Maren holds a B.A. in English Literature from Montana State University where she toured with Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. She earned her M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago and received the Catherine Ham Memorial Award for her play, Anonymous, and companion thesis. She was an artistic intern at Steppenwolf Theatre Company under Ed Sobel. She has trained in the Critical Response Method with Liz Lerman.

Maren is a company member and resident dramaturg with TimeLine Theatre where she has worked. She also currently co-facilitates TimeLine's Playwright's Collective.

As a freelance dramaturg, she has worked with numerous organizations including: Court, Strawdog, Caffeine, Eclipse, Greasy Joan, Camenae, Lifeline Theater, the Dancemaker's Forum Dance Dramaturgy workshop and the New Harmony Project. Maren has written for or been profiled by Chicago Artists Resource, 2amtheatre blog and The Center for Classic Theatre Review. Lectures, panels and presentations include: the Chicago Theatre Symposium and the Chicago Theatre (un)Conference, Chicago Ideas Week, The Chicago Public Library, Skokie Public Library, the Chicago Humanities Festival and at LMDA Conferences.

Maren serves as the Associate Director of the Master of Arts Program in Humanities at the University of Chicago. She has taught and advised students at the Theatre School at DePaul, Northwestern University and Roosevelt University. Other teaching includes Small Theatres in Chicago at Newberry Library and visiting Chicago public school students as a guest teaching artist for TimeLine Theatre’s Living History educational outreach program.

She is VP for the LMDA Chicago Metro Region.

New Work, Literary Adaptation, Math and Science on Stage, Dance Dramaturgy, Shakespeare, Photography and Nature on Stage, Civic Dramaturgy, how dramaturgy is embodied outside the theater.

French, English

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