Maria-Christina Oliveras is a stage, television, and film actor, singer, and educator. Dedicated to developing new plays and musicals, the majority of her stage work has been in world premieres. She most recently completed a run of the world premiere of Soft Power, a new play with a musical by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, directed by Leigh Silverman, choregraphed by Sam Pinkleton, and music directed by Chris Fenwick at Center Theater Group/Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles and the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. This Fall, Maria-Christina will be heading to the Yale Rep for the world premiere of El Huracan by Charise Castro Smith, directed by Laurie Woolery. Other upcoming projects include workshops of Kiss My Aztec, a new musical by John Leguizamo, directed by Tony Taccone, a new play by Anton Dudley, and appearances include Joe’s Pub, BTC’s Broadway on the River, and the Unbeatable benefit concert at the Pershing Square.
Broadway: Amelie (Walter Kerr Theater, directed by Pam MacKinnon); Machinal (Roundabout/American Airlines Theater, directed by Lyndsey Turner); Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Bernard Jacobs Theater, directed by Alex Timbers). Other World Premieres include Taylor Mac’s A 24 History of Music (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Toshi Reagon’s adaptation of Parable of the Sower (Public Theater, NYU Abu Dhabi), David Byrne and Fat Boy Slim’s Here Lies Love (dir. Alex Timbers, Public Theater; album – Nonesuch records); Bess Wohl and Michael Friedman’s Pretty Filthy (dir. Steve Cosson, The Civilians;album-Sh-k Boom); Chad Beckim’s And Miles To Go (dir. Hal Brooks); Tony Glazer’s Reading Under the Influence (dir. Wendy Goldberg); The Really Big Once (dir. and conceived by David Herskovits); Sigrid Gilmer’s Slavey (dir. Robert O’Hara); Chad Beckim’s After (dir. Stephen Brackett); among numerous others. Her classical work includes the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, directed by Lear deBessonet with the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit, the title role in a three-women version of Macbeth, directed by Lee Sunday Evans, and Jaques inAs You Like It, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, both at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.
Regional credits include Sundance Theatre Institute, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkeley Rep, Huntington Theater, Baltimore CenterStage, Long Wharf Theater, Denver Center, and Westport Country Playhouse, among others. Maria-Christina’s film and television appearances include The Humbling, St. Vincent, Time Out of Mind, Manhattan Nocturne, “Law and Order: SVU and CI”, “Nurse Jackie”. She has done countless readings and workshops with the Atlantic Theater, the Working Theatre, Playwrights’ Horizon, Vassar Powerhouse, Eugene O’Neill Center, Clubbed Thumb, the Lark, New Dramatists, INTAR, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, The Public Theatre, Playwrights’ Realm, Ars Nova, hotInk, Page 73, Ma-Yi, PRTT, NYTW, EST, Urban Stages, NAMT and Mabou Mines.
Maria-Christina is the recipient of the Charles Bowden Actor Award from New Dramatists. She received her B.A. with Honors from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory. She has served as a guest artist and on faculty at Yale University, Fordham-Lincoln Center, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Primary Stages and NYU, among others. She is also a member of Partial Comfort Productions and The Actors’ Center, and an Associate Artist of The Civilians.
@mcoliveras
As of July 2018.