Maria Hendricks is a multiethnic, multiracial polyglot artist & activist local to the Boston area. She most recently starred in the highly-acclaimed Umbrella Stage Company production of Dracula and in New Rep’s original production of Listen to Sipu about the Indigenous history of Watertown, MA, where she also serves on the board of the Pigsgusset Initiative.

Maria has performed on stages throughout New England, the East Coast and South Dakota. These include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, American Repertory Theater, The Palace Theatre, Saco River Theatre, Virginia Repertory Theatre, Vermont Stage, Threshold Stage Co. of Maine, and Boston’s Fresh Ink Theatre. She was nominated for an Elliot Norton Award for her portrayal of Mother in the musical Passing Strange. Maria served as Executive Producer of the first ever Until the Violence Stops: Providence, a 10-day festival in which she also directed Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.

Maria’s work in television, film & voiceover/audio-description has included the Emmy Award-winning Americas Hidden Stories, the Brazilian film Êxtase, and A.R.T. projects: interactive multimedia project The Arboretum Experience, Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 and the Life of Pi.

The daughter of a political prisoner under the dictatorship of Salazar, Maria was raised with a keen sense of fighting for justice and for those who have been marginalized. She was particularly inspired to join the artistic leadership team of New Rep as it has embraced changes in response to the pandemic, and societal upheaval raising awareness of systemic racial injustice and widespread inequity.

Says Maria: “I check off all the boxes: Black Indigenous person of color. I know what it’s like being a young girl and not seeing myself represented. What has traditionally been the norm in theater has not worked, or doesn’t work any longer. It’s a change that needs to happen, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”