Mary Irwin

Mary Irwin is a teacher and coach of voice, speech and text, and an actor. She is Professor Emerita in the UNSCA School of Drama, where she taught voice, speech and Shakespeare from 1995-2018. Mary served as Head of Voice and Speech from 20012016, and as Assistant Dean from 2013-2016. She did voice, text, and/or accent coaching on close to 100 productions for UNCSA, including an orchestral/theatrical Much Ado About Nothing which won a Regional Arts Emmy Award. Mary twice received Teaching Excellence Awards from UNCSA, and is currently a freelance teacher and coach in New York City. Professional coaching includes: Cost of Living at Manhattan Theatre Club (2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2 Lortel nominations), And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears, Master Harold … and the boys and Noises Off, all at Triad Stage, Our Town at Palm Beach DramaWorks, The Dresser with John Cullum at the Clarence Brown Theatre, and Misalliance at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Other teaching: The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London; The Laura Henry Studio in Santa Monica, CA; Red Bull Theater’s Shakespeare and Jacobean Workshops; Cherokee Summer Co-Laboratory Storytelling Workshop in the Education Dept. of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, Cherokee, NC; and guest teacher of Shakespeare text and voice pedagogy at Sarah Lawrence College. Mary was Voice and Text Coach for the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival for seven seasons. She is a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher (2003) and holds an MA in Voice Studies from the Central School of Speech and Drama, London); and BA (summa cum laude) from New York University. She has professional acting credits in theatre, television, radio, voice over and film.