UMass Boston

Acting, Directing, Movement, Voice, Improvisation, Devising

MFA, Acting - Theatre Education, Boston University School of Theatre Arts
BFA, Drama, New York University Tisch School of the Arts

Carrie Ann Quinn is a professional actor and director in theatre, television, and film, as well as Coordinator of Acting and Performance in the Theatre Program. Professionally, Quinn has directed and performed in numerous Boston, New York and regional theatre productions throughout the U.S. and is co-founder of the international theatre company Escape Artists. Through grants, fellowships and artist residencies, she develops original plays, film/tv scripts and fiction podcasts based on real women from history, whose stories have been overlooked, disregarded or misconstrued. She starred in her co-written play, Possessions, based on the 17th century Mancini Sisters, which premiered in the US and toured to Sydney, Australia and has been adapted into a tv pilot script and limited series. Her current script project is Wild Women, based on prostitutes and female-owned brothels in the wild west during the gold rush, which will be workshopped fall 2021 in New York. Her recent TV/Film acting credits include Apple TV+’s Defending Jacob (2020) and feature films Chappaquiddic, The Fighter, The Sympathy Card, and many other independent films. TV/film directing credits include Launch at Paradise (2021) her sci-fi and short film directorial debut; Birthright (2019) the proof of concept film for the upcoming feature; and a new fiction podcast series (2020).

Quinn presents her original acting technique, A Method for a New Millennium, throughout the US and at international conferences and universities in Europe and Australia. At UMass Boston, Quinn has directed numerous Performing Arts’ mainstage shows including The Party Hop; Pride & Prejudice; The Importance of Being Earnest; New Voices, New Stories Student Playwriting Festival; Bat Boy: The Musical, Polaroid Stories, Urinetown The Musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the devised work Wit? Or Without You!, Hedda Gabler and The Shape of Things. Professor Quinn works closely with the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) representing UMass Boston and the Northeast region as a Region I Production Respondent and an Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Mentor. Under her mentorship, many UMass Boston theatre students have received regional and national recognition, awards and scholarships for their acting and theatre work: including the KCACTF Region I National Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Award in 2017 and 2018, the runner-up Region I National Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship Award in 2020 and 2021, and the Region I Best Classical Acting Award in 2017 and 2019. Quinn was awarded the Region I Classical Acting Mentor Award in 2017 and 2019, given by National Partners of American Theatre and KCACTF. She is a proud member of the performer unions: Actors' Equity Association (AEA); Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).