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Leo Farley is a Founding Member of The 29th Street Rep Theatre in NYC and Artistic Director of LSMFT Théâtre Group also in NYC. After a fifteen year stint on Wall Street, as a stock and commodity futures trader, he gave up his financial security blanket to devote more time to his artistic endeavors as both an actor and director. In 1988 he, along with 4 other actors, gave birth to the 29th Street Rep. Since that time, he has appeared in over thirty productions with his company, as an actor, and has directed five main-stage productions. In addition to the work with his company he has numerous off and off-off Broadway credits in other venues. In 1997, Mr. Farley directed his first full length play, Tracers. (A Vietnam Veteran memory play.) Tracers was originally conceived by six Vietnam Veterans in the early 1980’s, and his production was selected as "One of the Ten Best Theater Experiences of 1997" by Alexis Greene, of In Theater Magazine.

 

Another crowning achievement came in 2000, when Mr. Farley, along with associate member Jonathan Powers, adapted and directed Charles Bukowski's South of No North. Nine short stories were selected from the book of the same title and dramatized into a full length play. After a highly acclaimed showcase in the spring of 2000, South of No North returned for a very successful Off-Broadway run, later in the year.  In February 2003, he once again donned his directing cap for the unearthing of the pulp fiction writer, Charles Willeford's only stage play, High Priest of California, for a successful Off-Broadway run. High Priest was critically acclaimed by the New York press and received wonderful notices in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out and Backstage. In July 2003, High Priest of California was named "One of the Best Off-Broadway Plays of the Season" by Bruce Weber of The New York Times. 
 

In 2004, Mr. Farley directed Adrian Hall’s adaption of In The Belly of the Beast Revisited, the grim story of career criminal Jack Henry Abbott, to high critical acclaim. In The Belly of the Beast Revisited was followed by The Conversation in 2008, an adaptation by Kate Harris of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film. The “Buk”, the “Priest” and the “Beast” were all honored with a videotaping for The Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts Theater on Film and Tape. 
 

With the inception of LSMFT Theatre Group LLC in 2017, Mr. Farley continues to bring contemporary and thought provoking theatre to the New York stage.