A German Fulbright scholar, Mona Heinze received MFAs in Dramaturgy/Dramatic Criticism from Yale and Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College. She was the resident dramaturg at Center Stage in Baltimore and taught at Johns-Hopkins University, New York University, and Brooklyn College, where she revived the MFA program in Dramaturgy. After moving to Los Angeles, Mona served for eight years on the board of the Flintridge Foundation in Pasadena, supporting programs in ensemble theater and community services for youth and children.
For the last 25 years, she has been a faculty member of the School of Theater at California Institute of the Arts, teaching courses in dramaturgy, play analysis, performance analysis, adaptation/translation, witnessing, and critique modalities. Mona also serves on the CalArts Fulbright Committee and has just begun a three-year term on the Fulbright Foundation’s National Screening Committee.
As a dramaturg, Mona has worked on numerous productions of classics, new plays, and dance pieces. She frequently collaborated with choreographer Donald Byrd on pieces including The Seven Deadly Sins at Pacific Northwest Ballet; The Beast, exploring issues surrounding domestic violence; and The Harlem Nutcracker, performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and nationwide. She also worked with directors Nataki Garrett, Janie Geiser, Nancy Keystone, and Stan Wojewodski, as well as writers Joel Agee, Erik Ehn, Marion McClinton, Eric Overmyer, and Carl Hancock Rux.
More recent projects include Rosanna Gamson’s Sugar Houses, Marissa Chibas’ Shelter, and Lisa Sanaye Dring’s Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular, part of UCSB’s 2022 BIPOC Reading Series. Mona has translated and adapted works by Bertolt Brecht, Marieluise Fleisser, and Hans Magnus Enzensberger.
