Ausar Stewart
“When truth and virtue are so rare in almost every area of our society, the world needs theatre and the theatre needs actors who will bring the truth of the human soul to the stage. The theatre may now be on the only place in society where people can go to hear the truth.”
Excerpt from: A Practical Handbook For The Actor by Mellisa Bruder, Lee Michael Cohn, Madeleine Olnek, Nathanial Pollack, Robert Previto, Scott Zigler
Ausar teaches voice and acting to sophomores, juniors and seniors in the Acting/MT program.
For his heart-centered, pragmatic, and future-thinking pedagogy, actor-director Ausar Stewart is one of North America’s most sought-after teaching artists, arts educators, and performance coaches. He inspires students to seek knowledge and practically apply it, bridging the gap between theory and practice. This praxis forms the foundation of learning and over time empowers students to take responsibility and ownership of their own growth and development.
Ausar is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher. Having studied with luminaries in the field such as Kristin Linklater, David Smukler, David Carey and Fran Bennett, he now contributes to the training of the next generation of Linklater Voice Teachers.
Ausar is also in demand as an Accent and Dialect coach. Most recently serving as the Voice, Accent and Dialect coach on a wide range of productions at The Shaw Festival, Canada’s second largest regional theatre company known for staging world-class productions. Recent coaching credits include: Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart (dir. Craig Hall), Candida (dir. Severn Thompson), The House That Will Not Stand (dir. Philip Akin), The Orphan of Chao (dir. by Michael Man), The Great Revenge of the Zhao Orphan (dir. Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster), Snow In Mid in Mid Summer (dir. Nina Lee Aquino).
Adding to the multifaceted nature of his skill sets Ausar is also a dynamic acting teacher. Having taught Text Analysis, Shakespeare, and Scene Study, across all four years of training at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Senior level classes include Culture Class, and his innovative course The Actor as Artist, featuring a groundbreaking curriculum centering holistic wellness for the actor, for which he was awarded a Provost Teaching Fellowship.
Ausar is a burgeoning director who has trained with celebrated Canadian directors such as Philip Akin, Co-Founder of Obsidian Theatre and Richard Rose, Artistic Director Emeritus of Tarragon Theatre Company. Having been shaped, and inspired by the aforementioned artists, as well as the numerous directors he’s had the good fortune of collaborating with, Ausar demonstrated his own prowess for potent storytelling by way of directing for CMU, Blood at the Root by Dominique Morisseau and Passage by Christopher Chen.
Now poised to continue delivering world-class training to all of his students, Ausar is delighted to have the honor and privilege of sharing the bounty he’s received from his master teachers, mentors, coaches and collaborators with the next generation of theatre artists.