Pronouns: she/her
Marie is an Assistant Professor of Acting and Voice and Speech in the BFA and MFA Acting programs in the Department of Theatre at The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her previous appointment was Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, Performance and Director of The Acting Program at Sonoma State University (SSU) in the Bay Area. Marie is a professional Voice and Speech Coach and is on the faculty at the Center for Actor Training at Shakespeare & Company. She has an M.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University, and a B.A. in Theatre Arts, Acting from California State University, Fresno. She is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher via Kristin Linklater and the Linklater Center for Voice and Language in NYC. Recently, Marie has coached voice and dialects at The Goodman Theatre (Inherit The Wind), Steppenwolf Theatre Company (Leroy and Lucy, World Premiere), and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre (Sunny Afternoon, North American Premiere, 2025). Marie is also the Voice and Text Director at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) for Lisa’s Peterson’s production of As You Like It (2025). Marie is one of the Resident Directors and Voice and Text Coaches at Illinois Theatre. She recently coached The Winter’s Tale and directed Juliette Carillo’s play Plumas Negras at the Krannert Center Studio Theatre (2025). Previous directing credits include Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights (SSU, 2023), Real Women Have Curves (6th Street Playhouse, 2022), and Quiara Alegria Hudes’ Water by The Spoonful (SSU, 2022) for which she received many commendations, an invitation for encore performances, and two national awards from the Kennedy Center for “A Brave Rehearsal Space,” and a “Citizen’s Award.” In academia Marie has presented workshops and presentations at several conferences. In October 2024, Marie co-presented a new heightened text database with her Shakespeare & Company colleagues Gwendolyn Schwinke and Devonte Owens at the Leeds School of Arts, United Kingdom entitled “Expanding the Canon: A Searchable Online Database of Playscripts in Heightened Language by BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and global playwrights.” In 2023 she presented “Performing Shakespeare, Voice, Movement, and Intersectionality” in La Paz, Mexico. Both at the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) International Conferences. At VASTA, she is the Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access and served a board term from 2019-2022. Marie’s research and creative activity centers around voice within acting training for the stage and her intersectionality as a Mexican American Woman in the theater. She recently contributed a chapter called “Performance of Identity, A Practice” in the new book Latinx Actor Training published by Routledge in 2023, co-edited by Cynthia Santos-DeCure and Micha Espinosa. Marie has coordinated, written, and taught in many innovative theater and voice courses for the California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s office Summer Arts festival and program. These include “Theatre and Social Change: Politics, Performance, and Vocal Power,” “Performance of Identity: Past and Present Voices Meet,” and “Latinx Voices on Stage: Community Lineage and Performance.” Her latest course, “Shakespeare & Company: Voice, Heritage, and Community” was held in the summer of 2024 and featured several of Shakespeare & Company’s legacy members as training faculty and guest artists. As an actor, Marie worked with Patsy Rodenburg on Shakespeare’s Sonnets at the National Opera Center in NYC 2022 and will join her again in Silves, Portugal in September 2025 performing Shakespeare Scenes.
