Carla René

At the age of 10, a standard ear training test was given to those interested in joining the school band, and the odds of making a perfect score were 1 in 6,000 - Carla René made a perfect score. She studied voice, piano and trumpet at Davis & Elkins College, a Liberal Arts College in a small town in West Virginia, with a minor in percussion, after a brief foray as a mathematics/physics major. Along with her vocal performing, she played trumpet in the Elkins Community Brass Quartet where she also arranged music for 4 and 5 horns. She sat fourth and solo chair in "The 1940's Radio Hour" and was chosen as the assistant musical director, rehearsal pianist, vocal coach for soloists and auxiliary percussionist for the college production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". She dropped the percussion minor, and took Theatre Arts as her minor. Her original intent was to take a beginning acting class to become a better performer. That class was where the acting bug bit her. In July of 1990, she was notified that she had been chosen from a national audition as a vocalist for the camp and tour, "On the Road". 8 were chosen. It was here that she met critically acclaimed songwriters Geoff and Becky Thurman, and they expressed interest in her as a writer. Geoff wrote and co-produced Glenn Campbell's recent gospel album, but his claim to fame came when he wrote the Grammy-winning song "Jehovah" which put Amy Grant on the charts. In 1991, she was given a music scholarship to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she concentrated on a Commercial Trumpet Performance degree. While there, she sat first chair in the Belmont Concert Band, Belmont Jazz band (Under the direction of jazz great, Jeff Kirk) and the Belmont Student Brass Quartets and Quintets, where she once again did music arranging. Through a cooperative agreement with Vanderbilt University, she fulfilled her dream of marching with a University band by sitting first chair trumpet in the Vandy Marching Band where she was also a soloist. While in Nashville, an audition with the Avant Garage Dinner Theatre introduced her to the art of improvisation. They specialised in original comedies, and her first leading role garnered her a nomination as "Best Lead Actress in a Comedy" for the "Nashville First Night Awards". Since then she has done many productions in Professional and Community Theatres in her home base of Nashville, including ACT 1, Lakewood (where she was nominated "Best Character Actress in a Play" her first performance there), Performance Factory, Actor's Playhouse, Dennis Ewing's Theatre Horizons, and Backstage Studio, Razor's Edge, and Actors' Bridge Ensemble Theatre. In 1994 she began studying stand-up comedy, and has since performed it regularly, opening for top names at Zanies and other Nashville-based comedy clubs. In the summer of 2001, she was awarded the "Musical! The Musical!" scholarship by founding member and Second City alum, Nancy Howland Walker, for the 2001 Funny Women Fest. In the spring session of 2006, she returns to study for another session with Second City. In the summer of 2002, while completing a three-year acting program in DC, she opened in a comedy at The Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts. In October, 2004, she published her second short story in horror fiction and began work on two novels: one, a dark comedy about her relationship with her mother, post-stroke, and another a collection of dark comedic essays; both have generated interest from agents. She has several hours under her belt for her single-engine certification as a private pilot, she's moderate in German, is a faithful practitioner of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, and is an award-winning artist in several mediums, with oils being her favorite. She currently lives with her two cats Playdoh, and Isabella, and does a steady diet of web-design to help her sate her desire for all things artistic. She has won several awards for her graphic designs.