We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carla Susan Lewis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carla Susan below.

Hi Carla Susan, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

This is a fascinating question as my great passion in life is learning. Although so much of an actor’s skill is instinctual requiringing spontaneity,
freedom, and trust in the moment; a solid foundation in technique and training is fundamental, I committed myself to training from multiple perspectives in order to explore which tools worked best. I love the process of discovery and learned through practice and rehearsal that mixing up perspectives for a particular scene or character or genre, allowed me to enter the world of the play or the film as fully as possible. Learning by doing worked best for me. I learned through exploration and courage. Courage to fail. To take risks. To reveal. Most important was not viewing perspectives, be it Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, or Stanislavski, as mutually exclusive. Sometimes the imagination did the trick. Other times I needed to use very personal scenarios, “What ifs” or particular relationships, to evoke something true that I could respond to. Sometimes the text itself or the way something landed on me worked. With tremendous respect for developing vocally and physically, I spent significant time in movement training, Linklater training for more vocal freedom, and working on sensory awareness and physicalizing our work. WE are our instruments — the keys to the piano, the strings to the violin. All we have are ourselves. Personal development serves us well on our journey as artists. There are no shortcuts.
Most essential to this journey as an artist is a love of process. Attachment to results or bookings are not conducive to learning. Staying teachable is essential. Many of my mentors have said that they continue to learn FROM their students. Every day is an opportunity for artistic growth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Imagining scenarios and entering the lives of different characters started in childhood. Not surprising that I commuted to acting classes in NYC as a teenager, went to performing arts camps, and disappeared into cinemas on weekends captivated by film and great actors. I left university to pursue acting, training intensively with wonderful teachers, earning my union cards, doing theater in NYC and touring. Eventually under pressure to find something practical to fall back on, I decided to pursue my doctorate in psychology. Besides being mesmerized by individual differences in behavior, motivation, emotions, temperament, I believed in-depth study of psychology would enrich my acting. Moonlighting in Shakespeare repertory and equity showcases, I earned my doctorate in social and personality psychology and then committed many years to academic research, community organizing, non-profit leadership and policy reform for the disenfranchised. All of the academic positions and journal articles can be read about elsewhere links are below. The restlessness was loud and clear –the time had come to return to my soul –acting full-time.
The rest is a story of joyful practice and dedication to a craft that touches every aspect of our humanity. I am proud to have never quit, to have returned. To love a process so much that all challenges and disappointments are buffered. And to have participated in projects that shed light on powerful social justice issues like “Seven- A Documentary Play” about seven remarkable women plagued by injustices who survived and empowered other women in their community.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

As odd as it may seem, the ability to connect for the first time to other artists world-wide on zoom—provided a treasure trove of theatrical resources and accessibility that was nonexistent years ago. I recall the dark, frightening early days of the pandemic when theatre was shut down and the death rate was spiking, living in isolation. Many of us felt a primal need to create, to connect to an artistic community. I discovered the importance of joining playwright reading circles on zoom, taking classes across continents like Australia (the wonderful STAGE MILK group), I experienced the artistic community itself as a resource like a village in which we were all resources for each other — Theatre and Film facebook groups, virtual readers for self-tape auditions, champions and advocates supporting each other, celebrating bookings, sharing materials, and industry tips and hope. Casting Directors and theatrical representation joined in on-line, expressing tremendous alignment and love for creatives. Although this accessibility was not the reality in earlier time periods, it has taught me the beauty of interpersonal connectedness as a resource that I wish I experienced earlier in my creative journey. A life lesson about community.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes. For me my creative goals mirror my life goals; thus transcending limitations, living in freedom and courage and authenticity drives my creative journey and my life. Living in empathy is also a life goal and serves my creative journey well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carlasusanlewis.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CarlaSusanLewis
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarlaSusanLewis
• Other: https://imdb.me/carlasusanlewis
  https://linktr.ee/CarlaSusanLewis

Image Credits

Matt Kallish