Meg O'Brien
Meg O’Brien (she/her/hers) is in her 18th season at The Huntington where she has been the Director of Education since 2017. Meg is also a member of the national cohort of Teaching Artists with Play On! Shakespeare. Meg has worked professionally as an actor, dancer, singer, director, producer, finance director, arts administrator, access coordinator, and stage manager. For more than 20 years Meg’s career has focused on educational theater, training and development for students of all ages, and ensuring schools have access to live stage productions. Since joining The Huntington in 2008, Meg has directed, stage managed, and/or produced more than 60 student-centered productions, showcases, and other events for The Huntington’s Education Department.
Meg O’Brien (she/her/hers) is in her 18th season at The Huntington where she has been the Director of Education since 2017. Meg is also a member of the national cohort of Teaching Artists with Play On! Shakespeare. Meg has worked professionally as an actor, dancer, singer, director, producer, finance director, arts administrator, access coordinator, and stage manager. For more than 20 years Meg’s career has focused on educational theater, training and development for students of all ages, and ensuring schools have access to live stage productions. Since joining The Huntington in 2008, Meg has directed, stage managed, and/or produced more than 60 student-centered productions, showcases, and other events for The Huntington’s Education Department. Under Meg’s leadership The Huntington’s Education Department serves more than 20,000 students each season and holds national championship titles in the former August Wilson New Voices Monologue Competition (2014) and the national Next Narrative Monologue Competition (2023). Meg has also guided the department to the launch of The Huntington Academy in the 24/25 season, a new learning lab for students of all ages and experience levels. Meg is a founding member of The Huntington’s Equity and Anti-Racism (HEAR) Task Force, serving since its inception in June 2020. As Access Coordinator, Meg has significantly expanded programming during her tenure, helping to make Huntington productions more inclusive and accessible, which included working directly with ticketing to successfully launch season ticket series for AD, ASL, and OC patrons, and shepherding the return of Open Caption performances in 2019 for the first time in 10 years. Meg is a member of the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Education Theatre Guild (METG) where she is the Vice President of the Musical Theatre Executive Council. The METG is also the home of the Massachusetts chapter of the Jimmy Awards (The National High School Musical Theatre Awards). She also serves as an adjudicator for The Guild’s December Contest Day, their Annual State Drama Festival, and their Annual Musical Theatre Festival. Wheelock Family Theatre named Meg an “Astonishing Woman” in 2020, and in 2019 Meg was awarded the Community Access Award from the Bay State Council for the Blind. In 2017 Meg was awarded the Huntington’s Cohen Award for Excellence. Meg was a national Network Co-Chair of the Professional Theatre Network with AATE (American Alliance for Theatre and Education) from 2018- 2022 and has presented at AATE’s National Conference many times. 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 (centered around their partnership in the classroom teaching theatre to bring their humanities curriculum to life in performance). Meg has also been a regular guest lecturer at many Massachusetts colleges and universities including Harvard University, Emerson College, Boston University, and Suffolk University. She has partnered with Mass General and Boston Children’s Hospital to support pediatric residents on ways in which performing arts and self-expression can be included in their patient care routines. After receiving her B.F.A in Acting from the University of Connecticut in 2004, Meg lived in Stockbridge, MA and was an Artist in Residence with the Berkshire Theatre Group for five years. 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 still provides scholarships to students enabling them to pursue their dreams of being onstage and affords them the opportunity to participate in BTG’s education programs. Favorite professional stage acting credits include dozens of roles in Theatre for Young Audiences touring productions, Assassins (Emma Goldman), Amadeus, and A Christmas Carol (Mrs. Fezziwig, twice) at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, The Taming of the Shrew (Biondello) and King John (Prince Henry) at Shakespeare & Company, as well as featured roles in Candide, Violet, Sweeney Todd, The Crucible, The House of Bernarda Alba, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, Flatter Will Get You… and Seeing Laughter at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. In addition to her work at The Huntington, Meg was a Producer, Actor, and the Managing Director at the award-winning fringe theatre company Bad Habit Productions from 2011 – 2015, where she helped BHP develop and launch their popular 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 successful seasons.
As of October 2025.