Elisa Carlson
Elisa Carlson is a professional voice and dialect coach, actor and director. Her 200+ coaching credits include productions Off-Broadway at The Mint and New Dramatists, and at premiere regional theatres including the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis), Alliance Theatre (Atlanta), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Alley (Houston), American Player’s Theatre (WI), The Children’s Theatre (MN) and the Resident Ensemble Players (DE). 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 with Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy (Golden Globe nominee). Other film coaching includes Baby Driver (Golden Globe nominee Ansel Elgort), Burden, The Good Lie, Coat of Many Colors and HBO’s Stranger Things. She was text consultant for Campbell Scott’s highly regarded film of Hamlet and had a featured role in the film.
Acting credits include the Guthrie (lead in world premiere of Shadow Language), The Shakespeare Theater (D.C.), StageWest (MA), Alliance Theatre, Georgia Shakespeare, Theatre-in-the-Square (Suzi Bass Award nomination for Best Actress in Ghost Writer), Theatrical Outfit (Suzi Bass nomination for Best Ensemble in The Book of Will) and “Woman” in Aris Theatre’s Woman and Scarecrow. She is a narrator of more than 20 books for Audible.
Elisa directed the Reiser Award-winning Moxie and The Guys (featuring Jasmine Guy) at Theatrical Outfit. As a resident director/actor for GTA she has staged or acted in multiple productions, some favorites being A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Glass Menagerie, Antigone, Much Ado About Nothing and Men on Boats. Other directing credits include Theater Emory, Working Title Playwrights and the Guthrie Theater’s BFA Actor Training Program. She has been on the faculties of the University of Minnesota and Emory University, and taught in the post-graduate professional programs at the Guthrie, American Player’s Theatre, Alliance and The Children’s Theatre.