About Neva
Neva Hutchinson has acted in New York, Maine and the Bay Area in over 60 theater productions. She's worked with Francis Ford Coppola, Lee Sankowich, Kevin Malony and Libby Appel. In film, she's worked with Jon Voight and Will Smith. She's trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and with Richard Seyd and Wynn Handman. She recently appeared at the Phoenix Theater in San Francisco in "By The Waters of Babylon" by Robert Schenkkan. Presently, she's appearing in the lead role in "Raptured: the Disappearance and Discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson". Also, she can currently be seen as a dry cleaner in a Buster Posey Toyota commercial.
NEVA MARIE HUTCHINSON (EQUITY/SAG/AFTRA) grew up in the mountains west of Denver. She attended school in Evergreen, Colorado.
In high school, she had a great drama teacher, Susan Hagen, who had a big impact on her life. Certain lessons from Susan remain with Neva: "Don't direct the other person...that means your focus is outside the scene." "Pacing indicates the confines of the mind." "Never touch another person's prop."
These lessons would stick with Neva as she performed Anne in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker". Later she moved to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She moved onto New York University and formed her own theatre company "Theatre Tweed" which is still running strong.
Also in New York, along with performing in productions, she worked in two soap operas: "One Life to Live" and "Another World".
Neva lived in New York for ten years, honing her craft with Wynn Handman of the American Place Theater. She performed and help produce "Geographic Dreams" which included the "Journey to the Neva", and "Pass the Blutverst, Bitte" with John Kelly.
"The Journey to the Neva" was a solo piece written by Kendall Merriam for her to perform. He would later go on to write another solo piece for her, ("3 Icons for the Stage") culminating with a performance at the Maine Arts Festival.
Coming to San Francisco was invigorating. Neva started off by playing a role in "Midnight Caller", then moved onto theater with San Jose Rep, Marin Theater, Encore Theater, Golden Thread, 5th Floor Productions, Pear Avenue Theatre, Willows Theatre, Harvest Theatre and more. She worked on her auditioning and acting skills with Jean Shelton and Richard Seyd.
Along the way Neva found minor film roles, in addition to directing 15 Shakespeare productions while teaching drama in secondary school. Her book, “Hey Shakespeare! From Page to Stage in 20 Days” includes her play, “Hey Shakespeare, Get a Job!” which was aimed for children ages 10-14.
Recently, she's written several ten-minute plays and two full-length plays: "Ripperology" and "Raptured: the Disappearance and Discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson" for an adult audience. "Ripperology" had a staged reading at the Pear a few years ago. "Raptured" had a reading at the Dragon Theatre within the last five years. The 2018 production of "Raptured" was the world premiere.
Neva's Mission:
Neva's mission in theater life, is to "bring the person to a new reality", as Sister Aimee says in "Raptured". Neva believes all energy is creative energy, and it spills over into all aspects of our lives.
As Neva says: "I think all acting starts with the word: the spoken sound, the word on the page, the loud word shouted, the soft word mouthed. I always try to work with the text as written, storing up people's idiosyncrasies in life to use with the words."
"I enjoy the communal hush that descends over an audience when the theater is live. I live for the 'light-bulb' moments of a character: a gesture, a look, a walk. Those silences tell me what the words can't: the involvement of the audience as it takes a deep reflective breath and exhales together."