Tonia Ralli is a theater director & producer, retired actor, part-time musician, budding set and costume designer, a reluctant translator, an aspiring photographer & video artist. She is a co-founder & artistic director of Nostalghia Theater Company and Rabbithole Art & Performance Space.
She has a Bachelor of Science in Theater and a minor in Music from Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY). Additional training which is vitally connected to her work includes seminars and workshops with Anne Bogard and SITI, Anatoly Vassiliev, Jurij Alschitz, Theo Terzopoulos, and LAMDA (among others). Her practice uses elements from methods such as Viewpoints, Suzuki, Linklater (voice) and more. She also is a trained Pilates teacher and uses elements of this method in creating and analyzing movement onstage. Since 2006 she also became very active in various fields of design (set, costume, graphic, video art etc.), drawing from previous experience with carpentry and scenic art and familiarizing herself with camera work, photo & video editing, sewing etc. Thus, her more recent work consists mainly of performance/installation pieces.
Tonia is passionate about training performers and designers to create exciting interactive compositions and involving the audience in the creative process, allowing them the choice of distance or very close proximity to the work itself. She connects theater and art to the education of both young and mature spectators, trying to create opportunities for meaningful encounters, thorough analysis and constructive criticism.