Sharon Marie Carnicke
Ph.D. Columbia University
Professor, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

Sharon Marie Carnicke is an internationally known expert on the Stanislavsky System for actor training and on film acting. Her works have been translated into five languages. Her books include Stanislavsky In Focus: An Acting Master for the Twenty-First Century (Second Edition), The Theatrical Instinct: Nikolai Evreinov and the Russian Theatre of the Early Twentieth Century , and the co-authored Reframing Screen Performance. Her translations of Anton Chekhov’s plays have been produced nationally, with her Seagull winning an American College Theatre Festival Award at the Kennedy Center. These translations are published as Chekhov: 4 Plays and 3 Jokes.

Because Dr. Carnicke began her career as an actor (first at the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford Connecticut and then in New York) and because she has directed theatrical productions in New York, Los Angeles, and Moscow, she is dedicated to bringing theatrical practice and scholarship together in every area of her work. For example, with funding from the National Science Foundation, she has created a company of USC undergraduate actors who are investigating how actors create roles in the cinematic technology of motion capture. She also conducts a private laboratory in Los Angeles for professional actors on Stanislavsky’s last major technique--Active Analysis. She has given master classes at such notable institutions as the Moscow Art Theatre School, the Russian Academy for Theatre Art (formerly GITIS), at the Sorbonne in France, and Australia’s National Institute for Dramatic Art.

At USC, Dr. Carnicke holds a joint appointment in Theatre and Slavic Languages and Literature. She is a founding member of the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching and received the USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching. She teaches both practice-based and academic courses such as Greek and Roman drama, Shakespeare, the performing arts, and acting theory for both stage and screen.