Summary
Mary Irwin Furey is an American teacher and coach of voice, speech and text, and an actor, now based in London. She is Programme Leader for the MFA in Linklater Teaching Practice (Voice & Theatre Arts) at Rose Bruford College and has taught at several UK institutions including the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (BA Acting and MA/MFA Voice Studies), RADA, LAMDA and ALRA.
She is Professor Emerita at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) School of Drama, where she taught voice, Shakespeare, and speech (including dialects and accents) from 1995 to 2018. During her time there, she served as Head of Voice and Speech (2001–2016) and Assistant Dean (2013–2016). Mary coached nearly 100 productions at UNCSA, including a theatrical/orchestral staging of Much Ado About Nothing, which received a Regional Arts Emmy Award. She received the UNCSA Teaching Excellence Award twice, in 1998 and 2015.
Her professional coaching credits include Brokeback Mountain at Soho Place Theatre (London), King Lear at Northern Stage (Vermont), The White Devil and Mac Beth for Red Bull Theater (NYC), and Cost of Living at Manhattan Theatre Club (winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and two Lucille Lortel Awards). Other notable projects include And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears, Master Harold … and the Boys, Noises Off, Our Town, The Dresser (with John Cullum), and Misalliance at regional theatres across the U.S.
She was Voice and Text Coach for seven seasons with the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, working on productions including The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A Designated Linklater Teacher since 2003 and now a Senior Linklater Voice Teacher Trainer, Mary holds an MA in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her dissertation, Alchemical Reactions, explored Shakespeare’s text and contemporary actor training, drawing on her collaboration with the late Gerald Freedman. She also worked closely with the late Kristin Linklater and continues to mentor actors and Linklater Teacher Trainees in her private practice. Her acting credits span theatre, television, film, radio, and voiceover.