In 2019, Ms Esteves was appointed Executive Director at Canadian Stage after serving as Managing Director at Crow’s Theatre for a decade. At Crow’s, she was co-responsible for strategy and capacity planning, resulting in ten years of consistent surpluses, and a successful $12-million capital campaign and construction of a new performing arts facility: Streetcar Crowsnest, which she project managed from inception to facility opening.
Since joining Canadian Stage a year and a half ago, Monica has been instrumental in creating a comprehensive five-year strategic plan, systematically upgrading the company’s operations as well as overseeing a successful fundraising campaign to support transformational initiatives and reduce the company’s deficit by half. Previously, from 2006 to 2010, Ms Esteves was Managing Director of Nightwood Theatre where she supported the development and promotion of emerging and established women artists regionally and nationally and led the organization through an impressive period of growth as the company took on large-scale artistic projects while maintaining its activism.
Throughout her career, Monica made time to mentor countless others. She has done this through formal internships, pro-bono consultations and longstanding relationships with arts leaders whose careers she has nurtured at their early stages. A keen advocate for the arts, she has served on numerous boards of directors and advisories, including the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre (PACT), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts and East End Arts.
With her generosity of spirit and extraordinary leadership, Monica Esteves is an inspiration to her artistic partners to dream big and, with them, to accomplish much. Her work in the theatre community continues to be transformative.