Mary Coy

Department of Theatre Arts
University of Iowa
107 Theatre Building
Iowa City, IA 52242
540-447-0361 (c)

Mary became a Designated Linklater Teacher in 1993 and has an M.Litt/MFA in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama in Performance from Mary Baldwin College.  In addition to Linklater, she has studied voice with Patsy Rodenburg (Michael Howard Studios), Louis Colaianni (Shakespeare & Company, Giving Voice 1997), and Arthur Lessac (University of Virginia, 1993).  She is a 1989 graduate of the Loose Moose and studied acting and improv with Terry Schreiber and Gloria Maddox.  She has taught acting, voice and improv at various theaters, universities, high schools and local theater groups around the United States including University of Maryland, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, University of Mississippi, Syracuse University, University of Virginia, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, and Virginia Commonwealth University.  She has performed with Nelson County Shakespeare Festival (which she founded), Hamner Theater, Kristin Linklater’s Company of Women, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Open Eye and Shakespeare & Company.  Favorite roles include Richard in Richard III, the Queen in Richard II, Cornwall in King Lear, Olivia in Earl Hamner’s The Homecoming, and Virginia in Vita & Virginia.  Directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard, II, As You Like It, and Taming of the Shrew.  In addition to teaching adults, Mary is Shakespeare consultant to the Nelson County Public Schools and has developed a language arts curriculum for sixth graders based on rehearsing and performing Shakespeare’s plays.  With Betty Tabony, she has written a manual for teaching Shakespeare to middle school students and edited a young people’s edition of King Lear for Swan Books.  She is currently developing a movement-based language arts curriculum for early elementary students based on Linklater’s sound and movement exercises. Mary currently teaches voice at the University of Iowa.