Mary Jane's profile
Mary Jane Oelke is a musician, puppet master, actress, artist, theatre artist and has performed and designed sets, props, masks and puppets for numerous theatres. Her puppetry performances have been seen at venues including The Walters Art Gallery, Towson University, Spotlighters Theatre, Fells Point Corner Theater, The Vagabond Theatre, and more. Oelke combines original music, scripts, set design, acting/voiceover, marionette performance and scene painting skills to create original marionette theater. Her original marionette plays have delighted audiences at The National Theatre, The Fells Point Festival and Maryland Artscape Festival, The Avalon Theatre, Chapel Hill Festival, etc.
Oelke was also commissioned by the Baltimore Office of Special Projects to build giant parade puppets for the New Years' Eve parade and by HERE ARTS Center in NYC to design and build a giant parade puppet for the Greenwich Village Annual Halloween Parade as well as building giant parade puppets to dance during her violin performance at Artscape with the musical group, Pulling Strings.
Oelke has also been cast in featured acting roles in local independent film productions and local plays and is a current member of the SAG-AFTRA performers union and has appeared on locally shot TV and film productions. Musical performances on electric violin, flute and vocals include live performances at Maryland Artscape and The Spoutwood Farm Fairie Festival. Mary Jane was a recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council award for solo theatre performance along with a Governor's Citation for Artistic Merit.
