About the Founder

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 Lucinda Merry Browne,

 Founder

 

Lucinda Merry-Browne has founded five theater ventures, and built each of them into successful programs under her guidance. For Compass Rose Theater, she founded the theater to be both an educational institution and a professional theater, combining both of her strongest areas of expertise. Blending her experience as a theater educator and a professional actor and director, she founded Compass Rose to create a teaching theater, rooted in education, but offering outstanding quality in its productions.

For Compass Rose Theater, she has directed The Miracle Worker, Oliver!The Sound of MusicRomeo and JulietCatsMurder in the Cathedral, and Greater Tuna. She has appeared in leading roles in Lost in YonkersBarefoot in the Parkand Look Homeward Angel. She has also established community outreach programs in schools and venues throughout Anne Arundel County. She began by locating a space in the Eastport Shopping Center and turned it into a professional theater space. In March of 2013 the theater relocated to 49 Spa Road, to a real theater space with lobby, backstage, and classrooms. The theater houses professional shows and onsite classes and workshops for students of all ages.

Lucinda was also the co-founder of The Bay Theatre Company, and served as the Artistic and Managing Director for the first 8 years of its life. For The Bay Theatre, she mounted 22 productions, directing 18 and acting in 6. She found a space in downtown Annapolis and retrofitted it as a theater, successfully lobbied the Helen Hayes Awards to add the City of Annapolis to their geographic judging area and turned the theater into an Equity theater. For The Bay Theatre, she directed Beyond TherapyOleannaHere We AreMarry Me A LittleThe SneezeChesapeakeArms and The ManGin GameTartuffeA Man of No ImportanceThe Norman Conquests: Table MannersI Do! I Do!Fool For LoveThe GoatThe FantasticksCandidaSylvia, and Souvenir. Representative acting roles include A Streetcar Named Desire(Blanche), Harvey (Veta Louise), The Glass Menagerie (Amanda Wingfield), Deathtrap (Helga Ten Dorp), and Barefoot in the Park (Ethel Banks).

While working as an actor in Washington, D.C., she founded her own federally funded theatre education company, called The Merry Company, developed drama programs for senior citizens in the Washington, D.C. area. Her teaching career began with high school students and includes Street 70 theatre, which later became Round House Theatre, Archbishop Spalding High School, Maryland Hall, and Anne Arundel Community College. She is also a professional acting coach.

She trained at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City (2 year full time professional program.) She holds a degree in English from Duke University, Magna Cum Laude, where she transferred from Wellesley College where she held a 3.9 GPA. She is a member of Actors’ Equity, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. She is a graduate of Leadership Anne Arundel and serves on the Performing and Visual Arts Advisory Board of Anne Arundel County.