Armed with a scarf and a smile on a sunny September afternoon, Margaret Blake looks every inch the calm, self-possessed senior, having found her niche at The University of Iowa. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Maggie moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota; Kansas City, Missouri; and Ottumwa, Iowa before finally settling with her family in Bozeman, Montana. Living in Ottumwa gave her the opportunity to check out The University of Iowa, where she enrolled in the fall of 2008. Shortly after, she auditioned for the UI's theatre program—acting having been one of her passions in high school—and the experience stuck. During her four years at the UI, she has acted in ten plays, including Sedaris’ The Book of Liz and Eckert's Eye Piece. She was also assistant stage manager for Urinetown and Yellow City. She recently played the part of Anya in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, which, in her words, was “very, very cool.”

Of course, as a theatre arts major, Maggie has loved all the theatre courses she's taken at the UI—but she has also enjoyed her creative writing classes, which allowed her to see how stories and scripts come together “behind the scenes” and to learn about the process of writing. Maggie says the professor who influenced her the most was her Acting I teacher, Carol MacVey: “She’s such a ball of energy and very enthusiastic and really passionate about what she does.” Professor MacVey is equally impressed with Maggie, who, she says, is “a joy to have as a student. Maggie has fire in the belly as an actor and as a student. She has an ultramagnetic personality, which is a constant in all she does, bringing good humor and an ebullient spirit to all her work in the classroom and in the rehearsal hall…In fact, Maggie’s talents may be the trifecta of the ideal theatre major: strong actor, excellent student, generous collaborator."

Maggie’s extracurricular activities include working part-time as the costume rentals manager at the theatre arts costume shop and running a theatre program for children in Osage, Iowa. The program, which she co-founded last summer with Maggie Jones and Theresa Augsburger, is “similar to a summer camp”—it teaches kids not only how to memorize lines of a script, but also to think creatively about the texts, characters, and stories they’re presented with. Program participants also stage plays for the Osage community: “This lovely little town just had a beautiful auditorium built, but unfortunately no one was getting the community involved in using it. In fact, there is no longer a theatre program at Osage High School due to a lack of funding and staff; our summer program provides an opportunity for those kids, who maybe don't play sports and are interested in other things.” Maggie plans to continue administering the Osage theatre program after she graduates, as well as pursue acting opportunities.

When asked what advice she would give to incoming freshmen, Maggie smiled: “Get involved! And, I know it’s kind of cheesy, but try to have a good group of friends."

You can watch Maggie perform in Hamlet December 1 through 10 at the Theatre Buildling.