STAN   BROWN                                        

“As an acting student and then later as a professional actor, I discovered that growing in my ability to give and receive love was essential to my growth and development as an artist. ”

 

By Dale Ricardo Shields 

 

STAN BROWN is grateful to make his Broadway debut at 60-years-old in Water for Elephants at the Imperial Theatre.  (NYC) – 2024

 

Stan Brown is the Inaugural W. Rockwell Wirtz Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of the MFA in Acting program at the School of Communication. (Northwestern University) 

Stan earned his MFA in Acting from the University of South Carolina in 1989. While there, Stan was named a graduate acting fellow at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., where he received the core of his classical actor training. 

Stan began his work in university teaching at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, where he taught acting and was a postgraduate researcher in Contemporary Shakespearean Performance (exploring director Peter Brook’s body of work with the Royal Shakespeare Company). In the U.K., Stan was invited to work with the voice department at the RSC by Cicely Berry, RSC Director of Voice and the author of internationally renowned books Voice and the Actor, The Actor and His Text, and Text in Action. This training and experience initiated Stan’s ongoing explorations into perceptions and impacts of ‘culture’ on voice and speech training for the actor.  

He maintained an active professional relationship with the RSC’s voice department and, specifically, Ms. Berry and her work until her retirement and passing in 2018. Apart from his work as a teacher, voice/dialect coach, and director, Stan has worked as a professional actor for over 30 years in American and British theatre, film, television, and radio. Some of his credits include featured roles on NBC’s Homicide: Life in the Streets and recurring roles on In the Heat of the Night and the critically acclaimed I’ll Fly Away. In film, Stan co-starred in Robby Benson’s Modern Love and the cult film Getting In opposite Calista Flockhart, Matthew Perry, Dave Chapelle, and Christine Baranski. The film was the directorial debut of Doug Liman, who would later direct Swingers, Bourne Identity, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. In 2015 Stan played the lead in the short film The Bespoke Tailoring of Mr. Bellamy. The film won the prestigious Louisiana Film Prize—the largest monetary prize in the world for short film—and was shortlisted for the Academy Award ballot. Stan also won the Louisiana Film Prize Best Actor award for his work. 

 

STAN BROWN
Born:

1962
South Carolina  (Colleton, County)

Education

*BA – Theatre – University of South Carolina
*MFA – Acting – University of South Carolina 

*Acting Fellow – Shakespeare Theatre (at the Folger) Washington, D.C.
*Postgraduate Researcher (Contemporary Shakespearean Performance)  Warwick University – Coventry, England, UK

Inaugural Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Professor of Acting
Director of Graduate Studies MFA Acting Program

Full Professor at the University of South Carolina

Former Visiting Instructor at National Theatre School Of Canada

Former postgraduate researcher at the University of Warwick

Former Visiting Instructor at SUNY Oneonta

Former Assistant Professor at Miami of Ohio University, Oxford, OH

Former Assistant Professor at Towson University

Former Associate professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Studied Acting at the University of South Carolina – Columbia

Studied Ritual and Ceremonial Language at the University of Warwick

Went to Harleyville-Ridgeville High School 

 

Stan Brown is the Inaugural Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Professor of Acting and Director of Graduate Studies, MFA Acting Program at Northwestern University.  

He is a former Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at USC and is a voice specialist in both the Graduate Professional Actor Training Program and the Undergraduate Actor Training Program.
 
Stan earned his MFA in Acting from the University of South Carolina in 1989.  While here, Stan was named a graduate acting fellow at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C., where he received the core of his classical actor training. 

 
Stan began his work in university teaching at the University of Warwick in  Coventry England where he taught acting and was a postgraduate researcher in Contemporary Shakespearean Performance (exploring concepts, interpretation, and development in director Peter Brook’s body of work, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as intentional artistic responses to relevant social, political, and cultural realities).

 

In the UK, Stan was invited to work with the Voice Department at the RSC by Cicely Berry*, RSC Director of Voice.  This training and experience initiated Stan’s ongoing explorations into perceptions and impacts of ‘culture’  on voice and speech training for the actor.  He maintains an active professional relationship with the RSC’s voice department and, specifically, Ms. Cicely Berry’s work in voice technique.

Apart from his work as a teacher, voice/dialect coach and director Stan has worked as a professional actor both here in the US and in the United Kingdom in theatre, film, television, and radio for 30 years.  Some of his credits include featured roles on NBC’s Homicide: Life On the Street, and recurring roles on In the Heat of the Night and the critically acclaimed I’ll Fly Away.

On film, Stan co-starred in Robby Benson’s Modern Love and appeared opposite Calista Flockhart, Matthew Perry, Dave Chapelle, and Christine Baranski in the cult film, Getting IN, the directorial debut of Doug Liman (Director of Swingers, Bourne Identity, Mr & Mrs. Smith).

 

An Associate Professor/Voice Specialist, Stan  has worked as a professional actor, director, and voice/dialect coach in both the United States and the United Kingdom.  

 

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My Advice to a young artist

Love yourself or at least admit that you don’t until you can figure out how to…and you better learn how to. 

*If you know where you’re going then you’ve already been there.

*Your destination doesn’t exist until you arrive
Take your big risks early in your career (It sets a tone for later)
*There’s a lot to be said for not knowing where your next meal might come from.  It certainly helps you to work up an appetite. 

*Now is all there EVER is.
*Only compete with yourself
*Actions ALWAYS speak louder than words. Pay attention to whenever words and actions don’t match. 

* Listen to your heart.  It won’t always tell you what you want to hear but it will NEVER lie to you.”

 

 

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