Auditioning By Heart

I absolutely love Crystal. Not only is her energy so supportive and caring, she’s also a kick ass acting coach. I’ve been doing privates and took her auditioning by heart 6 week program and both have helped me immensely. I love knowing I can call Crystal when I get a last minute audition or have to self-​tape. She’s there for her actors. And the 6 week program really honed in on what’s truly important in the auditioning process and how to make it that you’re the top 1 percent going into the room! I have a much stronger understanding of what to do with the script when I first get it and this takes away those fears and anxieties and just lets me do good work. Crystal is so supportive and has an incredible eye. I highly recommend her!

Nothing, not even Friday traffic, could keep me away from Crystal’s ABH workshop. I have worked privately with Crystal in the past but had never taken one of her workshops. Crystal creates such a positive environment but is also great at providing honest, constructive feedback that allowed me to make huge strides as an artist in just a matter of a few weeks. Crystal provides her students with the tools they need to breakdown a script, build a character with depth and history and walk into an audition with strong, meaningful choices. The ABH technique allows us, as actors, to live truthfully and see the auditioning experience as an amazing opportunity to play and to continue to grow as artists. I would highly recommend the workshop, or any class with Crystal, to build your skill set, gain confidence and simply to experience her amazing spirit and energy.

Crystal has single handedly changed my career with her coaching. I initially started doing privates with her for specific auditions, and since then I have booked, & had producer sessions… but most importantly she has inspired me and gotten me excited about auditioning in a way that I never have been (like most actors auditioning fills me with dread, and I’m a bundle of nerves). While her coaching sessions are brilliant and necessary when you have 6 pages of sides and less than a day to prepare its her class that really made all the difference. What I love about Crystal is she is all about the work — she doesn’t try to be your therapist, or ask about your personal life — all Crystal cares about is to make you the best actor you can possibly be. There are a lot of classes and a lot of coaches, techniques, non techniques here in Los Angeles, but no one has ever gotten me as excited about auditioning as Crystal. I think this is the most important thing — because when you are excited and passionate casting directors sense this, and see you as a creative collaborator in the room rather than an actor trying to get a job. I dare any actor to private coach with her for auditions while taking her class — it’s impossible not to book a job …

Crystal is very knowledgable and has helped me see things I miss when breaking down a scene. She is very detailed in breaking down the characters in the script and helps you live each character. It’s amazing how much she sees. I’ve been to other instructors but she customizes each class to each students’ needs. She just knows what my potential is and what I can bring to each scene/​character. She is a phenomenal coach.

Crystal Carson has been teaching and coaching professionally in Los Angeles for the last 20 years. She began as a sought after teacher at the Margie Haber Studios for 12 years, before using her extraordinary gifts to start the Auditioning By Heart studio, in Sherman Oaks. Crystal also conducts semi-​annual seminars at the University of Nebraska, various studios in Atlanta including Creative Studios of Atlanta, VoiceoverCity, and The Production Centre of Pinewood Studios (Atlanta), RJ’s Casting in Orlando, and is invited to lead workshops and seminars in Vietnam at the Saigon International Film School, as well as hosting groups of international actors who travel to the US via «Industry Hollywood» to learn the Auditioning By Heart method.
As a believer in the profound power acting in films and television has on our ever expanding world, Crystal Carson is one of very few elite acting coaches who has devoted her primary career to perfecting the coaching of professional actors. She understands the need for vulnerability, truth and the «flaws that come with being human» to live in every character, in order to reach audiences in a deep and sometimes magical way. Her outstanding reputation is testimony to her remarkable expertise and her unique ability to inspire others to rise to their potential.
Crystal with Academy Award winning director Alexander Payne.
Crystal with Academy Award winning director Alexander Payne.
As an on-​set coach, she was most recently employed by FOX-​TV for a full season of the crime procedural «The Inside», focusing primarily on lead actress Rachel Nichols. Crystal also coaches privately in Los Angeles. Her clients have included Paula Abdul, Samaire Armstrong (Resurrection, The Mentalist, Dirty Sexy Money), Matthew Atkinson (Parenthood, Y&R), Jennifer Beals (Mob Doctor, The Chicago Code, L Word), David Boreanaz (Bones, Angel, Buffy), Dylan Bruce (Orphan Black), Ashley LeConte Campbell (Rectify), Ricardo Chimera (Desperate Housewives), Tanya Clarke (Banshee, Canooks), Brittany Daniel (The Game), Ethan Embry (The Frontier, Fairly Legal), Tricia Helfer (Ascension, Killer Women, Battlestar Galactica), Paul Johansson (One Tree Hill), Desi Lydic (The Client List, Awkward), Eaddy Mays (Teen Wolf, Fighting Back, The Blindside), Sunny Mabrey (Once Upon a Time, Memphis Beat), Rachel Nichols (Criminal Minds, G.I. Joe, Sisterhood of Traveling Pants 2), Aaron O’Connell (The Haves and the Have Nots), Keith Powell (30 Rock), Amy Rider (Secret Life of an American Teenager), Brenda Strong (Dallas, Desperate Housewives), Jennifer Taylor (Two and a Half Men), and Brian White (Hostages, Beauty and the Beast, Men of a Certain Age, The Cabin in the Woods) to name just a few.
Prior to dedicating her life to professional coaching exclusively, Crystal worked as an actress in 25 theatre repertory and summer stock companies; in several television programs, and had a recurring role on CBS’s award winning show, «Jag».
But Crystal is better known for playing Julia Barrett for five years on «General Hospital», when she was voted «Best New Female» by Soap Opera Digest and put on their cover as one of «Television’s Most Beautiful Women.»
In her young career, Crystal appeared for 8 weeks on the mega-​hit «Dallas», booked several Television Pilots, and had guest starring roles on «Ellen», «Cheers», «Charles In Charge», «Midnight Caller», «Thirtysomething», «Simon & Simon» and «Night Court» to name a few. Crystal appeared in several films including «Who’s That Girl» with Madonna, and the female lead in «Killer Tomatoes Strikes Back» with John Astin, among others.