teaching artist

Acting/ Improvisation/ Creative Movement            

John Houseman’s Acting Company: a longtime participant in the company’s educational programs, Johann has taught acting exercises and performance technique at grammar schools, high schools, and colleges in New York City and across America.

The Webber Douglas School of Drama: upon finishing the program in London, Johann and her graduating class toured Britain teaching acting workshops. 

Stella Adler Acting Conservatory: working with -- and frequently substituting for --Sondra Lee, Johann taught improvisational /creative movement technique-intensive workshops and acting structures with Moscow Art Theatre director Yevgeny Lanskoy. The eclectic body of students included professionals and undergraduates/ graduates affiliated with CUNY - NYU and other universities.

School of Visual Arts: Johann taught the course “Acting for Film,” geared specifically for a class of student filmmakers.

The Guthrie Theatre and the Cincinnati Playhouse: under the aegis of these institutions, Johann, over the course of mutable seasons, taught community-based classes in drama (among other disciplines) concurrent with her performance schedule. 

Private Coaching

Johann is a veteran teacher of acting and audition techniques on a one-to-one basis for professional actors, dancers and other performers.

Points of General Interest            

On the basis of a play that she wrote and performed at the Actors Studio’s Director/Playwright Unit in 1985 (moderated by Norman Mailer), Johann was invited in situ by Ellen Burstyn, Cheryl Crawford and Elia Kazan to become a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio. Under their guidance and support and with the mentorship of other members -- most notably Arthur Penn, Paul Newman, and Mailer -- she developed an array of original works. Of these, “Shout and Twist,” which relocated classical figures in a modern context, went on to be performed not only at the Actors Studio, but in a production at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles.

Johann has toured extensively with the Acting Company and with her own theatre group which has been invited to perform repeatedly in India and Africa. She has appeared on the stages of The Public Theatre (“Cinders,” with Christopher Walken), Second Stage, MTC, Circle Rep, CSC, The Kitchen, (“Moments in Classical Literature”, an original work with Val Kilmer) and many others. On Broadway, she was featured in David Hare's “Plenty,” (The Plymouth Theatre) and David Hirson’s “Le Bête” (Eugene O’Neill Theatre).

She has played prominent roles in such feature films as Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show” and Merchant/ Ivory’s “Slaves of New York”; in independent films such as Todd Solondz’ “Happiness”; on television in Michael Mann’s “Crime Story”, “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” (as Dixie the Cab Driver!). Most recently, she has played recurring roles in “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire.” 

She also appeared as herself in Al Pacino’s documentary “Looking for Richard.” 

A joint citizen of the worlds of commercial entertainment and the avant garde, Johann Carlo is also a visual/ multi media artist. 

She was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art to create a piece ”It’s Still Life,” that dealt with the actor’s process and the inspiration and influence of art and painters upon it. ”It’s Still Life,”  was performed and filmed in the Whitney’s Sculpture Court and went on to be part of  the Actors Studio playwright festival. Johann’s theatre group was one of the companies of actors to be part of the Asilah Arts Festival in Morocco.  Paintings from her solo art show, The Hobo Series, comprised of the pictographs and symbols of street wanderers, were mounted in galleries in New Orleans and NYC's Meatpacking District.  They are currently being incorporated into her next theater project, "Rabies."  

“Thrown Voices” (which melded the starkly beautiful Native American Pictographs with poetry and voice) was developed at The Actors Studio as a theatrical piece and also made into multimedia film.

Johann lives, acts, writes, paints and teaches in New York City.

Any materials or information regarding her work is available upon request.