Ms. Carolyn Conover is an Assistant Professor of Acting and Directing in the Department of Theatre and Film. She spent most of her childhood in Unionville, MO, and Marshall, IL, before going on to earn her BA in Theatre Performance at St. Mary of the Woods College, MA in English/Drama at Illinois State University, and MFA in Acting at Michigan State University.

Spring 2022 marks Conover’s third semester of teaching at JSU. Currently, she is teaching Acting, Directing, Script Analysis, Voice for the Actor, Introduction to Theatre, and Improv; she shared that Directing is her favorite class and she always looks forward to teaching it. Conover said that her favorite part of her job is constantly creating new things and making discoveries. She makes sure to support her students inside the classroom, finding that it makes them confident in their risk-taking and development of skills.

“It’s exciting to watch the journey of a theatre student who comes in as a freshman scared to make a mistake, and by their junior or senior years, they realize how valuable these mistakes can be and how much we can learn from them,” she said. Conover encourages mistakes in all her classes, as ‘all mistakes are a gift’ is the motto of her Improv class.

Her favorite thing about the Theatre and Film department is simply having colleagues, as Conover was previously part of a department where she was in charge of designing sets and costumes – in addition to directing shows and teaching – as the only full-time faculty member. Occasionally, Conover would be able to receive help from part-time adjuncts she had hired and from her mom, whom she sometimes had to beg to sew costumes. “While I am super proud of what we were able to accomplish, it is so wonderful to finally have a team of teaching artists to collaborate with! That is what theatre is all about!”

Conover shared that she is passionate about “creating consent-forward learning environments and rehearsal spaces, where student actors are encouraged to set safe boundaries, and everyone feels safe to take creative risk.” She is training as an Intimacy Director/Choreographer, which has been and continues to be a major goal of hers, and is the official intimacy choreographer for the spring production.

An actor and dramaturg of twenty years, Conover mostly focuses on Shakespeare and musical theater. (The picture above is Conover playing Lady Capulet in a 2019 production of Romeo and Juliet at Crossroads Repertory Theatre.) Her favorite roles are Lady Macbeth and Cathy in The Last 5 Years, but she recently played Titania is the JSU Shakespeare Project’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Conover’s accomplishments go beyond the theatre, though. She published her first book, The Introverted Actor, in the past year as “a practical guide for reimagining the creative classroom to better support the introverted artist.” The book was nominated for Outstanding Book of the Year 2020 by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). She also recently completed her Mental Health First-Aid certification with the National Council for Mental Well-Being and Theatrical Intimacy Education.

In her spare time, Conover enjoys watching movies and bingeing crime shows with her partner, as well as playing tabletop role-playing games.  She admitted she “played a shameful amount of Stardew Valley over the break.” Conover also likes to cook and play with her two kittens in her free time.

Conover would share an abundance of advice with her students if prompted: “Work hard. Be nice. Don’t panic. Follow your passion and do what makes you happy. Theatre is so rewarding and fulfilling, but there will always be people doubting your choice. Ignore them. Work harder. Theatre isn’t easy, but it’s absolutely worth it.”