Marisi
Ornstein
bio
Michael Marisi Ornstein
I showed the story to my friend Mark and he suggested I expand it, so, I wrote it into a script that I pitched to what felt like everyone in Los Angeles, to no avail.
We moved to Cleveland just before the pandemic, and when Covid hit, I expanded the script into a narrative story, following the 8 season episodic structure that I wrote for the pitch deck I had used to pitch it to directors and networks.
I’ve been working on Ramble as a narrative since 2020, and just finished writing it a few days ago.
I plan to continue the story as a serial, adding new chapters as I write them.
Stage-wise, I created the role of Louis in the 1991 World Premiere of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America”, at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco. You had to be there, it was miraculous. We did Millennium Approaches in full, and when Tony arrived back from Russian River with the script, we dug into Perestroika, rehearsing in a cavernous old opera house, and performed that, too, in parts. We also did a workshop of the play at the Mark Taper in LA.I grew up in Clifton, New Jersey, but always related more to Passaic, which bordered nearby. I watched a lot of old films with my grandfather when I was a kid, and my parents took me to concerts and to all types of Theatre, so, when I was twelve, I set my life to take part in those films and on stage.
I began studying acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, my mother would drive me into the City on Saturdays. I learned from hardcore working actors who drank coffee, chain smoked in class, and didn’t much are if we were twelve, they treated us like adults. They had us do Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco, an absurdist play that made perfect sense to me. After a year, I studied at Lee Strasberg’s school, and after two years there, I went to Stella Adler’s school, where I had an opportunity to sit in on Stella’s nighttime scene study classes, and got to speak with her afterwards. This was an experience that taught me deeply about people and life; what it meant to be a person and an artist.
After a year of college at Mason Gross School of the Arts, where I studied with Kathryn Gately, I decided to move to NYC, and studied Meisner for two years with Kathryn. We weren’t supposed to work while studying, but I snuck a bunch of new plays at the 99 seat off-off-Broadway houses and alternative venues that used to exist all over town. I started writing, also, and did a lot of my own plays with my friends wherever we could find a Theatre, diner, bar, dance studio or a park to perform them. The venue I loved to perform my plays in most were the Saturday night shows at the West Bank Cafe, where Lewis Black was the MC.
I got my Equity card with a production of Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets on Theatre Row, performing with a group of people from the Actor’s Studio, and went on to perform a stream of new plays in NYC and on the road. My home-base in NYC was Circle Repertory Lab, run by Michael Warren Powell, where we put up a full length or a series of one-acts every single week, complete with sets, on a budget of absolutely nothing. It was a perfect place to learn about every aspect of the Theatre, from stage managing to hanging lights. This was an experimental environment with amazingly talented people where we got to test many limits in front of a serious audience, and learn the mechanics of what goes into telling a story.
My first film was “Crossing Delancey”, playing Peter Riegert’s brother, Mickey. I’ve worked with hero directors like Joan Micklen Silver, Robert Altman, Hal Hartley and Frank Darabont. My first television role was on "All My Children", where I played a character named Zeno, a punk with a white mouse named D'Artagnan. I played a bunch of different characters on all of the “Law and Order” shows; Detective Buenaventura on “Homicide”, and roles on “NCIS; LA”, “Third Watch”, and “Seinfeld”.
I’ll be appearing in “Nocturne” with Stephen Graham, Liev Schreiber and Zazie Beetz, premiering on Apple TV on October 30th.
I paint on canvas, linen, plexiglas, wood, sailcloth, metal, masonite, glass, etc. I don’t ever preconceive my notions and I’m always in deep need of more paint, so, I paint with what is at hand that work for the experience I’m going through at the time.
My paintings evolve over time, so, my paintings are layered. I work to the various layers visible and to keep the paintings in flux, unfinished, so that new colors, images and textures are able to appear with the changing of light and spending time with the paintings.
None of my paintings are what they seem at first glance. There are new colors and painted secrets to discover in every one. My family was in the garment business, so, I was always into customizing my clothing, which mainly came from the Army & Navy store in downtown Passaic. I do a lot of block printing and dying cotton, linen, denim and wool clothing, as well as leather boots, bracelets, bags, belts and jackets.
I did a lot of work dying silks before leaving New York, and I would love to get back to that.
Using dye with delicate textiles is the exact opposite of painting, where I can change what I want. A drop of serious organic dye on fine Italian silk is forever, and I love the balance between these two perspectives.