Melanie Case

Melanie Case (born January 10, 1978), a.k.a. Melanie Salazar Case, is a Colombian-American actor, comedian, writer, theater director, filmmaker, producer, and teacher. She is the President And Co-founder of The Farm Hands Entertainment, with her partner Victoria Hope Martin, a media production company focusing on comedy, documentary, and LGBT films.

Early life

Case was born in Palo Alto, CA and raised in Menlo Park, CA. She went to Menlo-Atherton High School and was the founder of the improvisation troupe The Lunátic Players (now known simply as The Lunátics). She earned her bachelor's degree in theater from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Notable friends and classmates from the UCLA Theater program during the time of her attendance include SNL/The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone, Rachel Avery, and Jake Bern.

Acting and Sketch Comedy

A company member since 2003 of the award-winning San Francisco sketch comedy group [...] My Lobster, Melanie originated the role of Pam in the award-winning world premiere production of the play Hunter Gatherers by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb . Variety and many other publications gave Melanie rave reviews for her performance. She has acted in many [...] My Lobster sketch comedy shows, including 2003’s Walks This Way, which also featured “luminary” folk singer Becky Stark. She has also performed in Shotgun Players' production of Bright Ideas. She was deemed a comedy “expert” and “consistently hilarious” for her portrayal of myriad characters in that show. Other Bay Area credits include Catherine in Proof (play) with Mendocino Theater Company, and a reading of Janet Allard's Vrooommm! at TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley).

She plays Natalie in the upcoming indie feature film [http://www.thesnakemovie.com/The Snake], featuring Margaret Cho, co-produced and co-written by Eric Kutner (who also directed) and Adam Goldstein, who stars in the film. The Snakepremiered at SXSW on March 13, 2009. She also appears in the indie filmMy Movie Girl, starring Mackenzie Firgens. Evolution: The Musical!'' a film in which she portrays a manipulative and primal Queen Bonobo, premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival on May 6, 2008. She shared the screen with illBilly boys, Andrew Bancroft (of MC Jelly Donut notoriety) and Kenny Taylor, who directed the film. She also stars inOrifice Visit'', a short comedy film about an awkward gynecology visit, that Case wrote and directed.

Melanie can be seen in commercials and videos for companies such as Subway Sandwiches, Hewlett Packard, Toyota, Brown and Toland Physicians, and the Nevada Department of Public Health.

Writing

Melanie is a playwright as well as a screenwriter. Her first one-act play, written for 12-14 year-olds, Seventh Grade Freaks will be published by Smith and Kraus publishers this year. Palo Alto Weekly recently did a feature story on her play.

She was a performance judge as a part of Opium Magazine’s San Francisco’s Literary Death Match in January of 2009.

She also co-wrote and co-produced, with Amanda Gamer, a two-woman play about women’s self-love, in Los Angeles, The Sho Show (The Complex). Her first short film as a writer, Diner Ladies, co-written with Tonya Glanz after a 3:00 am riff at a San Francisco diner called Sparky’s, screened at the HiLo Film Festival and in Rooftop Films Festival in New York.

Glanz and Case are attributed with popularizing the phrase “On the siiiiiiide!” which is sometimes heard around San Francisco restaurants.

Directing and Producing

Case’s film directing and producing debut, Orifice Visit was completed in September of 2008, and awaiting festival notifications. She is currently directing a video for non-profit organization Pacific Environment.

In 2005, she was the first female Lobster to direct a play, with her twisted take on fairy tales. The result was Kisses A Toad at the Yugen/Noh Space, about which Jane Ganahl of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a feature story.

“Blank Face” Theater Warm-Up

Melanie Case and longtime best friend Stephen M. Cox are attributed with having developed a warm-up based on a body language expert’s assertion that a fake smile is a smile without eyes. They began practicing this together: a smile with eyes, and then a smile without eyes, and this developed into the warm up “Blank Face.” The progression goes: Blank Face, Blank Face Smile, Smile No Eyes, Smile With Eyes, Smiling Eyes with a Blank Face.

The exercise is excellent in developing muscle strength in isolated facial areas, and of course, it is tremendously funny to observe people’s progression as they go through the different facial postures.

Blank Face is practiced throughout the SF Bay Area as a theater warm-up and its popularity continues to grow.

Press

  • Palo Alto Weekly article about Case and Seventh Grade Freaks 1
  • SF Chronicle Article about Case directing Kisses a Toad 2
  • Variety review of Hunter Gatherers 3
  • SF Chronicle review of Hunter Gatherers 4
  • SF Weekly review of Hunter Gatherers 5
  • SF Station review of Hunter Gatherers 6
  • Examiner review of Hunter Gatherers 7
  • Talkin’ Broadway review of Hunter Gatherers 8
  • SF Weekly review of Bright Ideas 9
  • Oakland Tribune review of Bright Ideas 10
  • Review of Case’s performance in Vroooommm! 11