Multiple award-winning author Charles Carr has written literally thousands of newspaper articles, magazine stories, and columns for the San Diego Union Tribune, The Orange County Register, The Californian, The North County Times, Parent Magazine, and many other publications. Over two-plus decades he has covered a diverse range of topics including pesticide use at San Diego area schools, invasive background checks for county volunteers, disease awareness, the debate over standards-based grading, and Southern California's devastating wildfires. He has also a magazine editor and a noted television producer/director with several documentaries currently airing and/or in production on Cox Cable and elsewhere.

Carr has also been commissioned to write and/or direct many of his own stage plays.

About a decade ago, Charles, his wife, Marsi, and others looking for ways to help organizations struggling in difficult economic times founded Art Animates Life, a CA incorporated, federally tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization.





Art Animates Life and its theatrical offshoot, North County Players, have raised tens-of-thousands of dollars for San Diego area charities. Thousands of So Cal residents have attended Art Animates Life events and productions and tens-of-thousands of dollars have been raised for San Diego area disaster relief, arts nonprofits, a municipal gallery, veterans' relief funds, a community outreach center, an historical society, and several struggling community theaters.

Group members do not accept monetary compensation for their time and talent, including Carr's own commissions and royalties. An essential element of every North County Players stage production is that tickets are priced so that every member of the community can experience excellent live theater.

Art Animates Life has received generous grants from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, the H.O.M.E. Foundation, the San Marcos Community Foundation, and the San Marcos Historical Society; and corporate sponsorship from Chick-fil-A, McDonalds, Chipotle, Noodles & Company, and others.



For the 2016 holiday season, Carr has adapted and will direct the
Frank Capra masterpiece, It's a Wonderful Life. Titled It's a Wonderful Christmas Carol, the show features twists and surprises from Charles Dickens himself. More info soon.



Carr adapted and directed the beloved Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. The play has been produced annually to packed houses throughout So Cal including Bates Nut Farm, Patio Playhouse, PowPAC, the Park Avenue Center, Connors Hall, and the San Marcos Civic Center.



Carr's newest stage thriller is in the tradition of classic Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie. Titled, Passage Into Fear, the play is set onboard a train during the waning days of World War I. Passage Into Fear was orgininally performed in parnership with CSU San Marcos and the San Marcos Historical Society and, most recently, at the San Marcos Civic Center and Patio Playhouse Theatre in conjunction with a series of centennial observances of the Great War.



Charles Carr's original stage play, All the Time in the World, has garnered broad acclaim from audiences and critics alike. The drama/mystery has been performed at the Maxine Theater's Staples Center, the Escondido Municipal Gallery, and the Charity Wings Arts Center.



In the 1990s, Charles wrote 3DHouse, a complete inside-and-out virtual reality tour of his family's log home in Southern California. One of the first virtual reality programs ever created, 3DHouse enjoyed tens of thousands of shareware downloads on all major portals. He also sold the rights to Radio Shack and Egghead Software. 3DHouse has since been featured in many books and articles about VR.

A professional musician for more than 20 years, Carr's guitar playing and arranging have been featured on many recordings. He toured both in and out of the country before settling down in San Diego's North County with his wife, Marsi, and their two children Sammi and Alex. He has repeatedly taken top honors in San Diego Songwriter's Guild competitions for his original musical compositions.

Carr has won many writing accolades, including San Diego Press Club awards for Best Column Writing, Best Consumer Writing, and Best Arts and Entertainment. He also edits stories and articles written by others for major local and national publications.

Since its inception, Carr has produced the Fallbrook International Film Festival's red carpet event and panel discussions.

Charles has also served as adult supervisor and creative adviser for the multiple award-winning original films Boy on the Moon (iVIE first place, Fallbrook Film Festival finalist), Sins of the Father (iVIE first place, VCTV Film of the Year) and Mystery High (iVIE, VCTV Storyteller of the Year, Fallbrook Film Festival finalist), and the full-length original stage play Auditioning Truths and Lies, which has been performed professionally at venues throughout Southern California.

Charles has been a contributor and technical advisor to L.A. and San Diego Parent magazines and receives many requests each year to appear on Southern California television and radio stations to talk about important events.

Carr is author of What a World, chronicling twenty years in the San Diego backcountry. He enjoys speaking from time-to-time to schools and organizations about his eclectic life in the arts and teaching journalism at his hometown high school.

Email Charles