MFA, Acting, Southern Methodist University, 2008
BFA, Theatre, Emphasis in Acting, Texas Wesleyan University, Summa Cum Laude, 1999
ACTING COURSES:
Intro
Period and Styles
Non-Realism
On-Camera
Voice-Over
Shakespeare
Auditioning
MOVEMENT COURSES:
Stage Movement I
Stage Combat (Unarmed)
OTHER:
Devised Theatre
Professional Seminar
Survey of Theatre
Performance, Yoga, Creative Invention
A proud Dallas/Fort Worth native, Lydia Mackay holds a BFA in Theatre with an emphasis in Acting from Texas Wesleyan University and an MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University. Her training includes vocal, somatic, and contemplative techniques, such as Linklater Voice, Viewpoints, Lecoq, Mask, Stage Combat, Hatha/Vinyasa Yoga, Meditation, and SKY Breath. In 2014 she become a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT200), and in the summer of 2024, she certified as an RYT500 through the Yoga Alliance. She is an SAFD certified Actor-Combatant in Unarmed, Rapier, Rapier & Dagger, Small Sword, Knife, and Theatrical Firearms. She has also studied at the Le Subsistances International Creative Laboratory (Lyon, France) and in Mask work with the Laboratorio de la Máscara out of Mexico City, Mexico.
She’s been seen onstage at The Dallas Theater Center, Shakespeare Dallas, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Amphibian Stage Productions, WaterTower Theatre, Theatre Three, Casa Manãna, Second Thought Theatre, and Stage West, to name a few. Lydia has received ‘Best Actress’ nods from both the Dallas Observer and the DFW Critics Forum. She’s appeared in independent films such as The Playroom (which got its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival), The Finale, and Language of a Broken Heart (both on Amazon Prime). She has also appeared on the TV shows Dallas and Longmire. Her work as a Voice-Over artist spans two decades, including commercial, industrial, narration, audiobook, gaming, and Anime. Most recognized for her work in Anime, she voiced the roles of Vanessa (Black Clover), Boa Hancock (One Piece), Kyoko Honda (Fruits Basket), Ultear (Fairy Tail), and Trisha Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) – all nationally syndicated, streaming television series. If you’re a fan of video games, she’s a playable character in several of them, namely Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Athena), Battleborn (Ambra), SMITE (Hera), and the Black Clover Mobile Global RPG (Vanessa).
As an educator, Lydia has been awarded the Live Theatre Leagues’ ‘Theatre Arts Educator of the Year’ and ‘Service to Theatre TCU’ Awards. She has taught a variety of performance and Theatre Arts classes at Southern Methodist University, Junior Players, The FACE Project, The Dallas Theater Center, Casa Mañana, Stage West, WaterTower Theatre, Theatre Arlington, and now as an Associate Professor of Performance at Texas Christian University. She was a Teaching Artist for the inaugural year of the Tony Award Winning Dallas Theater Center’s ‘Public Works Dallas’ initiative, in partnership with The Public Theater in NYC. She served as the Trinity Shakespeare Festival’s Voice and Text Coach in its inaugural year and tread the boards there as an actress for 3 seasons. She’s also served as a Dialect Coach for Theatre Three, The Dallas Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera, which includes 2 world premiere operas.
As a Director, Lydia has lead productions for The Drama Club, Texas Woman’s University, Belle Sauvage Theatre (at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), and continues to direct productions and design fight choreography for Theatre TCU. Lydia is forever nurturing the connections that live between her passions: education, performance, storytelling, meditative movement, playful invention, and empathetic living. She’s not on social media, but you can find her on IMDB or any of the website links listed below in ‘Professional Affiliations’.
