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Meg O’Brien, Interim Co-Director of Education at Huntington Theatre Company, discusses their long-standing commitment to universal participation. She shares how the Huntington makes productions accessible for patrons with hearing or vision difficulties, and how they’re expanding ways to integrate accessibility into performance models and schedules.
Meg O’Brien is in her 10th season at the Huntington Theatre Company, currently serving as one of two Interim Co-Directors of Education. She has also served as the Manager of Education Operations & Access Coordinator at the Huntington Theatre Company. Meg is an actor, dancer, singer, director, producer, and stage manager; however, her passion lives with Theatre Education, which she quickly fell in love with when she was in college. For the past 15 years, Meg has made her living teaching students of all ages about the world of the theater.
She has taught, directed, stage managed, and produced more than 20 performances and showcases for the Huntington’s Education Department. Meg was selected with Sydney Chaffee, Codman Academy’s 9th grade Humanities Teacher (and the 2017 MA and National Teacher of the Year) to present a master class at the 2016 EL National Conference. She will also present at the 2018 AATE (American Alliance for Theatre Educators) Conference with a panel of colleagues focused on partnerships with schools. After receiving her B.F.A in Acting from the University of Connecticut in 2004, Meg lived in Stockbridge, MA for four years and was an Artist in Residence with the Berkshire Theatre Group. Meg was a member of the stage management team for BTG’s first three community productions (The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and Oliver!) each of which had casts with more than 125 children. In 2005 Meg helped launch BTG’s Richie Dupont Fund which provides scholarships to students to enable them to pursue their dreams of being onstage and afford them the opportunity to attend one of BTG PLAYS! Camp sessions. Favorite professional acting credits include Assassins, Amadeus, and A Christmas Carol (Mrs. Fezziwig, twice) at the Berkshire Theatre Group, The Taming of the Shrew (Biondello) and King John (Prince Henry) at Shakespeare & Company, as well as Candide, Violet, Sweeney Todd, The Crucible, The House of Bernarda Alba, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, and Seeing Laughter with the Connecticut Repertory. In addition to her work at the Huntington Theatre Company, Meg was the Producer and Managing Director at the award winning Bad Habit Productions from 2011 – 2015, where she helped BHP develop and launch their family programming and sensory friendly performances. From 2015-2017 Meg served as the President of the Board of Directors at BHP, which closed in 2017 after 10 seasons.