Hannah Pratt
Acting Coach in Hickory, NC
Private acting lessons and musical theatre coaching focused on character, confidence, auditions, and stronger performance choices.
Hannah Pratt is an Acting Coach at Hickory Arts, where she helps performers build confidence, make stronger character choices, prepare for auditions, and develop a deeper understanding of story and performance. With experience as a theatre educator, director, and actor, Hannah combines practical stage experience with thoughtful script and character analysis to help each student grow as an individual performer.
Theatre Artist & Educator
Hannah holds degrees in English Secondary Education and Theatre Arts from Appalachian State University, bringing together a background in literature, storytelling, performance, and education. That combination gives her a particularly thoughtful approach to acting: understanding not only what a character is doing, but why.
As a director and theatre educator, Hannah has led award-winning productions and helped student performers, designers, stage managers, and creative teams earn recognition through the Blumey Awards and NCTC. Her directing work includes productions such as Hadestown: Teen Edition, Pippin, Legally Blonde, and Hello, Dolly!, with recognition spanning direction, musical theatre, choreography execution, acting, design, and stage management.
Hannah remains an active performer as well. Recent roles include Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar, Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg in Ride the Cyclone, and Kitty in The Drowsy Chaperone at Hickory Theatre, where she received a Kay Award for Outstanding Featured Performer.
Hannah’s Coaching Philosophy
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Relationships First
Hannah believes strong acting work begins with trust. She creates a supportive environment where students can take risks, make mistakes, ask questions, and explore without feeling judged.
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Character & Story
Her background in theatre and literature helps students look beyond lines on a page to understand objectives, relationships, circumstances, motivation, and the larger story surrounding a character.
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Brave Choices
Acting can be vulnerable, messy, weird, exhilarating, and sometimes scary. Hannah encourages students to make specific choices, try something new, and discover what happens when they stop worrying about getting everything “right.”
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Confidence Through Craft
Confidence grows when performers understand what they are doing and why. Hannah helps students develop practical acting tools they can carry into auditions, rehearsals, performances, and future creative work.
Who These Lessons Are For
Beginning actors looking for a supportive place to build technique and confidence
Experienced performers ready to deepen character, scene, and script work
Students preparing for auditions, including school, community theatre, college/program, competition, and musical theatre auditions
Actors working on monologues, cold reads, or scene study
Musical theatre performers working on acting through song, interpretation, audition material, and performance
Students currently in a production who want extra coaching on character, relationships, scenes, or songs
Blumey, NCTC, and competition participants preparing acting or creative presentations
Technical theatre students seeking guidance with design, stage management, costumes, set concepts, or competitive presentations
Hannah is also available for musical theatre vocal coaching, with an emphasis on acting through song, character interpretation, audition material, and confident performance.
Students interested in private acting lessons, audition coaching, or performance training at Hickory Arts can explore the Acting Lessons page for information about training options, scheduling, and getting started.
Outside the Studio
When she’s not coaching students, Hannah continues to direct, perform, and stay involved in theatre throughout the region. Her work on both sides of the stage gives her students the perspective of someone who understands the rehearsal room as an actor, director, and educator—and who still genuinely loves getting in the room and making theatre.