Maria Soyla Enriquez

Maria Enriquez has loved creating theatre for more than 20 years. She received her MFA in Theatre Performance from Arizona State University and her PhD in Theatre Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She trained in Suzuki and Viewpoints with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, and many moons ago also trained at the National Shakespeare Summer Conservatory. One of her favorite artistic collaborations was with Teatro Luna, a Chicago-based, all-Latina theatre company. Maria was an Artistic Associate with the award-winning company, and she engaged in acting, directing, and devising with her fellow teatristas. 

As a scholar, Maria is passionate about contemporary U.S. Latinx theatre, and the intersections of Critical Race, Performance, and Cultural Studies. Her recent dissertation project Learning How To Do It: Local, Regional, and National Latinx Alliance Building in the 21st Century explores the innovative ways Latinx artists (and many of her friends) are shaping Latino/a/x theatre. She has published articles in Theatre Journal and in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, and has a chapter in the forthcoming Routledge textbook Teaching Critical Performance Theory. Maria has presented at several theatre conferences, and is on the editorial board for Etudes, an online, peer-reviewed journal for emerging performing arts scholars. She is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Penn State Harrisburg, and directs many of the theatre productions. Maria is amazed and grateful to have had the opportunity to grow in her life’s work, and desires to build up and support local Latinx theatre artists so all can appreciate our wonderful Latinx community.