Tony Montanaro, internationally-acclaimed mime artist, director and teacher, died at his home in Casco, Maine, on Friday, December 13, 2002.
Born in Paulsboro, New Jersey on September 10, 1927, Montanaro earned a theater degree from Columbia University and began performing stock theater with actors such as Jason Robards and Jackie Cooper. After seeing Marcel Marceau's historic 1956 performance at New York's Phoenix Theatre, Montanaro flew to Paris to study under Marceau and Marceau's teacher, Etienne Decroux.
Montanaro had a long career of rave-review performances in Europe and the United States. He designed and hosted the award-winning CBS-TV children's show, "Pretendo". In 1972, Montanaro founded the Celebration Barn in South Paris, Maine, a world-renown theater/school of mime, improvisation, story-telling, and other performing skills.
In recent years, Montanaro continued to teach and direct at the Celebration Barn and at the renovated home and studios of he and his wife, Karen Hurll Montanaro in Casco. The couple also toured widely with their two-person show, The Montanaro-Hurll Theatre of Mime and Dance. In 1995, the Montanaros authored "Mime Spoken Here: The Performer's Portable Workshop", a guide to the craft of mime, character work, and improvisation.
