Kerri Monnerat has been a professional educator for over 30 years. She is an award-winning teacher, performer, and director. In her career, she has directed and choreographed over 150 musicals, created curriculums, served as a board member for theaters in both Lost Angeles and Denver. Most recently, she was Executive Director of the Colorado Children’s Theatre (CCT), a musical theater and performance school with four schools and hundreds of students in the Denver and Foothill areas of Colorado. She grew the school from one location to four and it is still going strong and winning awards for education and performance. Most notably from Music Theatre International, National competitions.
Kerri started her career teaching the Triad Music Series method that serves young musicians in developing pitch, reading, tone, rhythm, playing and singing. She quickly moved on to a position as an assistant teacher and then Director for Kids On The Air in Los Angeles, running musical theater classes for Long Beach Playhouse, Newport Theatre Arts Center, the Whitefire Theatre, as well as classes out of the famous Millennium Dance Center in North Hollywood.
As a student at Emerson College in Boston, Kerri trained under Kristin Linklater, now professor of voice and text and Shakespeare in the Graduate Theatre Division of Columbia University and author of Freeing the Natural Voice. While at Emerson, Kerri also studied in Europe, learning “body” work and acting for the body.
After Emerson, Kerri attended the Stella Adler Academy in Hollywood and studied both the Roy London and Meisner methods. While there, she also worked for Lewis Smith, now owner of the Actor’s Place in Santa Monica. She also ran her own productions and workshops with over 20 theater companies and schools throughout Southern California before moving to Colorado and starting CCT.
In addition to her experience as an educator, Kerri has experience as a performer, acting on both stage and screen. She began her career as a professional performer working with Broadway and Regional companies throughout California. She has appeared in more than 30 professional productions both musicals and plays. She is also a SAG union-accredited actress and has appeared in both studio and independent films. Kerri has won the Bobby Award for Best Actress and Choreographer as well as the Rae Cohen Award for Best Actress.
Kerri’s passion for performing and teaching has always been founded in the sense of community and confidence that only theater can create. She is constantly surprised and thrilled by the insights theater can give regarding the many facets of the human condition and the joy it brings to both the actor and the audience.
