Margaret Laurena Kemp has appeared on regional and international stages including Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Yale Rep, South Coast Repertory, La Mama Theatre (Melbourne, Australia), Theatre of Changes (Athens, Greece), Red Pear Theatre (Antibes, France), and The Magnet Theatre (Cape Town, South Africa). She won worldwide praise for her starring role in the film Children of God. Her latest film, the supernatural thriller, The Dark Rite, was released in 2016. She has also acted in television programs, including The Orlando Jones Show, Commander in Chief and others. Her visual work has been shown in solo and group shows at Art Share Los Angeles and The National Gallery of Art in Nassau, Bahamas. She holds memberships in One Union (SAG-AFTRA) and Actors Equity Association (AEA).

Kemp serves as Director of Creative Projects and on the advisory board of the Fitzmaurice Institute, which supports people in finding and using their unique voices—in healthy, clear, and creative ways—while also developing greater freedom and presence. She also is a faculty member of MICHA Michael Chekhov Association, which strives to be a support to and global resource for those engaged in practice and research as it relates to Chekhov’s psychophysical performance approach and its many forms of application.

Among her accolades, Kemp received the 2019 MICHA Michael Chekhov Scholar Award and her UC Davis production of The Bluest Eye was honored with Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Awards for Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Directing, Outstanding Costumes and Special Prize for Puppetry as well as being selected as a regional nominee (region VII) in 2019.  
 

Research Interest                                                                            

Within her performance practice she is questioning the how systems of scientific and social engineering manipulate voice, breath, flesh, communities and the natural world. Within actor training environments while specifically teaching voice, speech, movement and acting, she incorporates and re-contextualizes interdisciplinary topics such as Identity, Movement Theory, Accents-Dialects, Contemporary and Classical Heightened text, Solo Performance and Devised Theatre.

Education and Training                                                                    M.F.A. Classical Theatre, The George Washington University at The Shakespeare Theatre
B.S. Interdepartmental Studies, School of Speech, Northwestern University
Fitzmaurice Voicework Certified Associate Instructor
Knight-Thompson Speechwork 
Michael Chekhov Technique Certified Instructor 
Voicing with Archetypes,  Janet Rodgers
Balanced Body Comprehensive Pilates