Home > Faculty & Staff : Elisa Carlson
Elisa Carlson
Department Affiliations
University Affiliations
- Liberal Arts: UM/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program
Specialties
- Voice, Speech, Dialects, Text, Acting
Educational Background
- M.F.A.: Acting, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee PTTP, (program now located at the University of Delaware), 1987.
- B.F.A.: Acting, Florida State University, 1984.
- Voice, Speech/Dialects and Text: Susan Sweeney; Sandy Robbins; Patsy Rodenburg; Catherine Fitzmaurice; Paul Roche; Tadashi Suzuki.
Research Activities
- Elisa has a special interest in new plays, having coached or acted in world premieres and workshops of plays by Tony Kushner, Lee Blessing, Kia Corthron, Naomi Iizuku, Jorge Cortinas, Robert Schenkkan, Julie Marie Myatt, Kelly Stuart and Ellen McLaughlin, among others.
Professional Activities
- Artistic Staff for Voice and Speech at the world-renowned Guthrie Theater: Coach for multiple productions including: "M. Butterfly", "Dollhouse", "The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures", "Tiny Kushner", "Pen", "Shadowlands", "The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde", "Lost in Yonkers", "The Glass Menagerie", "Major Barbara", "Intimate Apparel", "A Christmas Carol", "Sex Habits of the American Woman", "Oedipus", "A Body of Water", "The Night of the Iguana", "Crowns", "Romeo and Juliet", "Pirates of Penzance", "The Chairs", "Mrs. Warren’s Profession", "Wintertime" and "Six Degrees of Separation" , 2002 - Present.
- Other voice and speech coaching credits: Off-Broadway: "The Time of Your Life" (The Mint) and "Southern Belle" (New Dramatists). Also: "Playboy of the West Indies" at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; "Iqbal", "Romeo and Juliet", "Snapshot Silhouette", "Anon(ymous)" and "Lost Boys of Sudan" at The Children’s Theater in Minneapolis; 25 productions at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta; the premiere of the Michael Korie/Ricky Ian Gordon opera "The Grapes of Wrath" at The Minnesota Opera; Penumbra; Illusion; Theater Emory; Theatrical Outfit; Horizon Theater; Actor's Express; Synchronicity Performance Group; and 20 productions for Georgia Shakespeare where she is an Associate Artist. Directors she has worked with at the Guthrie and elsewhere include: Joe Dowling, Tim Bond, Ethan McSweeney, Susan Booth, Peter Brosius, Michael Greif, Chris Coleman, Lisa Peterson, Michael Dixon, Kenny Leon, Campbell Scott, Eric Simonson, Tony Taccone, Sean Daniels, Nancy Keystone, Peter DuBois and Michael John Garces.
- Acting work: Credits include The Guthrie, The Shakespeare Theater, StageWest, Virginia Stage Company, The Alliance, Georgia Shakespeare, Theater Emory, Actor’s Express and the Tampere Theater in Finland. She toured ancient theaters in Greece and Cyprus and played at the National Theatre of Cyprus with an international company of Antigone directed by Heinz-Uwe Haus.
- Film Work: Credits include acting in and coaching voice and text for Campbell Scott’s "Hamlet" starring Blair Brown, Campbell Scott and Lisa Gay Hamilton. She was dialect and foreign language coach for the feature "Sweet Land" starring Alan Cumming, Elizabeth Reaser and Ned Beatty, winner of the 2006 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. She recently completed language coaching work on Eric Howell’s short film "Ana’s Playground", winner of Best of the Fest at the Norwich International Film Festival.
- Directing work: Credits include "Much Ado About Nothing" for Shakespeare on the Cape/Provincetown Theater Company, "Love’s Labor’s Lost" for Theater Emory and "Folio Shakespeare" for Atlanta's High Museum of Art. She has directed "Seven Against Thebes/Antigone", "Orestes" and "Overruled" for the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program.
Courses Taught
- BFA Sophomore Voice and Speech I and II
- BFA Senior Shaw Workshop
Alternative Output Formats