Prof. Oteíza’s artistic practice and scholarly research in scenography are centered on the trans-disciplinary nature of design for performance, existing simultaneously as both spatial and time-based phenomena across multiple artistic practices. Her current research focuses on contemporary street-performance objects and how they are designed, utilized and understood within their context. Prof. Oteíza is currently working on her research project, Street Performance Contemporary Objects, which she began developing during her fellowship at the College of the Environment Think Tank 2018-2019. Prof. Oteíza teaches in the departments of Theater and Dance, as well as in the Integrated Design, Engineering, & Applied Science program (IDEAS).

Marcela I. Oteíza, Visual Artist, Scenic Designer. Her design credits include scenic design for La Canción by Candido Tirado, directed by Edward Torres, NYC, 2016, awarded the ACE and ATI prize for best production; and scenic design for Summer Time by Charles L. Mee, directed by Kim Weild to be  exhibited at World Stage Design (WSD – OISTAT 2022). She specializes in collaborative and non-text-based work, such as Wes out Loud, 2016, created and directed by Prof. Oteíza. A designed object from the Old Wild Boy directed by Rinde Eckert, a 2012 Doris Duke Performing Arts fellow. was shown at Object Exhibit at The Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ), 2015. Her video-documentary: Santiago (en) vivo, based on objects of street performances, screened at the Centro Cultural Palacio de la Moneda as part of the selection of the Teatro Internacional Santiago a Mil, 2018. She collaborates with the Judy Dworin Performance Project (JDPP), for which she has completed several scenic and media designs, such as  ColorFields. Commissioned by Helen Frankenthaler Foundation at New Britain Museum of American Art, Video and Site-based versions, 2021. Her articles in Street Performance-Scenography have been published in the Series Scenography Expanded: An Introduction to Contemporary Performance Design, edited by Joslin Mckinney and Scott Palmer, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017, and in Theatre and Performance Design Magazine, Routledge, 2018. She participates in The International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) Architecture and scenography working groups, with projects such as Feminist Scenographies 2022 and Performing Rage: A Rapist in Your Path Feminist Scenic Barricade, a Public Space Intervention by Las Tesis Collective, 2019-ongoing, and at the PQ Symposium Where are we? 2022 with The object tells the truth: Baquedano’s statue as a witness for social change at Plaza Dignidad,  Santiago, Chile”. PQ Talks 2019: Street Performance Contemporary Objects Project: The Self and the Automaton. She is currently an Associate Professor at Wesleyan University, Dance and Theater departments, the College of the Environment and Latin American Studies Program, in addition she faculty for the Integrated Design, Engineering, and Applied Sciences (IDEAS) program. Prof. Oteíza holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in fine arts from the University of Chile.