
ELISA CARLSON

"Elisa is really at the top of her field. Deep skills combine with an intuitive sense of the acting process and a great sense of humor to make the collaboration rewarding.
I've learned as much about text and sound from her as anyone in my career."
Chris Coleman, Artistic Director
The Denver Center

Elisa is an Atlanta-based dialect & text coach, theatre director & actor.
Elisa coached dialects and historic voices for all actors in Ava DuVernay’s Best Picture Academy Award nominee Selma and in Damien Chazelle’s critically acclaimed First Man including Ryan Gosling (Critic's Choice nomination) and Claire Foy (Golden Globe nomination). Other credits include Garrett Hedlund and Andrea Riseborough in Burden, Edgar Wright's Baby Driver with Lily James and Ansel Elgort (Golden Globe nomination), Andrew Scott in A Dark Place, Dinka language and dialects for actors in Imagine Entertainment's The Good Lie, child and adult actors in Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors and actors in the Netflix series Stranger Things.
Her theatre voice & text coaching career includes productions Off-Broadway and at the Guthrie Theater (30+), Alliance Theatre (40+), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Alley Theatre, American Player’s Theatre, The Children’s Theatre and the Resident Ensemble Players. A sampling of productions coached include the premiere of Tony Kushner's The Intelligent Homosexual..., Kenny Leon's production of Medea with Phylicia Rashad, the world premiere of Ellen McLaughlin's Oedipus directed by Lisa Peterson, the premiere of Becoming Nancy starring Jessica Vosk and directed by Jerry Mitchell and Crimes of the Heart, directed by Theresa Rebeck.
At Theatrical Outfit, Elisa directed the Reiser award-winning Moxie featuring Danielle Deadwyler and The Guys featuring Jasmine Guy. As resident director for the Gainesville Theatre Alliance (GTA) she has staged multiple productions including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antigone, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, The Importance of Being Earnest and Men on Boats. Other directing credits include The Alliance Theatre Reiser Lab, The Refuge Theatre, Working Title Playwrights and the Guthrie Theater’s BFA Actor Training Program. Recent acting credits include Ghost-Writer at Theatre-in-the-Square (Suzi Bass Award nomination Best Actress), The Book of Will at Theatrical Outfit (Suzi Bass Award nomination Best Ensemble), the lead in the world premiere of Shadow Language at The Guthrie Theater and “Woman” in Aris Theatre’s Woman and Scarecrow.
Elisa has been on the faculties of the University of Minnesota and Emory University and taught in the post-graduate professional programs at the Guthrie and the Alliance. She has a BFA in Acting from Florida State and an MFA in Acting from the Professional Theatre Training Program formerly at the University of Delaware. She is a Professor in the School of Communication, Film & Theatre at the University of North Georgia in metro Atlanta.

DIALECT COACHING for FILM & TELEVISION
Credits Include


FIRST MAN (2018)
Directed by Damien Chazelle
Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy
Jason Clarke, Ciaran Hinds
*Clip: RyanClaire
BABY DRIVER (2017)
Directed by Edgar Wright
Ansel Elgort, Lily James
*Clip: AnselLily
SELMA (2014)
Directed by Ava DuVernay
*Clip: Tom
*Clip: CarmenLorraine
*Clip: DavidColman


IMDB Page: ElisaCarlson



VOICE, TEXT & DIALECT COACHING
for the THEATRE
"Elisa has the unique capacity to make her dialect work utterly intertwined with character development work; her skill set as a director thoroughly infuses her vocal coaching work and actors - and productions - are always greatly enhanced by her work."
Susan V. Booth, Artistic Director
The Goodman Theatre
THE ALLIANCE THEATRE
www.alliancetheatre.org
40+ productions since 1998
Off-Broadway
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Alley Theatre
American Players Theatre
The Resident Ensemble Players
The Minnesota Opera
The Children's Theatre

DIRECTING for the THEATRE

The Guys/Theatrical Outfit

Jasmine Guy/The Guys

Pygmalion/GTA

The Guys/Theatrical Outfit
"In director Elisa Carlson's strikingly designed staging, the play is no less potent or profound -- and perhaps even more so." Atlanta Journal

ACTING

The Book of Will/Theatrical Outfit

With Robert Shaw Smith in Woman and Scarecrow/Aris

The Glass Menagerie/GTA

The Book of Will/Theatrical Outfit
"Elisa Carlson is marvelous..."
Atlanta Intown

acting, directing &
theatre coaching
individual coaching
via zoom only
film & television coaching
Diane Kamp & Amy Landon
Big Timbre Management
