photo by Jim Barcus
The Kansas City costume illustrator and playwright had a smash hit with his staging of Macbeth and is currently at work on a new play, “N***** Heaven”
Anyone who saw “Macbeth” in August in the warehouse building at 7th and Central has probably not forgotten it — it was an experience for the senses.
Set in an apocalyptic time, the characters wore costumes ranging from sci-fi to couture. Hip-hop, jazz and other genres from a DJ and live guitarist blasted along with a bellowing sound machine. A strong element of electronic dance music joined the fray. “We wanted it to feel like an underground rave,” said the production’s creator, Keyon Monté.
“Macbeth” was his baby. Monté conceived it, directed it and designed it.
The scenes enveloped the whole space, weaving in and out of the audience, accompanied by blinding lights, sometimes from flashlights. The very floor seemed to quiver from air vents (and maybe creatures?) underneath. The actors, almost all Black, were strong and forceful, and with only one row of seating on two sides, the audience was intimately involved.
We read about this kind of unique, progressive, immersive performance happening in New York or L.A.; to find it in KC was exhilarating.
Monté is from Kansas City but had a peripatetic career before he came home during the pandemic.
New York is where he got his start as a playwright, costume illustrator and artist.
Working with New York-based La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, he developed a one-act play, “Queen,” in Italy in 2018. He engaged in other theater projects, educational programs and some film work. He delved into painting, and in 2020 his portrait series gained a social media following, which led to a showing in New York’s ONE gallery for the web series “The Boys.” It was recently bought by Showtime and is in development for a full prime time reboot, Monté said.
Monté also created promotional images for Broadway productions, including posters for The New Group, National Black Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, “A Strange Loop,” “Six” and “Hadestown.” He then turned to costume design, serving as illustration artist for “Death Becomes Her” as a BTC Costume Design Fellow at the Black Theatre Coalition, and for “CATS: The Jellicle Ball,” coming to the Broadhurst Theatre in April.
Monté attended Paseo High School and then earned his degree in Costume Design at the University of North Carolina.
He grew up an only child heavily influenced by his dynamic grandparents. His grandfather was a painter and comic illustrator, as well as the president of the Black economic union, which helped to jumpstart the 18th and Vine re-emergence in the late ’80s. One grandmother was a poet, another (he claims to have five altogether) a devotee of theater and travel. He remembers her introducing Cirque du Soleil tapes to him. His mother took him to “Pippin,” his first play in New York.
At the end of 2025 he completed work on a new musical, an adaptation of “Purple Rain” and sent it to Broadway. His adaptation of “Black Swan” is currently in out-of-town tryouts.
Multitasking is Monté’s forte. While bringing “Macbeth” to fruition, he auditioned a cast of many first-time actors and counseled them through some decidedly rough spots. He’s been awarded funding from Tony Award-winning producer Rob Laqui for a new play, “N* HEAVEN,” which will have an industry reading before its planned off-Broadway debut next year. The idea of the story was inspired by his fascination with photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten and his contributions to the Harlem Renaissance.
Another project in the works is translating last summer’s “Macbeth” into a movie, “I Am Not Macbeth.” The film brings a new direction and focus to the play, becoming a “character study and perspective exploration on three characters surrounding Macbeth,” Monté said. It will focus on King Duncan, young Fleance and Prince Malcolm, exploring the ideas that they are “all versions of Macbeth himself” and that “it takes a certain kind of person to want power.”
He’s also considering beginning a new theater company here; the plan is to form a small ensemble for immersive theater (in the “Macbeth” vein) and to have it up and running in time for the World Cup this summer.
For more about Keyon Monté, visit @keyonmonte.
