony Awards. My other Broadway credits include Denise Apcar in Emily Mann’s docudrama, EXECUTION OF JUSTICE, with Stanley Tucci, Earle Hyman, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Wesley Snipes, Mary McDonnell, John Spencer, and Gerry Bamman, among others; and “The Girl” in William Saroyan’s THE CAVE DWELLERS, part of Circle in the Square’s posthumous “Tribute to the Life and Work of William Saroyan.”
My first professional headshot.
Theater
Over the next few decades, I starred in a wide variety of classical and contemporary roles Off Broadway and at regional theaters across the USA, including the Guthrie; Stratford’s American Shakespeare Theatre;Actors Theater of Louisville; Prince Music Theater; Long Wharf Theater; Philadelphia Theatre Company; Syracuse Stage; Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre; Portland Stage; Philadelphia Festival Theatre of New Plays; Philadelphia Drama Guild; Pittsburgh Public; and the New Jersey, Three Rivers and Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festivals, among others. I have been nominated for and won several acting awards. Some of my favorite theatrical roles include the title “bad girl” role of Jo Ellen Rae Harvey Fitts in the world premiere of Jo Carol Pierce’s Texas country rock musical, BAD GIRLS UPSET BY THE TRUTH; Ophelia in HAMLET opposite Christopher Walken, Roy Dotrice, Anne Baxter, Chris Sarandon, Stephen Lang and Fred Gwynne; Roxane in a new adaptation of CYRANO DE BERGERAC by Emily Frankel starring opposite Tony winner John Cullum and the late Marcus Smythe; and Rosina in BECOMING MEMORIES by the late Arthur Giron. I also played Elise in Moliere’s THE MISER; Angelique in Moliere’s THE IMAGINARY INVALID; Cordelia in KING LEAR; Helena in ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL; Hermia in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM; both Olivia and Viola in TWELFTH NIGHT; Rose in DANCING AT LUGHNASA by Brian Friel; Mac in THREE VIEWINGS by Jeffrey Hatcher; Yelena in Anton Chekhov’s UNCLE VANYA; Natasha in Anton Chekhov’s THREE SISTERS; Sasha in Chekhov/Frayn’s WILD HONEY; Jennet Jourdemayne in Christopher Fry’s THE LADY’S NOT FOR BURNING; Mirandolina in Goldoni’s THE MISTRESS OF THE INN; Flaminia in Marivaux’s DOUBLE INFIDELITIES; Blanche in Neil Simon’s BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS; Melitta in Nicholas Wright’s MRS. KLEIN; Mrs. Webb in Thornton Wilder’s OUR TOWN; and many others
Films
I have acted in several feature films, include the role of Juliet in Oscar nominated writer-director Jeff Blitz’ first feature film, ROCKET SCIENCE (Jury prizes: Sundance & Philadelphia Film Festivals; Independent Spirit Awards) with Reece Thompson, Anna Kendrick, Vincent Piazza, Margo Martindale, Denis O’Hare, and Steve Park; Papagena in Milos Forman’s Oscar winning “Best Picture” feature film, AMADEUS by Peter Shaffer, with F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce; Simon Callow; Roy Dotrice; Cynthia Nixon; Kenny Baker; and others; Marilyn Horn in Peter Yate’s SUSPECT with Cher, Liam Neeson, John Mahoney and Dennis Quaid; Sharon Doogan in R.T. Herwig’s independent feature film, SAINT CHRISTOPHER (Best Supporting Actress, L.A. Method Film Festival), and many others. I have television credits that include appearances on daytime dramas and guest roles on a variety of television series.
While continuing my professional acting career, getting married to the love of my life, Production Specialist Roy Backes, and giving birth to our beloved son Oliver, I branched out into teaching. Our young family, toddler in tow, relocated from Manhattan to Philadelphia for a season with a regional theater, and we loved it here so much we never left. I have taught a wide variety of acting courses and guest artist workshops at undergraduate, graduate and professional theater schools, including Drexel University Film Program; Temple University MFA program; University of the Arts; NYU Tisch; Northwestern; Brandeis MFA program; University of Pennsylvania; Syracuse Stage; the Wilma Theatre; the Guthrie Theatre; the Alliance Theatre; and many others. I specialized in teaching Audition Technique; Film Acting; Playwright-focused Scene Study; Chekhov; Shakespeare; Classical Styles; Film Acting; Improvisation; Solo Performance Composition; Interpretation/Performance Studies; and Storytelling. I fell madly in love with teaching, which inspired me to go back to school to complete a Master’s degree in Performance Studies, centering my work on both scholarly performance anthropology and creative solo performance, at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I worked with the brilliant scholars and artists including Richard Schechner, Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett; Diana Taylor; Deb Margolin, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; and many others. While continuing to act professionally and teach, I became a published writer, completing the MFA Writing Programs in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction at Sarah Lawrence Collegeworking with master writers Lawrence Weschler; Mary Morris; Joan Silber; Mary LaChapelle; Vijay Seshadri; and Vivien Gornick, among others. I was awarded a grant to do a Comedia Dell’ Arte mask and physical theater fellowship at the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, California under the late, great Joan Schirle. I have volunteered as a mentor in the PENN American Prison Writers Program and donate my time to area elementary, middle and high schools and senior citizen facilities for theater workshops.
Somewhere in the midst of all my varied activities as a mother, wife, actor, acting teacher, writer and solo performer, I stumbled upon what would become my most beloved educational work: private acting coaching. By accident, really, my 14 year old son came home from his new high school, Friends Central Quaker School, and asked me if I could talk to his high school friend’s older sister about preparing her prepare her audition material for wildly competitive BFA program auditions (Juilliard, Carnegie Mellon, RADA, and the like). She was apparently looking for an audition coach. I had not heard of private audition coaching so, in my customary way, I decided instantly to throw caution to the wind and give it a try. Well, that was that. I instantly fell in love with coaching, the process mentoring gifted young artists one on one who are vying for admission to elite conservatory training programs around the world and for professional auditions. Some acting conservatories are so wildly selective, they make gaining admission to Harvard or Yale look easy. REALLY. Little by little, I left my other university teaching positions to concentrate fully on creating my private coaching studio. During the past 20 years, I have designed and built a thriving private coaching studio in historic Center City Philadelphia and via Zoom across the country and abroad. At the time I first was acquainted with the idea of coaching, there were very few of us in the USA; now, I pay it back by teaching former students of mine to coach with the methodologies I created. As a writer, I also coach creative writers on reading their own work in public readings.
In my spare time, I am working on a solo play; full-length play, novel and memoir. I have recently written and performed original solo pieces via Zoom and in the New York and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals. My plan is to venture forth with a full length solo performance evening of three related autobiographical monologues. I continue to act and coach young film actors in preparation for feature films and television.
Here I am as Ophelia in Stratford’s American Shakespeare Theater opposite Christopher Walken, Anne Baxter (pictured), Stephen Lang (pictured), Roy Dotrice and Chris Sarandon.
Lisbeth starring as Roxane in CYRANO DE BERGERAC opposite John Cullum.
NYC premiere of ROCKET SCIENCE.
Personal Life
Lisbeth is married to Roy W. Backes, a revered director of production; production stage manager; general manager and technical theater specialist who teaches at Rutgers University. He received his BFA from Point Park University and started his career as prop master to the late great Fred Rogers on the legendary WQED television show, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” Roy has worked extensively on and off Broadway, and at regional theaters across the country including Freedom Repertory Theater; Roundabout Theater Company; Philadelphia Theatre Company; Philadelphia Drama Guild; Wilma Theater Company; Hartmann Theatre Company; Walnut Street Theatre; and many others. Lisbeth and Roy have a son, Oliver, who recently completed his graduate degree in International Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he won 1st prize for best IPP graduate thesis. Before that, he was Research Associate in the “Russia Eurasia Program” at CSIS (CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES), the top foreign policy think tank in Washington, D.C. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in International Relations, Diplomatic History and Russian from the University of Pennsylvania. Lisbeth lives with her husband in historic Center City Philadelphia.
Acting & Performance
LISBETH BARTLETT, AEA, SAG-AFTRA
I have 40 years of experience as a professional actor, acting teacher, solo performer and writer.
I also have a thriving private coaching business working one on one with gifted young acting students. I conduct in person coaching at my private acting studio in historic downtown Philadelphia and work online via Zoom with students and professional actors across the US and abroad. Online coaching works just as well as in person coaching and achieves equally successful results without having to sit in traffic!
I began my performance career as a corps member and soloist with the Wisconsin Ballet Company under Bess and Tibor Zana in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Later I headed to the East Coast to begin my professional acting career.
Over my career, I have played a wide variety of classical and contemporary leading roles On and Off Broadway; at regional theaters across the USA; as well as playing roles in several feature films; television series; and even a lengthy stint on my favorite daytime soap opera.
