Actor · Director · Writer
Vanda Monaco
Theatre artist working across Sweden, Italy and the United States.
Biography
An international theatre artist
Vanda Monaco is an actor, director, writer, dramaturg and essayist. Born in Naples and based in Stockholm, she has worked throughout Sweden, Italy and the United States.
Her artistic path moves between classical drama, the avant-garde and spoken theatre. She also creates interdisciplinary work where theatre meets medicine, neuroscience and philosophy.
From Naples to Stockholm
Raised in Naples, Vanda attended a French school and studied classical piano and dance. She later moved to Rome, where she trained as an actor with Gian Maria Volonté while studying at Sapienza University.
After completing her doctorate, she taught theatre at several Italian universities and published books and essays on Italian theatre, opera and Jerzy Grotowski. She eventually left academic life and moved to Sweden with the philosopher Dag Westerståhl to devote herself fully to theatre.
A theatre without borders
Vanda describes herself as a wandering actress. Performing in both Italian and Swedish, she has interpreted figures and texts by Strindberg, Pasolini and Giambattista Marino, and appeared as Don Giovanni, Pulcinella, Panurge, Giacinta Pezzana and Nanna Triumphant.
In Sweden she was mentored by Erland Josephson and Gunnel Lindblom. She founded Tensta TeaterEnsemble, Sweden’s first multi-ethnic theatre ensemble, and served as its artistic director for eight years. In 2005 she founded Monaco Acca together with Fabio Acca.
“If I give a voice too early to the character I am creating, I lose it and it will not come back to me.”
Voice, body and emotion
Her work with Kristin Linklater in New York became central to her approach to voice and emotion. For Vanda, the actor’s body is not an instrument separate from thought: it is where feeling, imagination and transformation begin.
In the United States she developed Emotion Theatre with Federica Raia, Mario Deng and John Henry Davis. Her work there includes Craig Lucas’s The Catherine Wheel, in the role of The Donor, and Waiting Room, as The Conductor.
Selected work
Performance and direction
A selection from a practice spanning acting, directing, research and education.
- Fuori dal ParadisoDirector
- Erotismo BaroccoDirector
- La NannaPerformer
- Tre Corpi di DonnaDirector
- StrindbergDirector
- La morte è un puntoDirector
- GiobbeDirector
- Pulcinella è un bastardoDirected by Fabio Acca
- Giacinta PezzanaDirected by Fabio Acca
- Don GiovanniDirected by Per-Erik Örn
Critical reception
On Vanda’s work
“Vanda Monaco transforms her own existence in order to live the many lives of the actor.”
“An Italian actress with a dark and profound voice who made us relive Strindberg’s passion in a way that captivated and deeply moved us.”
“She moves from one theatrical poetics to another, searching for new languages, finding them, using them, then abandoning them again.”
Publications
Books and essays
Writing on theatre history, performance, opera and the work of the actor.
Vanda has held academic positions at Università Orientale di Napoli, Bologna, Ferrara and Suor Orsola Benincasa, and has been Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She also translated Erland Josephson’s memoirs into Italian.
Outside the theatre
The work continues in the ring
Away from the stage, Vanda trains in boxing at Hammarby Boxing Club in Stockholm, another place where presence, rhythm, discipline and instinct meet.