Maine native Marianne Pillsbury’s life changed the day she was cast in a community theater production of Annie at age 10. It seemed she was on the yellow brick road to musical theaterdom until she attended Brown University where she showed her first signs of rebellion by joining a rock band and writing her senior honors English thesis on “Pop Icon Prince’s Dual Obsession with Sexual Ecstasy & Religious Salvation.”

 

In 2004, after escaping a lucrative but unfulfilling career as an advertising copywriter, she independently released her debut album, The Wrong Marianne. Produced by award-winning songwriter Bonnie Hayes (Bonnie Raitt's "Have A Heart"), The Wrong Marianne received positive reviews from The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Boston Herald and The San Francisco Chronicle and elicited comparisons to the best work of Liz Phair, Juliana Hatfield and Jill Sobule. The album was named a Top 12 D.I.Y. Pick in Performing Songwriter Magazine. The song "Boo Hoo" from the album won Best Alt/Rock Song in The Gr​eat American Song Contest and was selected for inclusion on ROCKRGRL Magazine's Discoveries compilation CD.

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In 2007, Marianne started teaching songwriting workshops at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls, a non-profit music and mentoring program that empowers girls and women by encouraging them to explore self-expression through music. Since 2009, Marianne has also worked behind-the-scenes at the Jazz Foundation of America, helping elder jazz and blues musicians in crisis. Her work with Willie Mae and the Jazz Foundation inspired her to return to her musical theater roots and start writing a semi-autobiographical pop-rock musical, Depression: The Musical, which was selected as a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts and debuted at The New York International Fringe Festival in August 2014.

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In 2016, the PortFringe Theater Festival presented a staged reading of her feminist musical "Strong Female Character." In 2018, Marianne completed a Master's Degree in Theatre Education at Emerson College and is currently teaching and directing high school theatre.