This is the training I wish existed when I was learning.
So I made it.
Carolyn Braver acted on Broadway with Denzel Washington and Austin Butler, and directed recent Oscar winner Amy Madigan — to name a few. She teaches acting the way she learned it: from the inside, at the highest level.
People will have you believe that acting is confusing and mysterious and magical — and about 20% of it is. There is some creative genius that just befalls certain people. But 80% is a learnable skillset. And it's fun!
The Work Behind the Teacher.
Carolyn directing Oscar Winners Amy Madigan and Ed Harris on setAt 11 I started winning AriZoni and National Youth Theatre Awards acting in the Valley — at places like Valley Youth Theatre, Greasepaint Youth Theatre, Mesa Community College, and Phoenix Theatre Players.
At 20 I started my professional career and got my Actors Equity card at the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company — started by Gary Sinise, John Malkovich, and Laurie Metcalf.
At 22 I was hand-selected by Joe Mantello — the original director of Wicked — to play a lead role on Broadway in Airline Highway.
At 24 I joined SAG, did three national commercials, and took on major roles on TV including FBI and Chicago Fire — winning acting awards at film festivals along the way.
At 28 I acted alongside Denzel Washington, David Morse, and Austin Butler — and ten other actors with Tonys — in The Iceman Cometh on Broadway.
At 30 I started directing for legendary Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Oscar-nominated writer Beth Henley, writer of Crimes of the Heart. I directed Oscar winners Amy Madigan and Ed Harris in a film I wrote for them, which premiered at the Phoenix Film Festival. Other directing projects of mine have won awards, including for directing, all over the festival circuit.
Now I'm teaching everything I know.
"The skills actors develop don't stay in the rehearsal room. They follow you everywhere."
— Carolyn "Carrie" Braver
Tony Award winner Julie White and Carolyn Braver in Airline Highway on Broadway.
Denzel Washington, David Morse and Carolyn in The Iceman Cometh on Broadway.
She Started Right Here.
Carolyn "Carrie" Braver started at Mesa Community College at age 5 — right here in Tempe. She went on to star on Broadway twice, originate roles by Pulitzer prize winning playwrights, act with powerhouses like Denzel Washington and David Morse, and direct Oscar Winners like Amy Madigan and Ed Harris. She's worked on TV, films, and commercials and started her career at the legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
For two decades, she has been in the rooms and worked with the most talented actors in the world. This summer, she's bringing everything she's learned about acting back to where she fell in love with acting in the first place!
Read Carrie's Full Story →Built Deliberately.
Each skill layers and informs the next! Each day goes a little deeper. Nothing here is arbitrary, it is all efficiently and pragmatically taught in natural sequence.
Presence & Personhood
The foundation everything else builds on. How to say someone else's words as if they're your own genuine thoughts — while staying fully present. Sounds simple. It isn't!
Characterization
Once you can talk like a person, you learn to talk, move, and think like someone else. And someone else. And someone else. This is my favorite part.
Tone
You act There Will Be Blood differently from how you act The Good Place. Acting the Tone of The Piece is a completely separate skill from character and presence — and almost no one teaches it.
Collaboration
Presence, character, tone — and now you're collaborating! Directors, scene partners, props, lights, a makeup person touching up your face thirty seconds before action. We'll learn how to put it all together and work with other artists!