Cara Gabriel, PhD
I’m a storyteller, coach, consultant, and educator who still occasionally writes, directs, and performs.
Cara Gabriel
Cara Gabriel has been a coach and director in the DC area for over 20 years, working with theaters like 1st Stage, Keegan Theatre, and Adventure Theatre.
Her coaching clients include Broadway actors, professors, lawyers, authors, athletes, and children. She's also spoken at conferences, theaters, embassies, and universities on public speaking, diversity, podcasting, and theatre history.
As a professor at American University for 16 years, she directed 30+ productions and taught acting, voice, theatre history, and performance classes. She’s also taught at Catholic University and the University of Maryland.
Cara holds degrees from Middlebury, Northwestern, and the University of Michigan. She started a charitable bakery, Cara’s Cupcakes for Change during the pandemic.
She lives in Bethesda with her family and a houseful of pets.
Featured Directing
Cara Gabriel has directed, acted, and written for numerous productions. She’s available to direct in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia.
Her Shakespeare adaptations, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, have been performed on tour for children. She also contributed to New York’s Theatre Arts Assessment Exam, helping shape arts education in the state.
Cara co-produced the Women on Fire Festival at Keegan Theatre for four years. Her solo show, I AM THE GENTRY, has been featured at festivals in New York, San Francisco, and DC. It’s now a podcast on Apple and other platforms.
FAQs
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Theatre is the PRACTICE of the thing, or it refers to literally the building itself.
Drama is typically JUST the text— the literature, the play as written. For example, dramatic history is the history of the literature only. Theatre history is the history of the practice— plays as produced/executed.
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IChildren’s Theatre and Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) both refer to adults (usually professional) performing for children. Educational theatre is theatre performed by students (of any age) in an educational setting. It is usually, but not always, directed by an adult.
Student theatre is fully student-produced, directed, and performed.
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I am an Acting Coach and Theatre Educator. I coach humans who act, and I teach about all aspects of the theatre (including ALL of the practical elements, as well as dramatic literature and theatre history).
A lot of people will refer to themselves as “teaching artists,” which I suppose I also am, but, to me, that diminishes what I do.
I really am an educator, as well as a professional director.
My own education and experience as a PhD, professional director, and academic are far more rigorous, extensive, and comprehensive than practitioners who go by “teaching artist” implies to me.
I’m more than that - I’m truly a theatre educator.
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In academia I was always very clear about the difference between professional “training” (very practical, and oriented specifically toward the profession- usually acting), vs “education,” which is much more comprehensive (addresses the total student), and often more liberal arts based (we learn history, literature, criticism, design, AND acting).
On another note.
Cara’s Cupcakes for Change
Cara’s Cupcakes for Change started in 2020. That year was heavy— I had left my theatre professor job to explore writing and directing, but the pandemic halted everything. With two kids doing virtual school and no work, I felt lost.
Inspiration came when I saw Bakers Against Racism online—a call to bake and donate proceeds to causes supporting Black Lives Matter. It was a way to bring some light and hope into dark times. I started baking and donating, and it hasn’t stopped.
By 2021, I’d set up a baking kitchen in my basement, got my LLC, and developed a mostly vegan menu. Word spread, and the business grew.
Now, I’m blending my professional consulting with my side business. Together, one cupcake at a time, we’re uplifting others