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Bio

Monica Payne (she/her) is a theatre and film director, whose work lives at the intersection of bold physicality, emotion, and ritual.

Her projects represent a broad range of interests, including devised work, literary adaptations, new plays (particularly by international writers), music videos, and short films. In 2025, she directed Hedda Gabler for the Artistic Home in Chicago, which was extended and Jeff nominated in several categories. Payne has directed throughout the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh and her devised work, Song of Home, toured to Poland and Moldova. Her Chicago projects have won multiple Joseph Jefferson Awards. She was a Resident Director at Trap Door Theatre (Chicago) for several years and is a member of SDC, The Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Director’s Lab West, and recently attended the LaMama Umbria Directing Symposium in Italy.

Monica Payne | Director, Filmmaker & Theatremaker
Monica Payne | Theatre and Film Director

Originally from central Illinois, Payne is a proud alum of both University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television (MFA in Directing), and has been a Meisner-based acting teacher for many years. She has taught for The School at Steppenwolf, Steppenwolf Classes West, The Latino Theatre Company, The Robert Mello Studio, The Artistic Home, and her own studios in L.A. and Chicago. At the university level, she has taught at UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, and Point Park University, where she also served as the Head of Graduate Acting from 2012-2014. She is an Associate Professor of Acting/Directing at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she teaches for the Theatre and Dance Department, as well as Digital Media Practices. At Tulane, she has been a finalist for the Suzanne and Stephen Weiss Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Her short film, Mimi, premiered at the New Orleans Film Festival in fall of 2025 and will screen soon at the Flatland Film Festival in Lubbock, TX. She is co-authoring the eighth edition of Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style. In spring of 2027, she will direct Numb by Chris Kaminstein and Goat in the Road for Tulane’s Dept of Theatre and Dance. When she’s not directing or writing, she’s doing yoga or helping rescue dogs!

Press

  • Hedda Gabler
    The Artistic Home

    “[…] Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 Hedda Gabler, now onstage with the Artistic Home at the Den under the muscular direction of Monica Payne, feels vital and enraging.”
    Kerry Reid
    Chicago Reader

  • Into the Empty Sky
    Trap Door Theatre

    “Mundanity and profundity weave together in both Szymborska’s verse and in Payne’s cunning staging.”
    Kerry Reid
    Chicago Tribune

  • Ada and the Engine
    The Artistic Home

    “Directed with heat and clarity by Monica Payne, the in-the-round production unfolds in an ingenious modern environment of sharply angled neon tubes […] juxtaposing eras cleverly.”
    Hedy Weiss
    WTTW Chicago

  • Ada and the Engine
    The Artistic Home

    “Director Payne does a stunning job of staging Gunderson’s inventive history; it’s a love story about numbers and logic as well as about people.”
    Nancy S. Bishop
    Third Coast Review

  • Dying For It
    The Artistic Home

    “Monica Payne has punched up the humor of this black comedy while still allowing the poignancy of the situation to hit home, especially in its final moments.”
    Colin Douglas
    Chicago Theatre Review

  • The Bluest Eye
    The Pittsburgh Playhouse

    “Monica Payne’s direction is inspired, even cubist. She brings the action from all angles simultaneously, with multiple narrators, speakers and singers — the cast surrounds the audience as if to say: We are in a womb. Watch. Listen. Feel the story kicking.”
    Stuart Sheppard
    Pittsburgh City Paper

  • Trash Story
    Kulture+ Productions, New York

    “[…] bracing new production […] the play’s stark minimalist staging by Monica Payne works well to set Trash Story’s grim mood and place emphasis on the raw muscularity of each performer.”
    Marisa Fox Bevilacqua
    Haaretz

Book

Monica is thrilled to be co-authoring the 8th edition of the classic directing textbook, Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style (Hodge/McLain). The book will head to market in 2028 under the Routledge imprint. Stay tuned!

Contact

Monica lives in New Orleans, but loves to travel and meet new people as part of her directing life. Don’t hesitate to reach out!

Facebook: facebook.com/monica.payne.94
Instagram: instagram.com/monicapaynedirector