Marie Kohler

Marie House Kohler
Born	February 8, 1951 Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Occupation	Playwright

Marie House Kohler (born 1951) is an American writer and playwright. She is a member of the Kohler family of Wisconsin.

Born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, she was the daughter of John Michael Kohler III and Julilly House. She was raised on the family's Riverbend Estate and graduated from Kohler High School in 1969.

She holds a BA from Harvard University (1973) (Magna Cum Laude) and an MA from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1979) – both degrees in English Literature.

Her interest in theater began in high school, when she formed a drama club. In college, she auditioned for a play in the Harvard Dramatic Club, got the part and won the heart of the director, Colin Cabot, a Harvard graduate and distant relative of Henry Cabot Lodge. She married Cabot in 1974. The couple moved back to Wisconsin when Kohler's mother became ill. Cabot took a job at the Skylight Opera Theatre. After the birth of their first daughter, Annie, the young family moved to Europe for a year when Cabot was hired as an assistant to opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti. They lived in the gatehouse on Menotti's Scottish estate and summered with him in Umbria, Italy. Returning to Milwaukee, Cabot hired on as managing director of the Skylight while Kohler began her master's work in English literature at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. As she completed her degree, their second daughter, Marie Christine, was born. When the couple separated in the mid-1980s, Kohler turned her attention to acting and writing.

Kohler met actor Brian Robert Mani in 1989 while they were acting in Great Expectations.Mani, who had a young daughter, Tricia, by a previous relationship. She married Mani in 1992.

Wealth has caused divisions in her family. When Herbert Kohler, Jr., president of the Kohler Company attempted to devalue the family-held stock for tax purposes in 2002, Marie and her sister Julilly sued. A settlement was reached, and the stock was eventually priced at $150,000 per share.

Kohler has been resident playwright, and co-artistic director, at Renaissance Theaterworks since 1993. She is also co-founder of the theatre.

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