Marie MacMillan
is a playwright, author, mother, registered nurse, and improv comedy player based in the Pacific Northwest. Her inspirations include healthcare & medicine, classic & modern science fiction, and all things Shakespeare.
Her short plays The Important Life Skill of Giving a Damn, Blind Date, Weebo and Papi’s Paninis received staged readings with Stomping Grounds Art House. A special staged reading of her one-act Star Wars parody Many Bothans Died was seen at Rose City Comic Con in September of 2022, and had a staged reading at Clinton Street Theater on May 4th, 2023. It also appeared in a raucous rendition in the comedy lab this last May 4th, 2024 at Kickstand Comedy in Portland! Featuring music by improv band Canoofle.
Marie has written several short stories and has a feature article at allnurses.com, “How Not to Be the New Grad Everyone Hates” (2018).
Her manuscript The Reboot: 50 Dates with Myself won 2nd Place in Memoir in the 2017 Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest. After publishing with Dancing Moon Press in 2020, it became a 2021 Nancy Pearl Award Nominee. It is available on Amazon, IngramSpark, and local bookstores.
From 2016-2020 she hosted and produced an interview-style healthcare podcast entitled Head-to-Toe.
Marie holds a current memberships with the Dramatist Guild of America.
As an improviser at The Funhouse Lounge, she has appeared in: Clue! an unscripted Murder Mystery, USS Improvise: The Next Generation, the Musical, Date Night Double Feature, The UnReal World, AvenuePDX, Murder Mystery Machine, A Comedy of Terrors, DomProv, and a one-night only fill-in role as Director Kathryn Bigelow in Point Break Live!
A zillion years ago she did scripted musical theatre, last credit being A CHORUS LINE with Stumptown Stages in 2009. She hopes to return to musical theatre performance some day, and if not, writing her own musical about the dismal options of learning and teaching CPR, or an adaptation of something Bonnie Hunt wrote.
When not playing around onstage or writing, Marie works as a registered nurse and lives in Portland, Oregon with her family. She was a critical care nurse for 10 years, yes during that pandemic, and left it for the circus. See “My Desk” section for current *circus events.
*not a real circus. Just laundry, work, parenting, and theatre in this economy.
Performing in Avenue PDX an improvised puppet musical at The Funhouse Lounge in SE Portland, summer 2023.
Circa 2015
Cheesin’ on a hike with friends in the Columbia Gorge.
At Departure on Date #50.
New grads. It's tough to be one. It's tough to train one. Having been on both sides of this reality, new allnurses.com contributor Marie MacMillan shares 5 Tips to help new grads avoid being "that new grad nurse everyone hates." New nurses will appreciate these methods to help minimize the eye-rolling and engender trust in veteran colleagues who have forgotten what it was like to be new, clueless, and sometimes downright terrified.
I got to participate in Engel Jones' #12minuteconvos tour of North America! Check out our conversation in front of the Oregon State Capitol on 7/31/2018. He is an awesome individual and an inspiration and I feel so grateful to have spent a little time with him and his awesome NURSE wife Amanda. Check out twelveminuteconvos.com to learn more about Engel and his Y.O.U.R.S. philosophy.
I was a guest on the Nurse Keith podcast! It was great to chat about how nursing, healthcare, and storytelling intersect. Thanks Keith for inviting me on your show!
Guest Spot on a new nursing podcast with Dr. Tiffany Kelley.