Lisa Anne Porter has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals throughout the country including the American Conservatory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Center Repertory Theatre, SF Playhouse, BRAVA Theatre Center, Shakespeare & Company, Syracuse Stage, Sacramento Theatre Company, GeVa Theatre Company, and Boston Theatreworks. In May, she will be understudying the role of Oskar’s Mom in John Tiffany’s production of Let the Right One In. Previously this year, she played Tracey in Elizabeth Carter’s production of Sweat at Center Repertory Theatre, Gruach in Jasson Minadakis’ production of Dunsinane at Marin Theatre Company and Julia in Pam MacKinnon’s production Fefu and Her Friends at the American Conservatory Theatre. She recently workshopped and originated the role of Suzanne in Eureka Day, Theresa in The Eva Trilogy and performed the role of Erica in the West Coast premiere of A Bright Half Life. She has coached voice and dialect in over seventy productions nationwide, including the SF production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Prior to the closing of the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theatre, Lisa served as the Head of Acting and Dialects and prior to that the Head of Voice, Text and Dialects. She was on full time faculty there for over ten years during which time it was considered one of the top training programs in the county. She has served on the faculties of Syracuse University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, Shakespeare & Company, The Tepper Center in NYC, Naropa University, California Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Academy of Art University. She has a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theatre, a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership from Cornell University and is a designated Linklater Voice Teacher.
In April, she will be the Resident Associate Director for John Tiffany’s production of Let the Right One In at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Prior to its closing in September 2022, she served as the Resident Director for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Other directing credits include A Will of One’s Own for Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Syracuse University, Proof, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and It’s a Wonderful Life for Town Hall Theatre and numerous projects in the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theatre.
Lisa Anne Porter has performed with numerous repertory companies and Shakespeare festivals throughout the country including the American Conservatory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, Aurora Theatre Company, Marin Theatre Company, the Magic Theatre, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, Shakespeare Festival/LA, Center Repertory Theatre, SF Playhouse, BRAVA Theatre Center, Shakespeare & Company, Syracuse Stage, Sacramento Theatre Company, GeVa Theatre Company, and Boston Theatreworks. In May, she will be understudying the role of Oskar’s Mom in John Tiffany’s production of Let the Right One In. Previously this year, she played Tracey in Elizabeth Carter’s production of Sweat at Center Repertory Theatre, Gruach in Jasson Minadakis’ production of Dunsinane at Marin Theatre Company and Julia in Pam MacKinnon’s production Fefu and Her Friends at the American Conservatory Theatre. She recently workshopped and originated the role of Suzanne in Eureka Day, Theresa in The Eva Trilogy and performed the role of Erica in the West Coast premiere of A Bright Half Life. She has coached voice and dialect in over seventy productions nationwide, including the SF production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Prior to the closing of the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theatre, Lisa served as the Head of Acting and Dialects and prior to that the Head of Voice, Text and Dialects. She was on full time faculty there for over ten years during which time it was considered one of the top training programs in the county. She has served on the faculties of Syracuse University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, Shakespeare & Company, The Tepper Center in NYC, Naropa University, California Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Academy of Art University. She has a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.F.A. from the American Conservatory Theatre, a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion Leadership from Cornell University and is a designated Linklater Voice Teacher.
In April, she will be the Resident Associate Director for John Tiffany’s production of Let the Right One In at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Prior to its closing in September 2022, she served as the Resident Director for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Other directing credits include A Will of One’s Own for Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Syracuse University, Proof, Picasso at the Lapin Agile and It’s a Wonderful Life for Town Hall Theatre and numerous projects in the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theatre.
News
On Stage
Lisa will be playing Tracey in Elizabeth Carter’s production of Sweat at Center Repertory Theatre. Previously this year, she played Gruach in Jasson Minadakis’ production of Dunsinane at Marin Theatre Company and Julia in Pam MacKinnon’s production of Marie Irene Fornes’ Fefu and Her Friends at the American Conservatory Theatre.
Sweat|Center Repertory Theatre
Book Plans
Lisa is in the process of writing a book on acting that comes from her years of experience as the Head of Acting and Dialects, and previously the Head of Voice and Text in the MFA program at the American Conservatory Theatre.
Let the Right One In
In April, Lisa will be the Resident Associate Director as well as the understudy for Oskar’s Mom for John Tiffany’s production of Let the Right One In at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
Prior to its closing in the Fall of 2022, she was the Resident Director as well as the Co-Head of Voice and Dialects for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco.
Previously this year, she was Dialect Coach for the world premiere of Jonathan Spector’s new play The Things We Know at the Aurora Theatre Company, the Text and Voice Coach for Pam MacKinnon’s staged reading of Cymbeline at the American Conservatory Theatre and the Text Coach for Eric Ting’s productions of Marcus Gardley’s Lear and The Winter’s Tale at California Shakespeare Theatre.
Resumes
Gallery
Media
Lisa Anne Porter on “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at ACT, 2021
Lisa Anne Porter speaking at Melissa Y. Smith’s service at ACT, 2021.
Begin at 10:26
Reviews
Tracey in Sweat, Center Repertory Company, 2023
“There’s a lot of humor in Lynn Nottage’s Sweat, but it packs a truly devastating wallop, and Center Repertory Company’s production at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts doesn’t pull any punches. […] Director Elizabeth Carter’s crisp and nuanced production is marvelously powerful, with a terrific cast. […] Lisa Anne Porter is electric with energy as Cynthia’s best friend and coworker Tracey, which is a lot of fun when they’re carousing but downright dangerous when cooler heads are needed.”
—Sam Hurwitt, San Jose Mercury, April 2023
“Porter and Riddley give standout performances in very tough roles that ride a rollercoaster of raw emotions.”
Gruach in Dunsinane, Marin Theatre Company, 2022
“Lisa Anne Porter is a marvelously compelling Gruach, forthright and defiant, demanding her due and unyielding in remaining queen no matter her circumstances. Her eye contact seems to never waver, and there’s a sly humor in the way she toys with people’s perceptions of her. This is not the villainous Lady M of Shakespeare, but she is formidable.” —Sam Hurwitt, Marin Independent Journal, September, 2022
“Lisa Anne Porter, who we are allowed to say is Macbeth’s wife — known in factual history and in this play as Gruach — towers as Scotland’s Queen, bringing her warmth and believable warrior courage to the role of a challenged woman refusing to relinquish the throne.” Marin Magazine, October 2022
“Whenever Porter’s onstage, the show steadies. Her Gruach might be injecting mischief into the air, her Mona Lisa smile concealing cunning mixed with genuine feeling, but so lightly does Porter wear her character that even her mystery brings clarity.” —Lily Janiak, SF Chronicle, September, 2022
Julia in Fefu and Her Friends, American Conservatory Theater, 2022
“With “Fefu and Her Friends,” the new American Conservatory Theater under Artistic Director Pam MacKinnon has arrived.
It’s audacious. It’s ambitious. It’s weird and intellectual, yet welcoming, playful and imaginative. It’s art that asks much and doesn’t apologize, but helps you rise to its challenge and pays dividends when you do. It’s art that’s worthy of a city as dynamic and inventive as San Francisco.
Porter’s Julia, in a solo, bedridden scene somehow bridging wake, seance, confession and confrontation, makes ghosts feel as real as cold breath on the back of your neck, all with the audience seated just inches away from her.”
—Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, April, 2022
“a mesmerizing Lisa Anne Porter”
—Chad Jones, Theatre Dogs, April , 2022
“I also very much enjoyed Lisa Anne Porter’s mix of strength and vulnerability as wheelchair-bound Julia, whose sort of fever dream sets the denouement in motion.”
—Tim Munson, Broadway World, April, 2022
“In another piece of power, Lisa Ann Porter pounds a through line of threat towards Fefu from the moment she fights her hallucinations (assisted mightily by the sublime soundscape of Jake Rodriguez, whose playlist is more like a slaylist). A living, pulsing set of breaths that build mightily to a harrowing end are an exercise in Porter’s ability to reach a divine level of transcendence.”
—David Chavez, Bay Area Plays, April 2022
“Lisa Anne Porter’s portrayal of Julia is one of the evening’s most arresting performances…. At her bedside during our tour, we witness an unsettling, frightful hallucination of Julia that provides more insights into the dominating male world that the playwright seems to be reminding us exists more than in just nightmares. As the evening progresses, Lisa Anne Porter’s Julia provides us with a disconcerting, climatic showdown with Catherine Castellanos’ Fefu that proves the star power of both actors.”
Suzanne in Eureka Day, Aurora Theatre Company, 2018
“In envisioning a very liberal and very privileged Berkeley private school, Jonathan Spector’s play is so crisply defined that you might have to periodically remind yourself that you haven’t already met these characters in real life. Don (Rolf Saxon) is the conflict-averse head of school who at various executive committee meetings with parents gets a balletic spring in his step from abstract nouns, scones and markering notes on tearaway butcher paper. Longtime hyper-involved volunteer Suzanne (Lisa Anne Porter, bouncing up and down with the enthusiasm of Richard Simmons) is equally vehement in bulldozing her views over everyone else’s and then reproaching herself for doing so.”
—Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, 2018.
Teresa in The Eva Trilogy:Enter the Roar, Magic Theatre, 2017
“In Part Two, Enter The Roar, we witness the sentencing, when her sister Theresa (nuanced Lisa Anne Porter) fiercely defends Eva’s actions. Theresa says, “Wouldn’t it be nice to find a country where it says somewhere in the bylaws that I own myself and my children and family. A place where you lot don’t have a thing to say about it.” Theresa speak for a woman’s agency.”
Erica in A Bright Half Life, Magic Theatre, 2015
“But for the most part, a flash in Porter or Hayon’s eyes, or a slyly telegraphed change of expression, brilliantly conveys how a stray word or emotion sets off each flashback, and what it means. Fears of commitment come in every possible shade. Recurrent fraught moments on a Ferris wheel, preparing to sky dive and in stuck elevators — the locations indicated as much by the actors’ bodies as by sound effects — bring home the leaps of faith each lover must make. But perhaps none more so than Porter’s hilariously inept, and deeply moving, half-direct, half-roundabout attempts at marriage proposals. If you think you’re losing track of where you are in the story, wait a moment and it should become clear. In the hands of Porter and Hayon, the spare, incisive poetry of Barfield’s writing exerts a pretty strong pull.”
Viola/Sebastian in Twelfth Night, California Shakespeare Theatre, 2015
The twins Viola and Sebastian (both played by the marvelous Lisa Anne Porter) each think the other perished in a shipwreck…The happy ending, when the separated twins reunite, is handled deftly, and Porter, who has delineated her male and female (and female pretending to be male) characters beautifully, comes as close as a single actor could to making that scene poignant and a little heartbreaking.
—Chad Jones, TheatreDogs, 2015
..a comedy that draws some of its finest time-tested humor from the nuances of a woman trying to pass as a man. Lisa Anne Porter does well by those nuances. Her Viola is delectably funny and poignant.