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Bio
Dr. Marilyn A. Hetzel (known as Cookie) is an Emerita Full Professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she has worked since 1987. She is also a voice/performance workshop leader (associated for eighteen years with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts); a theatre director and choreographer (with specialties in music theatre, developing original scripts with actor collaboration, and touring theatre); a theatre and communication consultant; and a performer with over fifty years of experience.
She earned her B.A. in Speech Education from the University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Communication and Theatre from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She has taught at the Universities of Colorado, Wisconsin, Denver, and Pittsburgh (Semester at Sea), and at the DCPA’s National Theatre Conservatory.
In 1992, she traveled to Prague, Moscow, and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) as an Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) delegation member sponsored by the People to People Citizen’s Ambassadors Program. In September 1994, the Alliance for Colorado Theatre (ACT) named her the Higher Education Theatre Educator of the Year. In 1999, she received the Metropolitan State College of Denver's GLBT Ally of the Year Award. In 2008, she received the President’s Distinguished Service Award for 2008-2009. In the fall of 2015, KCACTF Region VII recognized her for a ‘lifetime of excellence in teaching theatre.’
During the summers in 1997, 1998, and 2000 she worked as a guest artist in the U.S. Territory of Guam developing new touring plays that address pertinent social issues. She has conducted workshops and given presentations at regional, national, and international conferences. Together with Dr. M. Lee Potts, she co-arranged a play entitled: Lewis Carroll: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast that has been performed in over 75 professional and educational theatres.
Dr. Hetzel’s most recent ‘theatre for social change’ play addresses Colorado’s unique precipitation patterns and water preservation. It was commissioned by the Denver Water, Boulder Water, Aurora Water education departments and the One World, One Water (OWOW) center at MSU Denver. This play, entitled Water Wise Circa 2015, was developed in collaboration with eleven students who performed for over 3000 students at schools and water festivals. This project earned three awards: 1. November 2015, she received the Faculty and Staff award for Exceptional Achievement in Community Engagement; 2. December 2015 she and the company members received the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education’s 2015 Environmental Education Award for Excellence in the Innovative Environmental Education Program, and 3. The 2018 American Public Works Association, Colorado Chapter, Public Works Program Award. Dr. Hetzel received three grants to reconvene the company members in order to perform the popular play for an additional 6000 students and adults at water festivals during May of 2016, 2017, and 2018. The company also performed at the Colorado Water Congress at the Governor's invitation January 25 2017.
A detailed CV is available upon request.
Degree
PhD in Theatre and Dance
University of Colorado
MA in Communication and Theatre
University of Colorado
BA in Speech Education
University of Illinois
Other in Speech Education
Morton Junior College
Published Works
- Rossi-Katz, J., Hetzel, A. M., Jones, K. . Here’s to ears!: An inventive theatrical/audiological collaboration. Dangerous Decibels,
Teaching Interests
All theatre forms including Music Theatre, Theatre for Social Change, and Voice.
Office Hours
By appointment only.