Cara Rawlings

Cara Rawlings is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Virginia Tech's College of Architecture, Arts, and Design. She specializes in movement, stage combat, and acting pedagogy. Her work bridges physical expression and emotional authenticity, informed by professional experience as a movement coach, fight director, and dance choreographer. She holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BS from Middle Tennessee State University.

Research focuses include integrating primal human instincts into actor training, as exemplified by her transformative work on the musical Warrior. She is a Certified Stage Combat Instructor with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) and serves on boards for the Virginia Theatre Association (VTA) and Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). Professional affiliations include the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) and Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME).

Teaching emphasizes observational curiosity and embodied presence, advocating for actors to engage deeply with lived experience. Her philosophy, shaped by both professional productions and personal parenthood, underscores the interplay between physicality and emotional truth in performance.