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    Elisa Carlson

    Elisa Carlson firmly believes an actor's accent and dialect are an important part of the role.

    "It's not an exterior thing, like putting on a costume," said Carlson, a professor of voice and movement at the University of North Georgia (UNG) since 2010. "You can't just put on a dialect. You have to really live in it believably and helping actors do that is really fun and really exciting."

    Carlson often finds work in Georgia's booming film industry as an expert and has more than 200 credits for her dialect and text coaching in theater, television, movies, and audiobook productions. She has an entry on IMDb—the internet movie database.

    Her expertise has led Carlson to work with many Hollywood stars, including Lily James and Ansel Elgort, who were the lead actors in "Baby Driver." While working on the 2017 movie that was set and filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, Carlson coached both actors to speak in slight Southern accents, a challenge since Elgort is a New York City native and James is British.

    It is not the first challenge she faced. Carlson also worked on the set of the 2014 Oscar-nominated movie "Selma."

    "One of my biggest challenges was working on 'Selma,' coaching 40-plus actors with speaking parts," she said, explaining how she often worked 12 to 16 hours per day coaching the actors on the lines as they filmed each take. "Everybody making the film felt a great sense of responsibility because we were telling a really important part of history, and everyone came into that with a great deal of respect."

    Carlson said she prepared to coach the actors by listening to historical recordings.

    "We've actually shifted a lot in how we sound in the last 50 years," she said.

    Carlson also read Martin Luther King Jr.'s lines for Tom Wilkinson, the British actor who played President Lyndon Johnson, while filming a pivotal scene when Johnson talks with King by telephone.

    "These aren't just dialects, these are iconic voices," she said. "People remember the sound of these voices."

     

    On top of her prolific film experience, Carlson also serves as a resident director and actor with the Gainesville Theatre Alliance (GTA). She said once a year she takes part in a GTA production as an actor. Her last role was Leonata in "Much Ado About Nothing," which she also directed.

    "It made me appreciate what a dialect coach does; there are so many things an actor has to consider in a role, it's easy to forget you're supposed to speak a certain way," she said,

    Having onstage and backstage roles have challenges of their own and require a good support team.

    "You have to be very, very prepared as an actor and have a good understudy stand in for you when you're directing," she said. "As a director, you need a good assistant director to give honest feedback and act as another pair of eyes."

    Rosaria Meek

    Rosaria Meek

    As a teacher of Spanish at the University of North Georgia (UNG), Dr. Rosaria Meek likes to blend compassion and a joy of learning into the classroom and in leadership.
    Larry Cook

    Larry Cook

    Theater professor Larry Cook throws himself into researching all aspects of his projects, and encourages his students to see how every subject they study at UNG can relate to their creative work.
    Katayoun  Mobasher

    Katayoun Mobasher

    Dr. Katayoun Mobasher enjoys interdisciplinary studies where she can combine her background and knowledge of geology, GIS, and remote sensing technologies in health-related fields.
    Sarah Formica

    Sarah Formica

    Researching and teaching about the building blocks of our world excites physics professor Sarah Formica, but she also cherishes the moments when her students connect difficult concepts with real-world applications.
    Dan Emmett

    Dan Emmett

    UNG alumnus Dan Emmett, '78, said UNG re-emphasized his parents' teachings of honor, discipline, service to one's country, and trying to do your best at everything you attempt.
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