MARY BEST BOVA

MARY BEST BOVA is a 35+ year theatre professional. She served as resident director

for Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, VA from 1986 to 1993. During her tenure at MMT, Mary developed the drama enrichment program, creating the Youth Ensemble, Drama Studio and the Summer Drama Day Camp. Some of the many plays she directed for MMT include The Boys Next Door, The Glass Menagerie, True West, The Road to Mecca and Cotton Patch Gospel as well as many of MMT's Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works winners such as Tom Ziegler's Small Sacrifices and Sallie Bingham's In The Presence. Mary directed three international tours of the musical, Peace Child with teens from the former Soviet Union and the United States.

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She has served on the acting faculty of Virginia Tech and has been artist-in-residence for Randolph University and Hollins University. Mary was associate director and founding member of the Roanoke Children's Theatre until her relocation to Richmond in 2011.While with RCT some of her directing credits are Honk!, The Boxcar Children and Pinkalicious. Mary has written and adapted over a dozen scripts for young audiences. Her adaptation of The North Star, a book by Peter H. Reynolds, into a full length musical premiered in the Norfolk Southern Festival New Works in 2006 and Cooking It! a musical on healthy eating Mary created and co wrote with Laura Pole, most recently toured with SPARC 's Stages program throughout Richmond public schools. Mary received a RTCC( The Richmond Theatre Critics Circle),2013 Best Actress nomination for her role as Mag in The Beauty Queen of Leeane. Mary has a MFA in directing from Virginia Commonwealth University and a post graduate degree in performance from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She has been a member of Actor's Equity, AFTRA, SAG and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and ASSITEJ.