Dr. Maria Ignatieva is a Professor at the Ohio State-Lima, Department of Theatre. She defended her PhD at the State Theatre Institute, Moscow, Russia with her dissertation titled "Grotesque and Eccentricism in Russian Soviet Theatrical Art (Stanislavsky, Vakhtangov, Meyerhold, Mikhail Chekhov, FEKS)." A specialist in Russian theatre history and Russian contemporary theatre, Ignatieva has presented papers at various conferences in Finland, Australia, Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Canada, and Spain. Ignatieva has over 40 essays and articles to her name in English and Russian theatre journals and magazines, such as Theatre History Studies, Slavic and East European Performances, West European Performances, Theatre Life (Russia), Stanislavsky (Russia). Her book Stanislavsky and Female Actors: Women in Stanislavsky's Life and Art was published by the University Press of America in 2008. Her recent publications include chapters in such anthologies as, The Flight of the dead Bird: Chekhov’s The Seagull and Williams’s The Notebook of Trigorin,” in “Adapting Chekhov: The Text and Its Mutations,” Routledge, 2012, Stanislavsky as Amateur: The Alekseyev Circle and the Society of Art and Literature, in The Routledge Companion to Stanislavsky, 2013; and Russian Women Stage Directors, in “International Women Stage Directors,” University of Illinois Press, 2013, and an essay Homo Ludens  in The Routledge Companion to Michael Chekhov, Routledge, 2015. 

Ignatieva directed over 20 productions on Lima campus, and two productions at the Ohio Northern University. Among them are Uncle Vanya and Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen, The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, Stars in the Morning Sky, by Alexander Galin, The Foreigner, by Larry Shue. In 1995, Ignatieva initiated the program Theatre for Young Audiences at the OSU-Lima, for which she wrote or adapted 12 plays, all directed by her. In September 2014, Ignatieva taught and was a co-director of the international graduate seminar Teatr Mundi in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In November 2014, Ignatieva conducted a theatre workshop based on her play The Journey of a Duppy Boy at the Academy of Dramatic Art, in Osijek, Croatia. Ignatieva is a recipient of the 2015-2016 Ohio State University Outreach Award.

In 2014 and 2016, Ignatieva taught and served as a co-director of the international graduate seminar Teatr Mundi in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In November 2014, Ignatieva conducted a theatre workshop based on her play The Journey of a Duppy Boy at the Academy of Dramatic Art, in Osijek, Croatia.

Ignatieva is a recipient of the 2015-2016 Ohio State University Outreach Award.