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MARIA-CHRISTINA OLIVERAS

Service to the University Credits

Committees

Member, Web Governance Committee, Spring 2025

Member, Committee to Coordinate Second City improv Troupe Visit, Spring 2022

Member, Committee to Coordinate Toshi Reagon Residency, December 2020-2022

Member, Committee convened by Dean Roger Grant to think critically and creatively about how to keep each other safe and comfortable while performing during the upcoming academic year, Summer 2021


Public Programs

Moderator and Coordinator of Breaking New Ground Series:


Director and Performer in Musical Theater Concert introducing the Musical Theater Performance Class to Board of Trustees, Wesleyan University Board of Trustees Dinner, 2024


Speaker, “Wes Side Story: Bringing Broadway to the Wesleyan Community," Wesleyan University Presidential Luncheon Series, 2024


Moderator and Coordinator of conversation with acclaimed producer and curator, and Producing Director of the Ronald Perelman Performing Arts Center at World Trade Center, Meiyin Wang, November 2021


Volunteer for WesWork’s Forklift, a multi-site, outdoor performance featuring the work, skills, and stories of Wesleyan’s essential workers. Developed through an 18-month residency and a 7-year collaboration with Austin TX-based Forklift Danceworks, WesWorks connected students, staff, and faculty through a community-based dance-making process, October 2021


Director of Performance for Professor Jesse Nasta's course,  “AFAM307: Black Middletown Lives: The Future of Middletown’s African American Past” (re)creating/ (re)interpreting/ (re)imagining texts and performances from concerts (combining songs and recitations) put on by Middletown's African American church in the late 1800s, amping the rich over-looked history and significant contributions of African Americans to the Middletown community,  May 2021


Coordinator in hiring of celebrated cellist, David Blasher to compose and perform original music for a performance with Professor Jesse Nasta’s students in the course,  “AFAM307: Black Middletown Lives: The Future of Middletown’s African American Past,” May 2021


Panelist, Wesleyan University Office of Admissions Faculty of Color Panel.  With Dr. Ishita Mukerji - Professor of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Integrative Science & Environmental Studies, Director of CIS , Dr. Anthony (Tony) Hatch - Associate Professor (and Chair) of Science in Society, African American Studies, Env. Studies and Dr. Ying Jia Tan - Assistant Professor History and East Asian Studies, April 202


Facilitator of Solidarity Spaces for all via Zoom, leading meditation, and holding space and conversation, specifically centered around anti-AAPI hate/violence, March 2021


Facilitator for student moderators for Cardinal Connections talk with Tommy Kail, March 2021


Coordinator and Moderator of talkback with cast of Long Wharf’s production of The Chinese Lady, with AAPI artists, Jonathan Norman Schneider and Shannon Tyo, and Ma-Yi Theater Company’s Artistic Director, Ralph Pena, who is one of the leaders of the WE SEE YOU WHITE AMERICAN THEATER movement, November 2021


Coordinator with Professor Katherine Brewer Ball, to bring Wesleyan University alum, Miranda Haymon ‘16 to direct the Theater Dept. Zoom Production of Pedro Prieti’s The Masses are Asses, April-May 2021


Facilitator Moderator for Cardinal Connections talk with Wesleyan alumna and Managing Director of the Vineyard Theater, Suzanne Appel, December 2020


Moderator for “Unpacking Kristina Wong for Public Office,” talk with Kristina Wong, Doris Duke Award-winning performance artist, actor, writer and comedian, for Center for the Arts, November 2020


Member of Task Force led by Dean Roger Matthew Grant exploring performance practice in light of social distancing and Co-Vid restrictions, March-June 2020


Coordinator and Moderator of conversation with Peter Kim, acclaimed Asian-American activist, writer, actor and producer, who was granted the TCG Rising Leader of Color Grant in 2020, is one of the founders of the Asian American Performing Arts Coalition, and serves as Associate Artistic Director for the National Asian American Theater Company, April 2020


Coordinator with Center for the Arts, Center for Humanities, the African American Studies Department, and Professor Katherine Brewer Ball to host Toshi Reagon for a conversation on the development of her opera adaptation of Parable of the Sower, Spring 2020


Collaborator and moderator for Center for the Arts on campus workshop and performance with award-winning solo performance artist, Nilaja Sun, November 2019


To the Theater Dept.


Faculty Search Committees

Assistant Professor of the Practice in Stage Management (chair, Katie Pearl), 2025

Assistant Professor of Theater in Voice/Movement (chair, Ronald Jenkins), 2021

Assistant Professor of the Practice in Costume Design (chair, Marcela Oteíza), 2021


Department Liaison to student performing arts groups

SPARC, Fall 2024-Present

Spike Tape, Fall 2024-Present

Major Reps, Spring 2020, Fall 2021

SHADES, Wesleyan Theater’s BIPOC Affinity Group, Spring 2020-Present

Second Stage, Spring 2020


Faculty Liaison to Alumni Network and Coordinator of Special Events, 2022-present

Host and Coordinator of Wes Theater Alumni Reunion Fest 2022

Coordinator of Alumni Event Welcoming the Class of 2022

Coordinator of NYC Alumni Event attending Ma-Yi Theater Company’s production of  Once Upon a Korean Time, produced by Wesleyan Alum, Scott Schneider ‘87, August 2022


Faculty Liaison spearheading nomination of Beronica Guerrero-Canguí for the Morgenstern Employee Award, April 2025 (Winner)


Department Liaison between Pamela Grande, Associate Director for Career Advising of the Gordon Career Center and Theater Department, facilitating alumni talks, industry guests, student moderators, and development panels, Spring 2021 – Present


Facilitator with Professor Lauren Yeoman to host a Breaking New Ground performance and workshop by Kimyee Corwin and celebrated violinist, Jane Chung, April 2025


Facilitator/Faculty Liaison for Breaking New Ground, a fund which was established from the umbrella series, The Ground On Which We(s) Stands which I spearheaded and developed with The Theater Dept. in Fall 2020, 2019-Present


Casting Consultant for Professor Joshua Lubin-Levy, Director of the  Center for the Arts, for Anna Deveare Smith’s year-long artist residency, August-October 2024


Coordinator of Resume/CV Workshops conducted by Theater Dept Faculty, Spring 2024, Spring 2025


Producer, Creator and Director of a public performance and featuring the Musical Theater Performance Class, December 2024


Speaker, Meet the Makers: Career Conversation with Maria-Christina Oliveras, February 2024


Speaker, Spike Tape Musical Theater Career Roundtable, October 2024


Moderator of Theater Dept. Panel on Summer Opportunities in Theater, February 2024


Faculty Advisor to guest Visiting Assistant Professor of Acting, Erin Gorski, Spring 2024


Advisor of The Elephant Is Very Like by Ankita Raturi, a workshop and staged reading featuring Wesleyan students and produced by Wesleyan alumni in collaboration with the Center for the Arts, Spring 2024


Coordinator of Grad school round table/discussion, 2019-Present


Producer, Creator and Director of Cabaret Night, a public performance and featuring the inaugural Musical Theater Performance Class, Fall 2023


Producer and Director of a staged reading of Professor Edwin Sanchez’s new play, Lottery Boy, featuring Wesleyan students, Fall 2023


Coordinator of supplemental skills building workshops including auditioning, musical theater dance, and vocal performance for student productions, Fall 2023


Facilitator and Moderator of Zoom conversation with Wesleyan Alum Sivan Battat, Fall 2023


Coordinator of talkbacks with casts of  Yale Rep, Hartford Stage and Goodspeed, Fall 2023-Present


Faculty Liaison for student internships with  Goodspeed Opera House, Fall 2023


Contributor to External Review, spearheading the Acting Curriculum of Theater Dept, 2021


Coordinator with Professor Ronald Jenkins on chartering the Wes in NYC program, and secured internships with Stewart Talent, The Civilians, the Vineyard, Live-In-Color and The Playwrights’ Realm. Program halted due to Co-Vid, November 2019-February 2020


Committee Member for selection process and Subsequent Advisor for the Wesleyan students selected for the JMF Writers’ Colony of the Goodspeed Opera, Spring 2020


Coordinator with Center for the Arts to host Welker White and Damian Young conducting a workshop of THE MOVING FRAME for my Working Actor class, April 2020


Speaker of the Theater Dept. for WesVising Platform, Spring 2020


Lead Contributor/Coordinator of Departmental Conversation on crafting our Anti-Racist statement, and subsequently drafted statement with Professor Katie Pearl, Spring 2020


Moderator of Roundtable Conversation with Obie-award winning costume and set designer,  Machine Dazzle, Fall 2019

Service to Wesleyan

Public Programs and Initiatives

The posters below represent a selection of campus-wide events that I have spearheaded or contributed to at Wesleyan University. Click an image for more detailed description. For a full list of my contributions to the University, please click here.

"Breaking New Ground" Initiative

In Fall 2020, I served as the Creator, Coordinator and Moderator of "Re-Evaluating the Ground on Which We(s) Stand(s)." Inspired by August Wilson’s 1996 keynote address to the Theater Communications Group, The Ground on Which I Stand, this initiative was a series meant to amplify voices of BIPOC artists and engage the community in conversations about the challenges of BIPOC theater in white spaces. 

The inaugural event was a three-part series:


  • Part I-Dramatic Readings/Conversation: “An Evening with Broadway's Crystal Dickinson (Clybourne Park and You Can’t Take It with You on Broadway; Showtime’s The Chi) and Brandon Dirden” (Martin Luther King, Jr. in All the Way starring Bryan Cranston and Jitney on Broadway; FX’s The Americans; Netflix’s The Get Down). Due to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom's imminent Netflix/HBO release whereby they performed excerpts by Adrienne Kennedy, Alice Childress, Lorraine Hansberry, and Dominique Morriseau.  These excerpts served as anchoring points to engage the Wesleyan community in direct conversation with the work, its themes, and its resonance and relevance today, particularly in our efforts to decenter whiteness from our curricula.

  • Part II-Panel: A conversation with Associate Professor Rashida MacMahon

  • Part III: Master Class conducted by Crystal Dickinson and Brandon Dirden


This series developed into the subsequent annual series, Breaking New Ground, dedicated to hosting BIPOC artists and leaders of excellence for various campus-wide programming including panels, workshops and performances.

The Ground on Which We(s) Stands.jpg

Service to the Theater Department

The posters below represent a selection of programs that I have lead for Wesleyan University's Theater Department. 

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