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BONNIE J. MONTE (Director) 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.T
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