Teaching + Organizing + Training
Monica Hunken
I am a theater performer, writer and teacher. I also work as a Direct Action Trainer and help design, organize and lead creative actions for social change.
Teaching/ Organizing
GreenPeace (Based in NYC/ Traveling and virtual)
Creative Direct Action Trainer (2018-Present)
Introduced performance tactics into the arts track training curriculum and facilitated workshops at Greenpeace Action Camp in Florida, DC and Arizona.
Through Greenpeace Pacific, organized a flotilla action of sail boats, motor boats, kayaks on the East River for Indigenous Pacific Islander activists calling for an Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the highest court during the UN Climate Summit
Led multiple trainings in arts in direct action virtually for participants around the world.
Rainforest Action Network ( Contracted in NYC)
Local NYC Action Coordinator and Trainer January-May 2019
RAN is a national environmental organization based in San Francisco.
Led their NYC chapter campaign targeting Chase Bank for financing fossil fuels and private prisons.
Escalated our pressure on target CEO Jamie Dimon and facilitated a monthly training on different tactics
Organized a technical and creative action each month, such as tripods, performance interventions, flash mobs, distributed actions, lockboxes and more.
Sane Energy Project ( Based in NYC)
Community Engagement Coordinator / Direct Action Coordinator March- December 2017 and April 2020-2021
Sane Energy Project is a New York based organization working toward a sane energy future that includes shutting down fossil fuel infrastructure and building a just transition toward renewable energy.
Led multiple trainings in police liaising, direct action, creative direct action, de-escalation.
Organized a series of blockades at the North Brooklyn Pipeline, successfully shutting down construction for multiple days.
Helped develop community connections through grassroots outreach to community gardens, local organizers, mass bike rides, rallies, teach-ins, theater performances to build a movement against fossil fuel infrastructure
Election Defenders (National)
De-Escalator Core Team November 2020 and January 2021
A bipartisan coalition to ensure the protection of every voter’s right to vote during the elections.
Worked with a small team in Detroit and surrounding suburbs to de-escalate and maintain safe conditions at polling stations
Maintained peace at a highly escalated conflict at the ballot counting station in Detroit. While a crowd of agitated right wing extremists and armed Proud Boys tried to break into the convention center and berate and threaten counter protestors, we managed to keep people safe.
Camp Wonderful ( Western Massachusetts)
Camp Counselor and Teacher August 2017-Present
Camp Wonderful is a digital detox, fun-filled summer camp for adults in the woods. I led 5 "playshops" in physical storytelling, singing self-defense, contact improv, healing movement and site-specific theater and facilitated games and discussion with a group of campers.
Beautiful Trouble (Traveling, Based in NYC)
Creative Action Trainer 2014-Present
Beautiful Trouble is a book, web toolbox and international network of artist-activist trainers whose mission is to make grassroots movements more creative and more effective.
• Co-facilitated two day workshop for 60 organizers from social justice, climate justice, economic justice from across the States in NYC.
• Led a workshop at Harvard University with Responsible Investment at Harvard Coalition to help reinvigorate their campaign against Harvard's timber industry by focusing on narrative, visuals and escalating pressure.
• Led a workshop at University of Maine at Farmington with a group of 30 students introducing them to using artistic principles in activism and civil disobedience.
• Led two workshops in Boca Raton, Florida to engage artists in climate action
• Led a workshop for CUNY grad students on creative activism tactics that they might utilize in their struggles within the institution
• Led a series of workshops on Strategic Action Planning in multiple college campuses on the East Coast for Project Pericles
Resist Spectra (Westchester, NY)
Trainer/ Organizer 2015-Present
• Built a grassroots campaign against a fracked gas pipeline coming within a hundred feet of Indian Point nuclear power plant threatening schools, churches, houses and local community
• Organized Non-violent Direct Action training and implemented with hundreds of people
• Led many meetings, went to trial and organized acts of civil disobedience to protest the construction
Organized direct actions such as Tri-pods, pipeline occupations, inflatable blockades, soft blocks, sit ins, die ins, shipping container sustainable tiny house blockade and more
Living Theatre (Touring, Based in NYC)
Associate Producer, Actor 2005-2019
-Co-developed tour across 8 cities in Europe
• Set up workshops with refugee and immigrant communities and oversaw development of street performances
• Co-facilitated workshops on Living Theater techniques
• Performed in and co-created radical street performances
• Performed in a 5 hour ritual protest intervention in the British Museum with BP or Not BP and Art Not Oil against the BP sponsorship of the Sinking Cities exhibit
-Helped conceive of and organize Know Your Rites tour across 20 cities in the USA
• Performed in the production of Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism
• Organized the route and set up many of the actions, performances and housing along the way for a 12 member company
• Led street performances and collaborations with communities
• Co-facilitated workshops on Living Theater techniques and know your rights training
-Performed in several plays over a decade of being in the company including a two person show with Co-Founder of the Living, Judith Malina in “Maudie and Jane”, a tour of “Mysteries and Smaller Pieces” in Ecuador, in the ensemble of “Korach” and “Histories of The World”
Volunteered at Katsikas Refugee Camp (Katsikas, Greece)
Teacher/ Organizer 2016
• Helped design a curriculum of classes for youth and adult refugees that included English, Arts, Theater, Yoga and Physical Fitness
Refugee Puppet Theater Workshop (Kirchdorff, Austria)
Teacher/ Co-Director 2016
• Co-taught a puppetry theater workshop with a group of refugees from Iraq and Somalia through a community radio station in Austria. We helped the participants develop short performances that they then shared with the community and have since been invited to perform in schools and other venues in town
Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir (NYC, NY)
Action Captain, Choir Member, Performer 2002-2015
for radical performance community
• Helped design and lead actions and creative disruptions inside stores, bank lobbies, super malls and in streets
• Performed in cross-country tour that resulted in documentary, “What Would Jesus Buy?”
• Toured to festivals in the UK, Germany and across the US
Occupy The Pipeline (NY, NY)
Co-Founder, Organizer 2012-2014
• Built a creative grassroots campaign against a fracked gas pipeline coming into the West Village
• Organized NVDA trainings on site
• Led many rallies, parades, creative disruptions and acts of civil disobedience to protest the construction
Time’s-Up! (NY, NY)
Organizer 2004-2014
• Helped develop and design creative street spectacles and roving actions focusing on liberating public space and encouraging safe, fun sustainable transportation, including the Bike Lane Liberation Clown Brigade, Fountain Rides, Cyclista Women’s Dance Rides, Pirate Rides, Polar Bear Con and so much more
• Initiated bicycle voyages out to the Rockaways to assist post Hurricane Sandy; carrying out supplies and food with trailers, bringing bicycled generators to power cell phones, leading groups out to help clean houses
Occupy Wall Street (NY, NY)
Co-Facilitator, Co-Organizer 2011-2012
• Curated and orchestrated 24 hours straight of performance in a privately-owned public space for Occupy Broadway
Helped initiate and run the compost program for Liberty Plaza with the Sustainability Working Group and Time’s-Up!
Facilitated multiple trainings in blockades and how to move effectively and creatively together through space during action scenarios. Was in the Plus Brigades and Spring Training.
One of the organizers of Summer School of Disobedience, a series of weekly trainings and actions in different tactics in civil disobedience
Physical Storytelling Workshop at Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY)
Teaching residency 2015
• Led a 5 week master class on physical theater and self-scripting which culminated in a showing for invited guests
Physical Storytelling Class at Brooklyn Arts Exchange/ JACK/ Triskelion Arts(Brooklyn, NY)
Teacher 2015
• Led multiple intensives in physical theater techniques, storytelling, vocal work and improvisation
Horse’s Mouth Theater Festival (Sydney, Australia)
Guest Teacher 2013
• Led a master class on physical theater and self-scripting
International Festival of Making Theater (Athens, Greece)
Guest Teacher 2012
• Performed Blondie of Arabia and taught a Physical Storytelling Workshop
Storytelling Classat Bedouin Women’s Association (Wadi Rum, Jordan)
Guest co-Teacher
• Co- taught physical and vocal exercises for a group of Bedouin women
Gearilla! a Street Theater Workshop (Brooklyn, NY)
Instructor 2010
• Taught ensemble movement, Viewpoints, Clowning,
Invisible Theater, Physical forms using changing landscape of Brooklyn waterfront
The Leadership Program (NYC, NY)
Teaching Artist 2007
• Infused leadership skills into arts practices, including visual art, set design and theater
• Taught theater and art classes in Middle Schools and High Schools in all boroughs
Creative Arts Club (Jersey City, NJ)
Acting teacher 2005
• Designed Curriculum of basic Theater and Life skills for
An After school program for young children
Shakespeare Santa Monica Teen Program (Santa Monica, CA) 2006
Director/Instructor for intensive theater training program
• Designed curriculum of physical theater,
speech, stage combat, dance, improvisation, and clowning
• Directed full production of The Comedy of Errors
Young Audiences New York (NYC, NY) 2005-2006
Program Associate for Non-Profit
that Places Teaching Artists in NYC Public Schools • Head of Bright Light Schools, overseeing 20 schools
• Designed Cultural Excursions for classes with NYC museums
• Managed 18 teaching artists in all arts disciplines
MCC Theater (NYC, NY)
Education and Outreach for Company 2005
of Twenty High School Students
• Associate Director, Uncensored: Urban Youth Redefined in Their Own Words
• Movement Assistant, Youth Company; wrote and researched grants; recruit students; manage office
Benjamin Banneker Elementary School (Brooklyn, NY) 2005
Teacher’s Assistant for Class of 20 First Graders
• Tutor for math, spelling, reading and writing skills
Bread and Puppet Theater Company (Glover, Vermont) 2004
Intern for Political Puppet Theater
• Created and performed in short acts for the Upside Down World Circus
Makala Ashraya Kendra (Bangalore, India) 2004
Volunteer Instructor for a Boarding School
for Abused/Abandoned/Runaway Boys
• Designed curriculum of daily activities for fifty impoverished street children
• Taught theater, dance, music, art, leadership skills and English; documented children’s stories
Greenwave(Ranote, Thailand) 2004
Volunteer for International Work Camp
• Conducted English-Teaching Workshop at educational conference in Songkhla, Thailand
Art Start (NYC, NY) 2003
Intern for Non-Profit Arts Organization for Homeless Children
• Taught theater to teens in homeless shelter
Counterclockwise: Arts in Action (NY, NY)
Co-Founder of Activist Arts Club at NYU
• Created, directed, and performed in educational,
interactive, or agit-prop street theater and teach-ins
Education
New York University, Steinhardt School of Education New York
MA, Educational Theatre in Colleges and Communities 2005
With a focus on Theater for Social Change and Theater of the Oppressed
• Co-Director, puppet designer and builder, Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights
• Team Leader-Where Old Men Meet: A Williamsburg Story Project ( audio walking tour)
• Guest Artist, Juilliard production of Fortinbras
• Study Abroad in Dublin- Community-Engaged Theatre Program: Trinity College Dublin
New York University, Tisch School of the Arts New York
BFA, Drama with a minor in Applied Theatre 2003
• Tisch Award for Community Connections
• Selected for International Theatre Workshop: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Founded a politcal street theater group, Counter-clockwise; Arts in Action
• Appeared in over 35 short films by NYU Film students
• Lead Character and puppet designer, Jean Cocteau’s Eiffel Tower Wedding Party
• Soloist in Richard Armstrong’s opera House of Words
Spanish, MS Office, Photoshop, Squarespace, IMovie, Garageband