Eli Weinberg is an award winning actor, dancer, choreographer, director, emcee and arts educator.
Originally from the San Gabriel Valley, he has developed, directed, produced and performed work within and around the worlds of dance, comedy, theater, burlesque, circus and opera for over a decade.
Eli is a long time member of The Murge, directed by John Gilkey and described by the LA Weekly as "spontaneous theater of the absurd...lascivious, blasphemous and potentially dangerous...This could be LA's craziest improv show."
Since 2013, he has devised several shows alongside Gilkey including The Invention of Language, The Simple Simples, Trangle and The Good Time, Great Time, Gameshow. In 2016, after a successful run in the Hollywood Fringe Festival, he traveled to Chicago with The Simple Simples to perform in The Neo-Futurist’s Kitchen. Eli is also a faculty member with the associated Idiot Workshop and in 2017, built and directed the show Discounts & Skills with advanced students from the school.
He is a frequent collaborator with the contemporary opera company Four Larks, winning the LA STAGE Alliance Ovation Award for “Best Acting Ensemble of a Play” for their 2015 production The Temptation of St. Antony. Other credits with the company include Undine, Threnodies, Katabasis and two iterations of Sessions, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He served as Assistant Choreographer on Katabasis while in residence at and produced by The Getty Villa.
In 2018, he began working with Spiegelworld, first serving as Associate Director of Movement for their production Opium at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. In July of the same year, he was invited to take part in a creation workshop for the company’s newest endeavor We Are Here under the direction of renowned theater maker and choreographer Steven Hoggett (Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, Frantic Assembly). He currently performs in Opium as the show’s resident Sex Robot.
As a dancer, he has performed at home in California for choreographers Danielle Agami (Ate9 Dance Company), Tandy Beal, Leslie Johnson (FLEX Dance Company), Stephanie Zaletel, Ted Warburton, Cid Pearlman, David Popalisky, Robyn O’Dell and Deanna Ross and abroad with Péndulo Cero Danza Contemporánea (Mexico), Sommer Ulrickson (Germany) and Rodrigo Pino (Chile).
In 2010, upon being selected as an Emerging Choreographer by the 418 Project in Santa Cruz, California, he began development on his first evening-length production entitled This Land Is My Land. In 2012, he was selected by Santa Cruz Dance for their Incubator Project and received a grant from the Santa Cruz Arts Council to produce the work. The piece examined varied histories of Santa Cruz inhabitants from 1491 - present, using their relationship to physical space and the area’s natural resources as a lens to examine identity, conflict and the legacies of localism. This Land Is My Land features an original score by fiddler extraordinaire Chris Lynch.
In 2019, he built Equus Asinus for the 13th Annual Jam At The Barn. On a sweltering June afternoon, audiences were led by Biscuits Tallahasee (Kevin Krieger) and Dale The Domesticated Donkey (Alec Jones Trujillo) on a walking tour through the desert, accompanied by three musicians (Louis Lopez, Alex Wand & David Ostrem) to observe and fall prey to the wonder of wild burros (Molly Katzman & Eli Weinberg) in their natural habitat (Blue Diamond, Nevada). Masks and Costumes by Regan Baumgarten.
Since 2012, he has emceed Stockings - A Holiday Cabaret in support of the Motion Pacific dance school and scholarship program in Santa Cruz, California.
He does bits. He does characters. He loves Huell Howser.
photo by Michael Baba