Marina Montesanti is a theatre director and Tony Award–nominated co-producer with Iconic Vizion Productions.
On Broadway, she co-produced Fat Ham and A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical. Lead Producer for immersive Into the Woods at Camp Pouch.
Selected Directing Credits: The Visit (Musical - Lenfest Center for the Arts); In The Bronx Brown Girls Can See Stars Too (Vassar College, Guest Artist; Lehman Stages, Guest Artist); Lizzie (Musical, CAP21, Guest Artist); Dear Mr. C (New Musical, University of the Arts, Guest Artist); I Hope This Letter Reaches Mictlán (development: INTAR/The Orchard Project) Uncle Vanya (Columbia University); EXIST (New Musical, Schapiro Theatre); Savana Glacial (Irondale Theatre); Derecho (La Tea). Associate Director: Eugene Onegin: A Bluegrass Musical (Theatre Squared, Dir. Rachel Chavkin), Havana (in development, Dir.Sergio Trujillo). Assistant Director: 1776 (A.R.T.).
Montesanti has worked at theaters such as: Roundabout Theatre Company, BAM, Signature Theatre, The Metropolitan Opera, Second Stage, The Vineyard Theatre among others. She has been recognized as an SDCF Charles Abbott Fellow, TPOC Broadway member, MAESTRA Music mentee, NYCLU Ambassador, LMCC Creative Engagement Grant recipient, Town Stages Resident Artist, Egg & Spoon’s Incubation Series, The Orchard Project, and Latine Musical Theatre Lab Awardee. She was also a mentee of Peter Brook at BAM.
Her directing work has been attached to new plays and musicals honored with the Jonathan Larson Grant, Hansberry Lilly’s Award, Kennedy Center National Playwriting Award, Leah Prize, and Creative Capital. She has also taught for the Musical Theatre BFA program at CAP21.
In Development: Swashbucklers (by Joshua Turchin), Oliver (by Mikey Rosenbaum), This Should End Well (by Lisa Lewis), I Hope This Letter Reaches Mictlán (by Amalia Oliva Rojas), Billionaires (Leandro Muniz).
Education: MFA in Directing, Columbia University School of the Arts; BFA in Dramatic Arts,The New School for Drama.
Union: Member, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).
About
I’m excited by theatre where reality dissolves, time layers on itself, and space transforms through the collective imagination. I’m drawn to plays and musicals that move through tragedy, where fractured memories and difficult circumstances become opportunities for reclamation, liberation, and belonging.
As a director of new work, one of my favorite parts of the process is discovering the theatrical language that belongs to each piece. I’m fascinated by how its internal logic gradually reveals itself, until choices that once seemed uncertain begin to feel inevitable. I take real pleasure in being an architect of dramaturgy and a believer in the goosebumps on my spine when something comes alive. More often than not, I find myself returning to simplicity, stripping away what isn’t essential and trusting the imagination and power of the ensemble.
Having lived between cultures, I often return to stories about what we inherit and what we choose to become. I’m particularly interested in coming-of-age stories at any age, about people who begin to question the world that shaped them and find the courage to imagine a different future.
Humor is central to how I see the world. I’m happiest in a theatre that can take us from outrageous laughter to quiet devastation and back again. My favorite kind of laughter feels like a shared secret, when an entire room recognizes something about the world we live in that none of us has quite found the words for. The kind of work I’m most drawn to are stories that don't shy away from how difficult life can be, but still leave us with a sense of possibility, and we still find ourselves smiling.
PHILOSOPHY
