A beloved icon at UF College of the Arts and the Hippodrome, Margaret Bachus had a tremendous impact on children’s theatre in Gainesville and beyond. Her legacy lives on.

Margaret Bachus (MFA ‘75) was a beloved member of the performing arts community at the University of Florida.  

Her presence in Gainesville and beyond endures, in large thanks to the impact she had on the development of youth theatre at the Hippodrome during the theatre’s nascency. The influence her mentorship had on the young actors she taught, and on the audiences of children throughout Florida and the across U.S. for whom her plays offered an entry point to the magic of theatre, is also indelible. 

As a young adult, Margaret studied elementary education at the University of Tennessee before returning to school in her early 30s—while also raising her three children, Kirk, Kyle, and Kara—to become the first woman to receive a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre for Acting and Directing at the University of Florida’s College of the Arts. 

Coincidentally, her formal education in theatre came about thanks to a remark from an extroverted stranger in a grocery store checkout line in 1970: 

“A stranger said to me, ‘You have an interesting voice. Have you ever been in radio?’ … He said I really should do something with my voice. I went home and thought, ‘I’m told I have an interesting voice; I really love acting. I think I’ll go out to the university and take a course in theatre…’”  

The rest is history. With Margaret Bachus’ presence, Gainesville’s theatre community gained a bright and impactful member whose memory lives on through her legacy.