Monty Cole, an award-winning theatre and film writer-director and teacher from Oak Park, IL, has workshopped and directed new plays and re-imaginings of classic texts with companies across the country including Steppenwolf, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Victory Gardens Theater, the Center for New Performance, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Alley Theatre, and others. His plays include American Teenager (a commission from the Goodman Theatre) and Black Like Me, an adaptation of the 1961 novel currently in development with The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. He recently finished a residency in the Goodman Theatre’s Playwrights Unit; and he is currently an Artist in Residence at the Center for New Performance. This Summer, he will direct three short films: Six Feet Apart by Isaac Gomez, Sons of Toledo, written by Cole and Matt Foss, and his own short, Whole.
Monty Cole has a BA in Theatre Studies from Emerson College and an MFA Directing degree from the California Institute of the Arts. This past fall, he joined School of Theatre and Music faculty, students, and alumni to create the first play of the this season, Reverb. We are thrilled to welcome him back to UIC Theatre as a B2F Research Scholar.