Eric Trules is a native of New York City and has been in the performing arts for over 30 years. He began as a modern dancer and choreographer with Shirley Mordine, and then co-founded Mo Ming, the nationally renowned Dance-Theater in Chicago. Eric was one of the first federally funded CETA grant recipients in America for his dance work, which also received support from the Illinois Arts Council and the NEA. He then returned to NYC and founded and directed its Resident Clown Troupe, The Cumeezi Bozo Ensemble, a company which was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, appeared at Lincoln Center and Town Hall, and toured Holland, Switzerland, and France. Trules created the concept and program of “Free Public Laughs” which brought the performing arts to alternative, under-served and ethnically diverse communities throughout the metropolitan area.
After studying with Lee Strasberg and working Off-Broadway in New York, Eric came to Los Angeles in 1983, acting at the Mark Taper Forum, and in television and in films. He is perhaps best known however, for his Solo Performance work. In 1988 he wrote his own one man show, Down…but Not Out, which he performed at both the Wallenboyd Theater and at Theater/Theatre in LA, and then went on to present it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he was nominated by London’s Independent newspaper for its first annual Theater Award. Next Eric wrote and performed W(holes), another theatrical collection of monologues and dialogues – on the theme of Illness and Healing, also at Theater/Theatre in Hollywood, followed by It’s the Day After Valentine’s Day in 1995, which he presented at the Hudson Guild in LA and again at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2002-2003, Eric was an original member of the long-running theatrical anthology of monologues in Los Angeles called “Cock Tales”.
As a writer and performance poet Eric has been featured at Beyond Baroque and in the LA Poetry Festival, and he has had his work published in national anthologies and in The Los Angeles Times. He has also read his work on KCRW and KPFK radio and hosted “Theater Closeup” on KPFK. He has been editor and co-publisher of Euphonia, A Los Angeles Journal for Men, and is an Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award Winner.
As a theatrical director Eric studied directing with Lee Strasberg and Jose Quintero. He has directed theater at many of the best houses in Los Angeles including America’s Finest by Burke Byrnes at the Wallenboyd and Back Alley Theaters in LA, as well as in San Francisco and Edinburgh, Scotland. He also directed The Slater Brothers at the Powerhouse and Olio Theaters, and the Drama-Logue and LA Weekly award winning comedies Warhit and More Warhit at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
Eric has been an Assistant Professor at USC’s School of Theater since 1986, one of the top ranked schools in the country, as well as an Adjunct Professor in USC’s School of Cinema-Television. He is currently a full-time Lecturer at USC’s School of Theater. In addition, he has been a Creative Writing Instructor for CSSSA at Cal Arts and a member of the Performing Arts faculty at UCLA Extension. In 1999, Eric won the prestigious national Phi Kappa Phi “Faculty Recognition Award”, one of only 4 faculty members campus-wide at USC, and in 2002 Eric was a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia for 8 months.
As a filmmaker Eric trained at NYU and UCLA Film Schools, studying with Nicholas Ray among others. He is a National Poetry Film & Video Festival award winner, and a Western States Regional Media Arts Fellow for his feature-length documentary film, The Poet and the Con, an autobiographical film about the relationship between himself and his uncle, a convicted felon and a career criminal. The film was completed in 1999, favorably reviewed and featured in the Los Angeles Times, and had a successful theatrical run at several of the Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles. It has played extensively at both domestic and international film festivals.
