Charles Carshon

Charles Carshon (c. 1920 – October 28, 2011) was an American actor, theatre director, and acting teacher whose career spanned Broadway, Off-Broadway, and decades of institutional theatre education in New York City. The New York Times described him as an "actor, director, teacher, [and] Off-Broadway pioneer."

Carshon's Broadway work was concentrated in the 1950–51 season, during which he appeared in two productions. He played a Queen's Slave in The Tower Beyond Tragedy, which ran from November 26 to December 22, 1950, and subsequently joined Billy Budd as a replacement company member, a production that ran from February 10 to May 12, 1951. By the mid-1950s he had shifted his focus to Off-Broadway, where he founded and led his own ensemble, the Tapestry Theatre. He returned to Off-Broadway performance in 1975, appearing in Beethoven/Karl.

Carshon's longest institutional affiliation was with Sarah Lawrence College, where he headed the Studio Theatre for 35 years, directing student and resident company productions and mentoring successive generations of actors. In the late 1970s, he and his wife, actress and producer Gloria Barret Carshon, co-directed Harold Pinter's Old Times through their resident company, Green Gate Theatre, as part of the college's "Summer Evenings at Sarah Lawrence" series.

Outside of Sarah Lawrence, Carshon taught at the High School of Performing Arts, the Stella Adler Studio, the Neighborhood Playhouse, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He and Gloria Barret collaborated frequently throughout their careers on productions connected to Sarah Lawrence and through the Green Gate Theatre company.

Carshon died on October 28, 2011, at the age of 91, survived by his wife, Gloria Barret.