MEG O'BRIEN, Director of Education
Meg O’Brien (she/her/hers) is in her 12th season at the Huntington Theatre Company where she is the Director of Education and the Access Coordinator. Meg is an actor, dancer, singer, director, producer, administrator, and stage manager; however, her passion lives with theatre education. For the past 15 years, Meg has made her living teaching students of all ages about the world of the theater. She joined the Huntington Theatre Company in 2008 and has directed, stage managed, and produced more than 35 performances and showcases for the Huntington’s Education Department. As Access Coordinator, Meg has significantly expanded programming in the past decade helping to make Huntington productions more inclusive and accessible which included successfully shepherding the return of Open Caption performances for the first time in 10 years. 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 most recently elected to be the national Network Chair of the Professional Theatre Network with AATE (American Alliance for Theatre and Education), has presented at AATE’s National Conference, and 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 as a way to bring their humanities curriculum to life in performance). 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 participate in BTG’s education programs. 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 at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. 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 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 seasons.
DANIEL BEGIN, Manager of Education Operations
Daniel Begin (he/him/his) is currently in his second full season here at the Huntington Theatre Company, and in his tenth year being a theatre educator. Last year, Daniel held the position of Education Associate. This past September, he took on the role of the Manager of Education Operations. In this new position, Daniel will be managing the Student Matinee series and the Access Programming for the department, teaching in the August Wilson Monologue Competition Residency Program, coordinating the Semi-Finals and Finals of the Poetry Out Loud Massachusetts Contest and August Wilson Monologue Competition, as well as developing standard operating procedures for all Education and Access programming. Daniel is a firm believer that “good theatre makes good people” and his professional goal is to aid in the development of the future generation of good humans. As a lifelong Massachusetts resident, Daniel became involved in theatre through The Young Company at Greater Boston Stage Company, formerly Stoneham Theatre, in Stoneham, MA. After participating in their educational programs for over ten years, Daniel attended Emerson College where he earned a B.A. in Theatre Education and Performance. At Emerson, Daniel focused his studies in theatrical devising, educational dramaturgy, curriculum development, Theatre for Young Audiences and arts integration. In the year following his graduation, Daniel taught theatre in Sitka, AK and then held the position of Education and Community Programs Fellow at the American Repertory Theater. While at the A.R.T. Daniel spent his time aiding in the development of educational toolkits and lobby displays, as well as teaching as a part of their Kids Company program. Following his year at the A.R.T., Daniel attended Merrimack College where he received his Masters of Education in Community Engagement. At Merrimack, he focused his studies in nonprofit management and leadership, social justice education, and community arts engagement. His studies culminated in his Graduate Capstone Project, Through the Looking Glass: Shining Light on Queer Identities. The summer following his master’s program, he developed and taught a class in Community Arts Engagement for the Community Engagement Masters Program at Merrimack College. Currently, Daniel is a teaching artist at both The American Repertory Theater (4th year) and Greater Boston Stage Company (10th year) in addition to his work at the Huntington Theatre Company. This March, you can also catch him Directing PigPen Theatre Company’s The Old Man and The Old Moon at the Rogers Center for The Arts in North Andover. Daniel would like to thank every educator who inspired him and aided in making him the person he is today. Special thanks to Caitlin Lowans, Sarah Grant, Bethany Nelson, Bob Colby, Melissa Nemon, BJ Powell-Kelly, Julie Hennrikus, and Brenna Nicely.
REGINE VITAL, Manager of Curriculum and Instruction
Regine Vital (she/her/hers) is an actor/scholar/teacher/writer/storyteller from Somerville, MA. She received her BA in English and History from Boston University and her MA in English Literature and Creative Writing from UMass Boston. Currently, she’s completing work for her MA in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London and Shakespeare’s Globe. As an actor, she has appeared in many projects with several Boston area theatre companies, including Flat Earth Theatre, Open Theatre Project, HUB Theatre Company, and Also Known As Theatre. Previously, Regine worked at the Huntington as a Box Office Associate from February 2015 through October 2016. Besides being a total Shakespeare nerd and devout member of the theatre congregation, Regine loves to dance and sing (karaoke anyone?); enjoys good food, good scotch, and the occasional good cigar, great books and great TV (she highly recommends Fleabag – Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a genius).
MARISA JONES, Education Associate
Marisa Jones received a B.F.A in Theatre Education with a minor in writing from Emerson College where she was the recipient of the Phyllis A. McCullough Scholarship for Performing Arts. Marisa co-authored (Colby, Nelson) the paper, Signs of Change: New Directions in Theatre Education published in the Youth Theatre Journal. Marisa went on to earn an Ed. M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education as part of the Arts in Education program (A.I.E.) and dedicated part of her study to a concentration in Human Development & Psychology. Marisa joined the Huntington in the summer of 2002, after many years acting and directing in Boston, where she performed in The Crucible, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Waiting for Godot, among others, and she was also the Assistant Director for Bunnicula, one of her all-time favorite children's theatre productions, on the Emerson Mainstage. Her long tenure at the Huntington has also afforded her some unique opportunities, as she ushered in the first "open caption" event at the Huntington as part of the larger Accessibility programming, and she has written countless curriculum guides for the Huntington's premier Student Matinee series. Outside of the Huntington, Marisa has mentored future theatre educators at the post-secondary level and teaches theatre courses at Roxbury Community College. She is licensed to teach Communication & the Performing Arts (All Levels) in the state of Massachusetts and has been teaching, directing and writing for students in and around the Boston area since 2000.