Nora Montañez is an Afro-descendent Indigenous Peruvian playwright,
director, actor, and educator based in Mni Sota Makoce, on the ancestral
lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe. She was raised in Paterson, NJ and
holds a BFA from Florida Atlantic University. In Minneapolis, Nora has
performed at Theatre Latte Da, Pillsbury House Theatre, Children’s Theatre
Company, The Guthrie Theater, Theatre Mu and Mixed Blood to name a
few. Nora has directed various productions for Minneapolis Public School’s,
Saint Paul for the Conservatory Performing Artists, Chicago Avenue Project
with Pillsbury House Theatre’s, Project Opera with Minnesota Opera and
Exposed Brick Theater. She is the creator of the pedagogy Decolonizing
the Artists which has been facilitated at the Ordway Center for Performing
Arts, where she was a part of the founding faculty for the Greenroom
fellowship, Center for the Performing Artists and Exposed Brick Theater.
Currently, Nora is a Minneapolis Public School teacher, a Project Manager
with Upstream Arts and the Founder/Executive Director of ALMA (Alliance
of Latine Minnesota Artists). Nora’s work has been recognized as a 2018
Next Step Grant recipient, a 20/21 Many Voices Mentee at the Playwrights
Center, a 21/22 Creative Support Grant recipient, the 21/22 Artist-in-
Residence with the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at the
University of Minnesota and a Avanzando Liderazgo Fellow with
LatinoLead. Nora’s extensive work has been honored in the Yo. Un Latino
en Minnesota by MLatino Media