Melisa Pereyra (she/her) is an Argentinian actress, theatre director, writer, and educator. She was most recently Assistant Professor of Acting at Boston University where she served as Head of Acting and Co-Chair of Performance. In the classroom, her expertise lies in heightened language, Voice and Speech, and Professional Development. She is a Core Company actor and director at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin, where she has been involved in over twenty productions in the past ten years. Melisa has been working in the regional theatre as an actor and director for over fifteen years and made her Broadway debut in 2023 understudying Jessica Chastain in Amy Herzog’s adaptation of A Doll's House directed by Jamie Lloyd performed at the Hudson Theatre.
She is also a VO actor and the official voice and likeness of Gabriela Castaneda in the Halo: Outpost Discovery experience where she worked with 343 Industries and Microsoft. As a regional actor she has worked at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Lyric Repertory Theatre, Indiana Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Sacramento Theatre Company, Two Crows Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, and of course American Players Theatre, where she most recently directed Marisela Treviño Orta’s Wolf at the Door in the 2024 Season. Melisa has had articles published at the Howlround Theatre Commons, and her work was commissioned at Theatre LILA where she collaborated with other writers on her play LINES, which she also directed. At the center of Melisa’s artistry and pedagogy lies a need to center BIPOC artists and stories embodied through diverse languages, imaginations, and communities.
Publications
- We Have Suffered Enough: The Cost of Performing Trauma for Women of Color
- The Future You Build
- American Players Theatre