Actors, Supporters Celebrate Monte's Leadership

SHORT HILLS–Film and television actress Allison Janney calls Bonnie Monte her guardian angel.

First, Monte, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, cast Janney as a member of the non-Equity company at the Williamstown (Mass.) Theatre Festival when she was just starting out.

A while later, Janney, best known for playing presidential press secretary C.J. Cregg on the 1999-2006 TV series "The West Wing," was close to quitting acting because she couldn't get work.

Then Monte cast her as an understudy in the off-Broadway play "Bad Habits," where she filled in for Kate Nelligan during the last two weeks of the run.

"Bonnie's been an angel in my life," said Janney, who was among a dozen celebrities and 300 others who celebrated Monte's 20 years at the helm of the Shakespeare Theatre at a fundraising gala Saturday night.

The event at the Hilton Short Hills, expected to raise $220,000, featured a film with photos from each of about 45 shows Monte has directed at the theater as well as a cabaret show starring such performers as Tamara Tunie of the TV series "Law & Order: SVU."

Laila Robins has performed in 12 shows at the Shakespeare Theatre–10 of them directed by Monte, who is a personal friend as well as professional colleague.

Robins called Monte her "artistic sister" because they both prefer to perform classic plays as they were written, rather than "deconstructing" them or placing them in unusual settings.

Robins, who has performed in "Heartbreak House" and "Frozen" on Broadway and in "Macbeth," "Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard" in Madison, said she may appear in "The Lion in Winter" here this season.

Janney, who has been filming a movie called "The Oranges" with Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Leighton Meester and Oliver Platt in New Rochelle, N.Y., said she also would like to do a show at the Shakespeare Theatre. She recently did two episodes of the USA Network series "In Plain Sight" and filmed one pilot, "Shameless," that has been picked up by Showtime and another, "Mr. Sunshine" with Matthew Perry, that ABC is considering.

Paul Mullins has done one show a season at the Shakespeare Theatre in all but one of the years Monte has run it, first as an actor and more recently as a director. "I feel like it's my home," he said.

Mullins called Monte a great collaborator, who helps with casting and gives suggestions to the directors after watching rehearsals.

Actresses Blythe Danner and Becky Ann Baker both met Monte at Williamstown, where she was the assistant to the longtime artistic director Nikos Psacharopoulos in the 1980s. They said Monte handled many of the production duties, such as casting, while Psacharopoulos directed shows there, and they were not surprised to see her go on to lead a theater.

Baker, who appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Monte's first season in New Jersey, said she is very loyal to performers and they in turn are loyal to her.

Monte also is open to projects others suggest, Baker said, adding that she and her husband, actor Dylan Baker, are working on an idea that they hope to bring to her soon.

Kate Ivins, who has been Monte's assistant for three years, said her boss is a perfectionist in everything from constructing a season of shows to sending a thank-you letter to a donor of $25. "She touches everything that goes on at the theater."

Sarah Fargo, a Shakespeare Theatre board member who worked with Monte when she started in Madison and now is an agent for actors in New York, said her clients are eager to work at the theater. "They feel really supported."

Monte said the evening felt like a reunion because so many people with whom she had worked in Madison and before were there. The event celebrated not only her 20 years at the theater but also 20 years of involvement by many others, she added.

One of those was Joe Discher, who started as an administrative intern during his senior year at Drew University and worked his way up to associate artistic director.

He said Drew students were not involved in the theater, which is located on the campus, before Monte arrived and she has worked hard to include them. Drew students are given priority for internships and about 400 have worked there in the past two decades.

Richard McGlynn, a longtime board member, was part of the group that hired Monte after a national search. He praised her ability to make Shakespeare's work appealing to today's audiences. "That's this theater's strength."

Judy Mullins, who owns Poor Herbie's Pub, an informal hangout for Shakespeare Theater actors in downtown Madison, pointed out the theater's contribution to the town. "It's hard to imagine where downtown would be without the volume of traffic" generated by the theater, she said.