Moníka Essen is an award-winning, nationally recognized artist, designer, and director. The recipient of the prestigious Lawrence DeVine Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theatre, she studied Interior Architecture and Environmental Design at Parsons School of Design and received her MFA in Scenography from the renowned Hilberry Repertory Company.
Moníka has designed countless productions in theatre, opera, and film. For Detroit Opera she designed their highly acclaimed productions of Bliss, Carmina Burana, and The Medium, as well as their spectacular production of Frida. She has just recently directed and designed La Cenerentola for Opera Modo in Detroit, with an entirely new concept she devised, which included a new and modern libretto in English. Currently, she is working on a furniture line and an exciting new version of The Tales of Hoffmann.
Moníka is an accomplished painter, and creates murals, custom furniture, museum exhibits, interiors, and full sensory, multi-media environments for residential and commercial clients, including the Detroit Zoo. All her work can be viewed at studioepoque.com.