Bonnie J. Monte Biography

assumed the leadership of Artistic Director of New Jersey Shakespeare Festival in October of 1990, and during her tenure has led the company into a new era, garnering national recognition for artistically and financially revitalizing the institution. In addition to providing artistic and organizational leadership for the Festival, Ms. Monte, along with past managing director Michael Stotts, successfully initiated and managed a $7.5-million capital campaign to construct a new theatre for the Festival, as part of their ongoing mission to strengthen N.J.S.F. and ensure its future. Together, from 1990*1999 they doubled the Festival's range of artistic and educational activities, tripled its annual budget and maintained a solid record of financial solvency.

Now in her twelfth season with the Festival, Ms. Monte has directed 25 productions for N.J.S.F., including the 40th Anniversary Season productions of CARNIVAL! and ENRICO IV, and the highly acclaimed THREE SISTERS, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, THE FOREST, CAMINO REAL, SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, THE HOMECOMING, DIARY OF A SCOUNDREL, THE SEA GULL, ELECTRA, TWELFTH NIGHT and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Prior to her arrival in New Jersey, Ms. Monte was a casting director at the prestigious Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City. While there, she line-produced, with Mr. Stotts, DOWNTOWN/UPTOWN, the company's first performance art festival.

From 1981 to 1989, she was associate artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival, working closely with Artistic Director Nikos Psacharopoulos until his untimely death. In addition to overseeing, with Psacharopoulos, the entire artistic and organizational sphere of W.T.F.'s activities, she helped implement many new programs for the company and collaborated on TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: A CELEBRA-TION, a major tribute to the playwright's entire literary canon. During her eight years at the Williams-town Festival, Ms. Monte also cast and helped produce several joint ventures with other major companies, including SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at Circle-in-the-Square in New York City, THE GLASS MENAGERIE at The Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, ARMS AND THE MAN at the Pasadena Playhouse and SALOME at the San Antonio Festival.

Ms. Monte has worked with many of the nation's leading theatre artists and has been actively involved in training young artists for the American stage for the past 18 years. In 1994, Ms. Monte was a guest artist and visiting assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame, where she directed Euripides' THE BACCHAE. She has been on the faculty at Drew University and the New School for Social Research in Manhattan, and conducts master classes at colleges and universities across the country. In 1997, Ms. Monte was honored for her long-time efforts to nurture young artists with a Person of the Year Award from The National Society of Arts and Letters. She was also named Professional Artist of the Year by the Arts Council of the Morris Area, and The Star-Ledger named Ms. Monte one of the 25 Most Influential People in the Arts in New Jersey. In 1998, she was honored with a Women of Achievement Award sponsored by the New Jersey General Assembly, and in 1999 received an Alumni Achievement Award from Bethany College in West Virginia, where she graduated cum laude. She obtained a post-graduate conservatory degree in directing from the Hartman Conservatory in Connecticut. Ms. Monte is originally from Stamford, CT.