From those who’ve worked with MBA:

“Margi has a unique gift for working with artists. She meets us exactly where we are: in times of ebb and flow, inspiration and block, excitement and frustration. She made me feel heard and valued, helped me connect with my authenticity and uniqueness, and challenged and encouraged my artist to express herself - even when she was fighting me every step of the way. Margi has shown deep compassion and empathy in some of my darkest days and, with humour and curiosity, she also led me toward the lightness and play that is available to all of us. Thank you Margi. I am forever grateful, and I know I will use the tools you’ve given me long into the future.”

— L. S. WORKSHOP ARTIST. 2022

“Full of energy and passion for the work of teaching and learning. Models openness to learning and personal and professional development. Respectful and collaborative as well as supportive and adaptable. Walks the talk - a great role model, mentor and teacher.”

— STUDENT OF MASTER OF COUNSELLING

“Margi and teaching go hand in hand. The passion, warmth and safety created in the class environment made you want to get in and participate. Her respect and interest in each student is genuine and the classes were lively, fun yet full of learning, questioning and the ability to walk away and be reflective.”

— STUDENT OF MASTER OF COUNSELLING

Dr Margi Brown Ash is an educator, theatre-maker, therapist, researcher, facilitator, and mentor with over 45 years of experience. She commenced her career in Sydney in 1977 with a six-month solo show Alison Mary Fagan at the Ensemble Theatre Sydney. After a stint in Australia’s first soap opera, Channel 10’s No. 96, she moved to New York City for several years where she trained with acting teacher Stella Adler, studied Polish mime with Stefan Niedziałkowski and performed with the Stella Adler Repertory Company at The Actors Studio and Off Off Broadway.

Today, she is based in both Brisbane and Sydney and works nationally as a guest educator/mentor/creator. Margi has been employed by the Queensland University of Technology, University of Queensland, Curtin University Perth, and Sydney Theatre Company, and internationally as a facilitator/mentor/coach, most recently at Arteles Creative Center Finland (April and May 2019 & 2022) where she hosted her program New Course.

In October 2023 and May 2024, Margi was invited to Cairns and Magnetic Island to mentor work with Far North Queensland Artists. She was also invited to the Sunshine Coast to work in their arts incubator as a mentor, and Gold Coast’s HOTA, guest mentoring visual and performing artists.

Margi has been a guest speaker at the Communicating the Arts Conference in both Montreal and Sydney (2019). In 2022, Margi presented the Opening Key Note Address for Drama Queensland State Conference, Elevate. She also presented a series of workshops for the Emerging Directors Program at Theatre Works, Melbourne.

For many years, Margi worked with the incoming acting students at QUT, helping them establish a unique set of Group Norms, and introducing them to the power of Group Processes and Group Dynamics.

Throughout the year, Margi creates a series of Zoom workshops for groups of four or five artists at a time, focusing on issues that empower and enrich, not only their creative practice but also their individual ways of being.

Margi has been commissioned to co-write a new work, Wanderings, with award-winning theatre makers Stace Callaghan and Leah Mercer, focusing on transitions, transitioning, and relationships. Wanderings has a season at Queensland Theatre November/December 2024, after winning a place in their new Door 3 Program.

Pre-COVID, Margi co-created and performed a trilogy of multi-award-winning plays, Home, EVE and He Dreamed a Train, now published under the name The Belonging Trilogy with multiple seasons at La Boite, The Blue Room Perth, Queensland Theatre, Metro Arts, and Brisbane Powerhouse. She also performed in the La Boite Theatre season, the Sydney Festival’s Belvoir Street season, and the national tour of Prize Fighter and Queensland Theatre & Dead Puppet Society’s The Wider Earth culminating in a season for the Sydney Festival’s Sydney Opera House.

Margi is the Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of The Nest Ensemble and through years of post-graduate research and collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Leah Mercer and Dr. Mark Radvan, has created and refined the Relational Impulse Cultural Collaborative Process (RICC). An outcome of her Ph.D., RICC is a postmodern arts program that helps artists do their best work and at the same time turn up as the best version of themselves.

Margi consistently refines her own arts practice and therapeutic frameworks by engaging in regular professional development, both nationally and internationally. In 2018, and 2021 she completed her Level 1, then 2 Yoga Teacher Training with Judy Krupp (The Yoga Room, St. Ives) and Byron Yoga Centre, to integrate yoga asanas, philosophy, meditation, and pranayama into her mentoring framework. She engages in daily yoga classes with Brisbane’s YogaPhysio Online Studio (Tamara James) and Sydney’s The Yoga Room (Judy Krupp). In 2024 she will continue her yoga practice with Tamara James (YogaPhysio Brisbane and Byron Bay) and Kay Ashwood (YogaPhysio Brisbane), and teacher training with Kate Pell (Kangaroo Valley).

Margi is presently co-writing a creative workbook with Assoc. Prof. Leah Mercer, to enrich and enliven artists as they negotiate and ‘dream on’ their working lives in our somewhat troubled world. You can follow the development of this book by reading her blog.

Margi engages in fortnightly writing workshops with her academic theatre colleagues and friends, where together they create a nurturing and vibrant environment to dream of ideas relating to creative eco-awareness and wisdom making.

For the last decade, Margi has been focusing on meditative and yoga practices, mentored by some of Australia’s leading yoga teachers: Judy Krupp (Sydney) who guided Margi through her Level 1 and Level 2 Yoga Teacher Training; Chanthalah Webster-Tight (Brisbane); Tamara James (Byron Bay); Kay Ashwood (Brisbane); and throughout 2024, Margi has participated in a Year Long Yoga Teacher Training Program with Kate Pell (Kangaroo Valley).

Margi also completed her Certificate in Meditation with Nalanda Institute, NYC (2023-2024).

2024-2025 will see her complete her Certificate in Embodied Practices with Nalanda Institute.

Margi has a Facebook group page, 3C Corner where caring, energetic, and inspirational artists and people who want to embrace a creative life, gather for motivation and connection. 3C Corner.

Sangha for Artists of Life (https://www.facebook.com/groups/835515145022233) . Margi created this group page posting topics relevant to meditation, and members attend morning meditation and yoga sessions with Margi on Zoom: these sessions are free to her community. M-F at 6.30 am AEST, and Tuesdays the session is at 8 am AEST.