Maria Schirmer

HIDVL Assistant

Maria Schirmer  is an interdisciplinary theatre artist and arts educator who recently completed her Master’s at NYU, where she researched the intersection of performance and politics and how theatre can be used as a tool for social change. She also holds a BA in theatre from Marymount Manhattan Collage and has been acting and directing across the Northeast for many years. Along with her work at the Hemispheric Institute she is a teaching artist with Community Word Project and Opening Act.  She is a member of the Lark Play Development Centers Literary Wing, as well as The Forum Project Performance Troupe which brings Theater of the Oppressed perofrmances and workshops to community centers and schools across NYC.   She was recently awarded an ISM grant from NYU's Center for Multicultural Education and Programs to explore Ableism as related to Multiple Sclerosis in a multi-media theatre piece, as well as a Gallatin Global Human Rights Fellowship, which culminated in an eight-week internship with the Jana Sanskriti Center for Theatre of the Oppressed in Kolkata, India.