Andrew Shea
Assistant Professor & Graduate Adviser
E-mail: ashea@mail.utexas.edu
Office: UA9 2.112D
Phone: 512-471-5303
M.F.A., University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, 1994.
Andrew Shea recently completed his third feature film, Forfeit, a heist flick starring Billy Burke, Sherry Stringfield, Gregory Itzin and Wayne Knight. It premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival and went on to play in thirty domestic and international festivals, including the Rhode Island International Film Festival, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Filmfest Hamburg (international premiere), the Edmonton International Film Festival, the Starz Denver Film Festival, the Memphis International Film Festival, USA Film Festival, the Brooklyn International Film Festival and the Palm Beach International Film Festival. The film has been picked up for international distribution by Curb Entertainment.
Andrew's second feature, The Corndog Man, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It also screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival, where Andrew won the Emerging Filmmaker Award; the Santa Barbara International Film Festival; the Berlin Film Festival (IFP’s American Independents at the Market); the New Haven Film Festival; the USA Film Festival; the Florida Film Festival; Method Fest; the Santa Fe International Film Festival; the Philadelphia International Film Festival (Leigh Whipper Gold Award for Best Feature); the Denver Film Festival; the Austin Film Festival; the Communication Arts Society of San Antonio Film Showcase; the Northampton Film Festival (best feature film); the Virginia Film Festival; the Raindance Film Festival; Rio de Janeiro Film Festival; and the Hamburg Film Festival.
Andrew directs Sherry Stringfield in Forfeit
Andrew’s first feature, Santa Fe, also screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Taos Talking Picture Festival, the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and the Munich Film Festival, among others. It can be seen, from time to time, on HBO and Cinemax.
Andrew's short film, Take My Breath Away, made while he was a film student at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, was one of two American shorts invited to screen in the International Critics Week of the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. It also received a special screening in the 1999 Critics Week at Cannes. In addition to Cannes, it screened at the Deauville Film Festival, the Australian Film Institute, the British Film Institute, the Ismalia International Film Festival, the International Flanders Film Festival, Noir in Festival, Mediterranean Festival of New Filmmakers, Breckenridge Festival of Film, Cinequest Film Festival, and the Utah Short Film and Video Festival.
In the 1980s, Andrew founded the New Mexico Repertory Theatre, a regional professional theatre based in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. During his tenure as artistic director, the New Mexico Rep became the largest and most successful theatre in the history of the state.
While in New Mexico, Andrew directed Children of a Lesser God, Cloud 9, Talley’s Folly, The Rainmaker, Twelfth Night, Man and Superman, The Rocky Horror Show, A Flea In Her Ear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Road to Mecca, A Christmas Carol, Holiday, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Master Harold…and the Boys, The Great Divide, and the world premiere of Mark Medoff’s Stumps.
Other theatre credits include the world premiere of Mark Medoff’s Gila at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles; Equus at Los Angeles’ Deaf West Theatre, for which Andrew won a Drama-Logue award; The Chancellor’s Tale at the Denver Center Theatre Company; and a workshop of The Mother Courage Project at the Mark Taper Forum, with Tony Award winner Phyllis Frelich playing Courage.
Andrew wrote and is attached to direct the television movie, Beat of a Different Drum, for ABC, Fox Television Studios, and Edmonds Entertainment. Andrew also wrote a drama pilot for ABC and Fox Television, The Crew, set in the world of college rowing.
Current projects in development Stolen Portrait: The Shadow of Schiele, a documentary about a Nazi-looted painting that was discovered on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art; a feature adaptation of Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman, which Andrew optioned, wrote and will direct; a remake of the 70s film, When You Comin Back, Red Ryder?; and The Corndog Man II, a sequel to the cult hit, The Corndog Man. Andrew is also attached to direct Mark Medoff's new play, Boomer.
Andrew is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television, California Institute of the Arts, Northeastern University School of Law, and Hampshire College. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
