Spartans Profiles: Mary Marguerite Mathews

ARTIST LAUREATE

            To ensure the vibrancy of the arts in New Hampshire, last Spring Gov. Jeanne Shaheen named Mary Marguerite Mathews, ’70, as the state’s Artist Laureate.  The two-year appointment came as Mathews celebrated the 25^th anniversary of her founding of Portsmouth’s Pontine Movement Theatre, famous for its unique productions of the entire spectrum of movement styles as well as its more than 40 original productions.  “We’re the only state that has an Artist Laureate,” says Mathews.  “I’ll be doing a lot of PR work for the artists archives in the state library (in Concord), to help preserve the history of the artists and art works in this state.  Also, we’ll be launching a program to increase the connections between arts and business.” 

             As an example, Marguerite notes that when artists are placed with businesses, “they visually enliven presentations that normally consist of very dry material, with pie charts and graphs. “ 

            A native of Detroit, Marguerite credits MSU with introducing her to movement theater, a style that  “deals with large physical gestures and is related to dance and gymnastics.”  As she puts it, “It’s not talking, talking, talking, it’s doing, doing, doing.” 

            At MSU she was influeced by Dixie Durr, now theater chairperson, graduate student Sears Eldreege, who wrote his dissertation on mask-making, and Bonnie Rafael, who did an Antonin Artaud workshop.  “(Movement theater) spoke to me very clearly,” says Marguerite, who spent the next seven years going to France to learn from such masters as Etienne Decroux at his L'Ecole du Mime Corporeal in Paris, France. 

            After completing a four-year term as president and a five-year term as editor of the Movement Theatre Quarterly, she now serves as secretary/treasurer of the National Movement Theatre Association.  Her advice to theater students today?  “I’d encourage everyone to learn about entrepreneurship,” she says.  “You want to be able to control the product and the profit.  Figure out the business end, that’s how you survive and get to do your art.”