High School Program Director and Clown Faculty
Justin is an actor, director, and teaching artist who has brought Clowning and Devising work to students ages 4-84 in New York City and around the world.
In the Clown World, we don’t believe God ladles out unequal amounts of talent. Everyone gets the same dollop, and you’ve just got to do the work to free up your talent, and give it room to move around.
Justin Cimino received his BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, training at the Meisner Studio. He has trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As an actor, he has performed Off-Broadway and in many other productions in NYC. He has been a teaching artist for 15 years. He is currently the Artistic Director for Zara Aina, a nonprofit organization that brings theater to at-risk communities in Madagascar and the United States. He was hired by UNICEF to use Zara Aina’s theater work to mobilize communities in Madagascar to fight polio. He has brought Zara Aina’s work to rural Southern Alabama, building original pageant-style shows with community members ages 4-84.
Justin has directed and taught clowning and the devised “moment work” of the Tectonic Theater Project at NYU Tisch, Columbia University, The Studio/NY, The Public’s Shakespeare Initiative, Terry Knickerbocker Studio, and Smashworks Dance Company. Justin has devised and directed several productions for his theater company Pigeonholed, of which he is the Founder and Artistic Director.
In 2019 Justin received a SU-CASA grant from the Queens Council on the Arts to build an original theater piece with senior citizens, and devised and directed a hybrid clown//dance piece for TheaterLab’s Hotel New Works Residency and for The Tank’s LadyFest.
