KINGSTON, R.I. — Feb. 17, 2020 — At the age of 3, Mary Mullane found herself in her first ballet class and has never looked back. Nearly 17 years later, the same aspects that brought her to the stage still give her the same incredible sense of joy.
“As a kid I always loved attention, and up on that stage is where you get it, with the lights shining on you and the audience focused on you,” said the University of Rhode Island junior. “I love the idea of being someone else onstage, making other people laugh and feel things.”
Mullane, of Warwick, will graduate next spring with a bachelor of fine arts degree in theatre with an acting concentration, and has been a part of numerous mainstage productions at URI, including “Women in War” and “The Wolves.” In the upcoming “Richard III,” she plays the role of the Duchess of York, Richard’s mother.
Mullane credits Rachel Walshe, a faculty member in the URI Theatre Department, with giving her the confidence to continue to further her acting career.
“She has always been that driving force, and she has a way of connecting with students that is unlike any other,” said Mullane. “When I go and see her, she never talks about acting first and always checks in on me. I feel like I do my best work when I’m around her.”
Mullane’s efforts led her to be selected as a partner for last year’s Irene Ryan Acting Competition as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. This year, she was selected to go as a lead actor, and advanced to the finals of the regional competition.
“As a partner, you’re there to support the person competing,” she said. “It was just, ‘do whatever you have to do to make the other person look good.’”
As a lead actor this year, Mullane was nervous because she had never competed at that level. She wasn’t originally supposed to go to the competition, but when another student had to give up his spot, Mullane was the next in line.
“This time it was so out of my comfort zone because I never really competed in anything like this before, so I think it was a truly eye-opening experience,” she said. “The people I met, and the people I worked with, and the feedback I got was insane. It just fueled that fire in me to keep doing what I love to do.”
To make it to the finals, Mullane and her partner, Edhaya Thennarasu, had to compete in three rounds. Out of the 202 participants in the preliminary round, they were chosen as one of 16 groups to perform in the finals.
“When we kept advancing, it was, ‘we’ve got to keep doing and we’ve got to keep rehearsing,’” Mullane said. “Every time we advanced it was such an unreal feeling. We just kept rehearsing and rehearsing and working.”
Mullane and Thennarasu received feedback after each round from coaches and students from other schools and were also able to attend workshops.
Since the competition, Mullane has received messages from students at other schools about how she inspired them, which has assured her decision to make theater her passion and career.
“Knowing that the work you do can truly make people think and can really touch people, fuels that fire in me to keep doing what I love,” she said. “I feel a lot more confident in myself than I ever did before, and every time we advanced in this competition it was such an unreal feeling.”
After graduation, Mullane hopes to attend graduate school to continue acting and studying the art of theater.
Mullane was one of several URI Theater students to earn honors at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Alumna Emily Turtle ’19 reached the finals of the Maltby Prize in Musical Theatre, and Jeremy Chiang ’20 made the finals of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Directing Initiative. Melie Hayes received an honorable mention in Achievement in Allied Design and Technologies, and Magenta Kowlakowski an honorable mention in Region 1 Costume Design.
Ian Weiner, a senior journalism major and intern in the Department of Marketing and Communications, wrote this story.