User:MelliBond/sandbox

Melli Marie Bond

Melli (Melanie) Marie Bond was born (1975) in Massachusetts, USA. Melli is an actress, theatre practitioner, and choreographer }. Melli is the Co-founder and Creative Director Emeritus of Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, which opened in May 2013.

Background and Education

Melli began her arts education at age four with Miss Jane at the Delaware Dance Centre studying ballet, tap and jazz. Melli graduated from Christiana High School, where she performed in school plays and participated in cheerleading for the Varsity Team for three years. Melli went to The University of South Carolina where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and English Literature and was a member of Chi Omega. Melli, having taken her undergraduate junior year abroad at University of Hull, went on to return to Hull as a postgraduate student for her Masters of Arts in Theatre Production.

Early career - current

While at USC Melli took her first paid acting job in an acting troupe ‘Risqué Business’. After university Melli lead drama workshops for young people in Los Angeles, Delaware, Hong Kong and London. Between 2005 and 2011 she co-lead the New End Theatre Academy in Hampstead.

Melli began working as an actress on the London Fringe, playing parts such as Lizzie Curry in The Rainmaker by N. Richard Nash. She simultaneously started a voice career playing roles in radio plays for BBC such as, Serious Money. Melli went on to act in television and film, with such parts as Mindy Ross in The Vatican, performing with lead actor Kyle Chandler directed by Ridley Scott. She works in the gaming industry, voicing hundreds of characters, as well as performing in motion capture. Melli works as a commercial artist and can be seen in adverts around the globe.

Melli has choreographed for musical theatre and pantomimes, such as Sleeping Beauty at Salisbury Playhouse, Oliver! at Summer Fields School in Oxford - where actor Rowan Atkinson took the role of Fagin, prior to his West End run.

Park Theatre

Whilst an MA student, Melli met fellow Hull theatre student Jez Bond and upon graduation they joined forces to develop a plan for creating a new theatre and began scouting possible sites and funding sources. In 2010, they were able to put a down payment on a disused building near Finsbury Park station and begin its conversion into a theatre containing two auditoria of 200 and 90 seats. Following a high-profile fundraising campaign, Park Theatre opened in May 2013. In 2015, Park Theatre won The Stage magazine's Fringe Theatre of the Year Award.

As Creative Director and Associate Artistic Director Melli was responsible for many aspects of the company. She curated the Park 90 seasons, co-curated the Park 200 seasons, designed, launched and ran the Creative Learning Programme and, curated art exhibitions for the gallery space featuring work of both local and foreign artists -often as a parallel to the work onstage.

Melli created and lead Script Accelerator, a new writing programme at Park Theatre with the aim to support emerging practitioners and novice theatre makers. Several Script Accelerator’s plays would go on to have full productions in Park 90.

Melli contributed in a variety of ways to in-house productions at Park. Melli played the role of Frances in These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich - Park’s inaugural production in 2013. Melli choreographed the seasonal shows - Sleeping Beauty and Jack and The Beanstalk, the star studded  Whodunnit(Unrehearsed) ,all written by Jez Bond and Mark Cameron, as well as the Simon Callow adaptation of La Cage aux Folles.

References