Artistic Director, Monique Danielle
Monique Danielle (she/her) is a Mad, Queer and many-hatted artist working as a director, performer, producer and voiceover artist. She is the founder and artistic director of Prairie Bear Theatre, a company that presents and prioritizes emerging artists and those with lived experience with mental illness. No matter the genre and despite society’s distinction between “amateur,” "emerging" and “professional,” her practice strives for professionalism and excellence every time she or her actors hit the stage and she has a firm belief that artists who are fully invested in their craft have the power to change the world. Through her work, Monique explores issues of gender, gender inequality and lived experience with mental illness by considering intersectionality and questioning the social constructs society has built up around these topics. Originally from southern Alberta, Monique is now based in Toronto and has worked in genres of theatre from classical to contemporary to musical theatre often describing herself as “the girl with a song in her heart.”
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Directing credits include The Duchess of Malfi (AD to Julia Nish-Lapidus, Stratford Festival's Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction), Macbeth (Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance Society), Dido, Queen of Carthage (AD to Peter Hinton, York University), The Heidi Chronicles (AD to Ilana Linden, Alumnae Theatre), Harbor (staged reading, Alumnae Theatre), Don't Dress for Dinner (Playgoers of Lethbridge), The Man Who Couldn't Dance (Prairie Bear Theatre).
Photo by Howard J. Davis
Makeup by Tanya Bishoff