BIOGRAPHY

Anita Montgomery brings over 30 years of professional arts and performance experience across a wide variety of mediums to the formation and philosophy of Art in Communication.

Anita received a BA in theatre and English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin and began her career as an Actor/Singer (member of Actors Equity Association, The Screen Actors Guild, and The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). She has worked on professional stages around the country, as well as in television and film, and as a singer in multiple jazz and blues venues, including Seattle’s Jazz Alley.

Originally from Philadelphia, Anita moved to Seattle in 1989, and has pursued a variety of interests on an artistically eclectic career path, providing valuable experience to her work with Art in Communication, including:

• Becoming the first On-Air Talent for KidStar Interactive Media (1992-1997) and the host of an evening radio program called KidStar Radio Theatre. Anita interviewed multiple writers, performers, and athletes, including Amy Rae of the Indigo Girls, playwright Wendy Wasserstein, and Nate McMillan of the Seattle Supersonics, to name a few, and created original content for the show. She also spoke in a variety of public forums and sang the National Anthem for a Mariners Family Night at the old Kingdome to an audience of 26,000.
• Serving as Literary Manager and Education Director for Seattle’s ACT (A Contemporary Theatre) for 13 years (2002-2015): developing artistic programming, participating in season selection, interviewing visiting artists , including Lewis Black, August Wilson, Jane Alexander, and Ayad Akhtar among others, directing mainstage and workshop productions, and developing new work.
• Teaching and coaching (1985-present) performance and dramaturgical studies in public and independent middle through high schools, undergraduate and graduate programs, prison-education programs, and in both the non-profit and for profit sectors.

Anita is a socially engaged feminist, whose focus and coaching style emphasize the speaker as artist and storyteller. She brings theatrical tools to her work and seeks to serve public speakers in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Anita’s particular interest is in working with diverse and under-represented voices and communities, the service-oriented sectors, and those individuals who desire to create a more just and peaceful world.