BIOGRAPHY

 
 
 Alex Bruhanski was born in New York City.. He was educated in the New York City public school system and attended college at Los Angeles City College and Cal State L.A.
     An interest in acting developed into a passion and in 1963 he started training with acclaimed acting teacher Jeff Corey who remained his teacher, mentor and friend until Mr. Corey’s death in 2002.

    Bruhanski moved to Canada in 1966. It was in Vancouver that he began his career in earnest.  Bruhanski has appeared in over a hundred productions on stage, television, film and radio. As a teacher he was an acting instructor in the theatre department at Vancouver City College(1971), which was the precursor to the highly regarded Langara College Studio 58 acting program. He was artist in residence at the Gestalt Institute of Canada at Lake Cowichan, B.C. which was established by the reknowned  psychotherapist and pioneer of the gestalt therapy movement, Frederich Perles, where Bruhanski was given the opportunity to teach and participate in a unique, creative therapeutic community (1971-!972) . He co-founded the Actors Workshop in Vancouver (1972), establ ishedThe Montreal Theatre Lab (1975) with noted Rumanian director Alexander Hausvater, and next The Los Angeles Theatre Lab(1977). He opened the Bruhanski Theatre Studio in Vancouver (1979) where he has taught and continues to teach to this day.  He has been a teacher and mentor to over seven thousand people.

     Having been a heavy smoker for over thirty years, and having lost his father in childhood to cigarette related heart disease and finding himself at great risk, Brooks did extensive research on the subject of addiction and in particular nicotine addiction. In 1991 Brooks smoked his last cigarette. He considers quitting smoking one of his proudest achievements. Reviewing his research and experience with nicotine addiction, he wrote the book Smoke Free Success Program, created a book and audio tape program and conducted clinics to assist people in overcoming tobacco dependency.

     In 1994 applied for and was accepted as a volunteer in palliative care and participated in an intensive training program facilitated by Mattel Grant from the Lions Gate Hospital palliative program in North Vancouver BC.

     Working with the dying and listening to them, Bruhanski noted that a frequent topic of   concern centered around relationships with their children This brought Bruhanski’s attention  squarely to the subject of fathering: What does it mean to be a father? What is involved in “getting it right”? How can a young man about to become a first time dad avoid being the man on the deathbed wishing it had been different?  Bruhanski examined his own parenting background, the choices that he had made, where he got it right, where he got it wrong. He engaged in dialogue with his children and with fathers who he respected. Bruhanski joined the National Fathering Center and researched their materials. Bruhanski then conducted a series of workshops with new and soon to become first time fathers, exploring the attitudes, actions, adjustments and priorities, for fathering with excellence. In August of 2006 with long time friend, colleague, nemesis and fellow father, Bob Turner, Bruhanski co-founded The Fathering Project.

     Bruhanski is the father of two children. He confesses, as a parent to having conscientiously getting some things right, accidentally getting others right, falling into some typical parent traps and having made some outright dumb mistakes. Now at age sixty one, Bruhanski sees himself as an elder and hopes to impact on the fathering skills of a new generation.