Lisa Porter

Lisa Anne Porter just ended her work as the Head of Acting at the now ended MFA program at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco where she also served for many years as the Head of Text and Dialects. In addition to teaching in the three year MFA program, she coaches voice and dialect for the MainStage shows on the Geary, Rembe, and Rueff Stages. She also just ended her job as the Resident Director and the Co-Head of Voive and Dialects or Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Curran Theatre. She has previously served on the faculties of UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Academy of Art University, and Syracuse University. She has taught workshops at Stanford University, SF State University, and Naropa University.

While in her position as an Associate Professor of Voice/Acting/Text in the B.F.A. program at Syracuse University, she was awarded the Most Inspirational Faculty Award. She has coached voice and dialect in more than 70 productions nationwide. As a professional actor, she has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals throughout the country.

Most recently, she has been seen as Gruach in Dunsinane at Marin Theatre Company, Julia in Fefu and Her Friends at ACT, Suzanne in the original production of Eureka Day at the Aurora Theatre Company, The Eva Trilogy, and A Bright Half Life at the Magic Theatre and Twelfth Night at California Shakespeare Theatre.  In addition to her work with Harry Potter and the MFA program at ACT, she has directed for Town Hall Theatre, TheatreFirst, Syracuse University, the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, and the Pacific Resident Theatre Ensemble. Through her own private coaching business and as an Executive Presence coach for Springboards Consulting, she has helped numerous clients find a more relaxed, truthful, engaged, and effective way of communicating.

In addition to her Linklater Designation in 2003, she has an M.F.A. in Acting from the American Conservatory Theatre and a B.A. in Theater and American Studies from Wesleyan University. In 2020, she earned a certificate in Leadership in Diversity and Inclusion at Cornell University.