By Alia Yee Noll
After more than 20 years as an NPR newscaster and announcer, Mary Ann Nichols (ΦBK, The Catholic University of America) is returning to her theater roots with PlayZoomers, a live virtual theater company she co-founded in 2020. The organization focuses on producing accessible, affordable original plays for all ages.
As an undergraduate, she studied speech and drama with minors in history and education before receiving her master’s degree in theater from Tufts University. After that, she balanced acting and teaching before becoming a radio announcer.
Nichols is also a second-generation member of Phi Beta Kappa. She recalled her dad, who was inducted at Columbia University in 1940, asking during her junior year, “Have you heard anything from Phi Beta Kappa yet?”
“He was so happy when I did it, and boy, was he proud when we had our ceremony before graduation. I just said, ‘Okay Dad, I might be a drama major, but I’m glad I made you proud about this,'” Nichols laughed.
Now, as PlayZoomers thrives in its sixth year, she’s staying true to Phi Beta Kappa’s motto by sharing her love of learning with a new generation. Along with her co-founder Janet Carpman, Nichols recently published Comedies for the Virtual Stage, a collection of short play scripts that can be adapted for online audiences.
“When you publish a book, you think, ‘Who is this for?’ College acting courses and community theaters were certainly our main audiences,” Nichols said. “We decided to concentrate on comedies, so we went back to the ones that we thought were the most hilarious. I can’t tell you how many times we proofed this. It was a lot of work, but I’m really proud of the book.”
PlayZoomers began during the pandemic, when Nichols and Carpman worried about what would happen to live theater. Nichols reached out to her friends in the theater world, including a playwright who had just written a collection of short plays, about finding a new way to perform during unprecedented times. Everyone gathered on Zoom, from London to Boston to San Francisco, eager to reconnect with their craft.
“It was a great way for actors and directors to work with people they ordinarily wouldn’t be able to cross paths with because of the geography,” Nichols said. “And for audiences, it became possible—regardless of the weather, their location, their finances, or their mobility—to see live theater.”
Nichols also acts as the organization’s literary manager, encouraging independent playwrights to submit their work for consideration. Out of over 400 submitted scripts, she will put together a season of around five performances per year.
She sees her role as a “curator of storytellers,” she said, her approach shaped by her liberal arts education. She often chooses plays with new takes on classic stories, balancing comedic and dramatic works.
“With all the divisiveness of today, sometimes people just say, ‘Give me something that’ll give me a chuckle,'” Nichols said. “You have to draw on a wide range of life experiences in putting something together for an audience of theatergoers, people who are deeply curious about all aspects of life. Theater is a very good way of getting inside somebody else’s head for a viewpoint that maybe you hadn’t considered.”
With the new online format came new challenges. Physical sets were replaced with virtual backgrounds, carefully created by a graphic designer. The actors became their own tech support. Nichols explained that every detail had to be planned out, down to, “How do you pass a wine glass from one actor to the other when they’re not in the same place?”
Now, PlayZoomers has carved out an “interesting niche,” Nichols observed. In addition to virtual performances, she helps organize workshops for new directors who haven’t worked with the online format, as well as table reads for playwrights experimenting with new material.
As an undergraduate at The Catholic University of America, Nichols learned about all facets of theater, from acting and directing to theater history and tech work behind the scenes. She said that the time she spent reading scripts for class influences how she approaches her role as literary manager, teaching her the intricacies of “what makes a good evening of theater,” she said.
“Which of these plays work well together? Is there a theme in common? Thinking critically about the quality of scripts has been key,” Nichols explained. “Each of our performances ends with a talkback with the playwright, the actors, and the directors where the audience asks questions. It’s as fulfilling as I can imagine a broad arts experience to be.”
What began as a way to reconnect with her early love of theater and her creative friends during the pandemic has become a thriving space for Nichols to offer opportunities to playwrights, actors, and audiences alike. The company has produced around 150 plays, drawing hundreds of people for each performance. Nichols has worked with actors and directors from Canada, Europe, and Australia, building meaningful relationships across the geographical divide.
“It’s become a versatile tool to get live theater out there,” Nichols said. “When the pandemic started, there was nothing. It’s been very creatively satisfying to get back to what lit the spark for me as a college student and young performer, and to create something from nothing and find an audience.”
Alia Yee Noll is a senior at the University of Southern California studying journalism with minors in documentary film and gender studies. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa there in April 2025. USC is home to the Epsilon of California chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.