Washington HS Drama Director
Ohlone College Adjunct Drama Faculty 

David Koppel is a professional actor trained in the Earle Gister Method at the Yale School of Drama and has performed with a variety of professional theatre companies including: Yale Rep Theatre, Playwrights Horizons in New York, Stanford Rep, The Western Stage, San Jose Shakespeare on the Square Festival, TheatreFIRST, Crowded Fire and the Bellarmine Alumni Theatre.

In the summer of 2020, David played a Police Officer in the New York RESET PLAY SERIES original play, The Dark Skinned Kid Who Hopped the Turnstile by Tylie R. Shider and directed by Magaly Christopher Colimon.

In addition to performing and directing, David coaches acting privately for teens and adults.  He is the founder and artistic director of "Mind's Eye Theatre," the San Jose "Shakespeare on the Square" Festival.

He is an adjunct drama faculty member at Ohlone Community College and  serves as the drama director and Performing Arts Club advisor at Washington High School in Fremont, CA.  

The WHS Performing Arts Club performed Neil Simon's comedy RUMORS, last December and the musical THE LIGHTNING THIEF  in May, 2022. 

The new Husky Theater is nearly complete and we look forward to an exciting new season of performances in 2022 and 2023.
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BELLARMINE ALUMNI THEATRE - SAN JOSE
SOBRATO CTR FOR PERF. ARTS
In the summer of 2019, David played Val Slotsky in Neil Simon's comedy, LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR and Rabbi Koresh in the 2017 original drama SWIFT JUSTICE by former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery based on the true events involving the 1933 murder of Brooke Hart and the vigilante lynching of the accused in San Jose's St. James Park.

​Instagram : www.instagram.com/dkoppel89/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/david.koppel.7

​Twitter: @dkoppel89
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Email: [email protected]

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RESET PLAY SERIES:
The dark skinned kid who hopped the turnstile
by  tylie Shider
Directed by magaly colimon-christopher

World premiere "RESET PLAY SERIES" includes: Conch Shell Productions, BRAATA Productions, and Kumu Kahua Theater presenting new works by American artists of African, Caribbean, Native American,  Latin American, Central American, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Indian, and  Polynesian  descent.  The objective of the festival is to inspire a RESET in America.

The Dark Skinned Kid Who Hopped the Turnstile is based on the true story of Adrian Napier, a 19 year-old Black man who was confronted by NYC police with their weapons drawn on the Franklin Ave. subway platform in October, 2019.

www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/28/nypd-video-guns-pointed-subway-train-unarmed-fare-hopper/

Napier was suspected of having a weapon on him but after being tackled, cuffed, and frisked by the police, no weapon was discovered and instead he was arrested for fare evasion because he hopped over the subway turnstile.

Other passengers on the train were visibly shaken by the arrest. Several people shouted warnings about the officers’ guns. Others flinched at the sight of the barrels. Within a minute of stopping in the station, everyone else had moved from the center of the car to the edges, leaving the 19-year-old alone in the line of fire.

“It was a combination of feeling incredibly concerned for [Napier] and also being aware that we were in danger,” Nehorai told The Post. “If anything small went wrong, someone could have been hurt.”

“Someone mentioned they thought [Napier] was the one who kept us the safest because he didn’t do anything and he was very careful,” Nehorai said. “He didn’t try to hide, he didn’t try to run.”
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“All to arrest a young man sitting down, his hands in the air, doing nothing. This is a militarized police out of control. And they hired 500 more for the subway.”

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Acting/Voice Classes

Acting classes in the Earle R.  Gister Method (Yale School of Drama)

• Acting Essentials 

Students learn the basics of Earle R. Gister's acting technique for building a complete character.

• Monologues/Scene Study

Students learn to apply the Gister acting technique to scenes from classical and contemporary plays including: Brecht, Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw, Strindberg, Shakespeare,  Durang, Guare, Miller, Kushner, Lynn Nottage, & Suzi Lori Parks among others.

• Voice & Speech 

​Students learn vocal warm-up techniques and standard speech based on the work of Kristin Linklater, Cicely Berry, and Patsy Rodenberg.

Register Now

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
​San Jose "Shakespeare on the Square" Festival

The San Jose "Shakespeare on the Square" Festival is dedicated to presenting multi-cultural productions of the Bard's plays that speak to our diverse Silicon Valley communities.

Shakespeare in S.J.
SPUNKY DOWNTOWN FEST HIGHLIGHTS SUMMER SEASON CHOCK FULL OF THEATER
By Karen D'Souza 
Mercury News 6/12/2008
www.mercurynews.com/ci_9560910?source=most_emailed
To be or not to be?
That was the question facing David Koppel, artistic director of San Jose's feisty little Arclight Repertory Theatre. After staging "Measure for Measure" last summer at the Theatre on San Pedro Square, he was inspired to take the project to the next level and launch an official annual Shakespeare Festival in downtown San Jose. Naysayers warned there might not be a market for iambic pentameter in Silicon Valley, a place better known for high tech than high art. But he remained undaunted, and lo, Shakespeare on the Square was born.

The fledgling festival has embarked upon its inaugural summer season with an India-infused "Twelfth Night" at San Pedro Square, continuing through June 28. To showcase this production's magical Indian mise-en-scène, the celebration includes free Saturday and Sunday pre-curtain performances by the renowned Abhinaya Dance Company.

If all goes well this summer, Koppel dreams of someday staging Shakespeare in parks across the city and making San Jose a mecca for lovers of the Bard.

"San Jose has been bereft of a Shakespeare festival. Santa Cruz has one; the Peninsula has one; there's Cal Shakes in Orinda. But there's nothing for San Jose to call its own. Why not have quality Shakespeare without a commute?" he asks. "We are taking up the banner of Shakespeare in San Jose."



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​MIND'S EYE THEATRE 

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