Congratulations on an exquisite performance last night Karen.  What a journey you have had.I was enthralled, fascinated, surprised, amused and ultimately moved to tears. I hope this piece lives on and on.

        —Betsy Eagan Beaven

Today I had the absolute honour of attending Tony Montanaro: A Love Story, a one-woman show written and performed by Karen Montanaro. Through her telling of this profound love story, Karen opens our eyes and hearts to the divine forces at work not only in theatre, but also latent within all of us.

This show possesses a unique healing quality, I found. It truly acts as a universal panacea - going directly to the heart and spirit of every audience member. Go see this show and leave transformed. I guarantee whatever ails you will be healed and you will leave uplifted!

        —Christine Sullivan, Brighton, England

Karen, O Karen! I was absolutely moved by your performance last night and blown away to fathom what it cost you -- and enriched you -- to create it. With so much love, admiration, and the sparks of possibility that you inspire in me.

          —Jackie Davis

The best of theater has always come at me and from me as a stream of very brief but profound moments. Tony Montanaro gave me more than anyone else; poling an invisible raft across the stage so truthfully that even the ripples on the water were caught in his movement; putting his hands on an invisible wall, and then, with a couple of steps and a flick of each wrist, walking through it; and hundreds more, the last one being a very brief posthumous eclipse of the sun, caused by the urn that moments earlier had held his ashes, and was now being flung by one of his sons into the sea.

Last Thursday evening Karen Montanaro in her new show, Tony Montanaro: A Love Story, added many more  precious moments to my collection. To mention a few, there was her tired tiger casually flicking it’s tail, her dainty toes dancing like Chaplin’s dinner rolls, her ever changing arms and hands, encompassing her head and torso in frames enough to fill a museum wall, and of course her amazing hair, hanging, whirling and exploding with the combined flair of Rapunzel, Medusa and Cousin It!

Tony was there as well, on an upstage screen, in beautiful archival pictures and film that managed to rightfully placed him with fellow his mime icons, Etienne Decroux, Jean-Louis Barrault, and Marcel Marceau. Among my favorite solo moments were his cocky cowboy twirling six shooters and catching them in his holsters, and his legendary chicken, acted in a way that went beyond the art of mimicry and into the realm of shape-shifting. We also saw just enough bits from Tony and Karen’s years of duet work to intrigue us, but not detract from Karen’s live performing.

Karen is renowned for her movement, but she is also a great storyteller, and managed to both reverently and irreverently narrate this story of love and artistic partnership with just the right combination of honesty and humor. She didn’t do this all by herself, however. She had the help of director and virtuoso performer Robert Post. He was a protégée of Tony’s, and his deep understanding of the ways of both his mentor and of Karen, enabled him to help craft the intricate weave of this show as well as it’s dramatic arc.

By dramatic arc I mean that Karen and Robert created a true one woman play with a beginning, a middle and an end; far different from a one woman show consisting only of a string of set pieces, however beautiful. A play is not linear. It turns back and forth on itself, anticipating and revisiting; not mixing the parts beyond recognition, but folding them in carefully, like egg whites, so that the whole creation rises to the occasion.

That is how the live action and the projected images of this work were combined into such a delicious performance; folded, so that each ingredient took it’s turn flowing over the other. This classic culinary process was epitomized in the last, superimposed moment of the show, when Karen’s right hand wafted, almost aromatically, up into the air to join the two large, lovingly clasped hands, in a final soft focus picture of Tony and his sweetheart as they strolled off stage together. So thank you, Tony, thank you, Robert, and especially thank you, Karen, for serving us up an absolute banquet of an evening, replete with that never to be forgotten chocolate mousse of an ending!

          —Michael Cooper

Tony Montanaro was my everything. I'm not sure who or what I would have become without him. The greatest compliment you can give to a mentor is that he helped you to believe in yourself. I am so humbled and honored that I directed this love story about two people that I love. I'm tearing up just thinking about all the beautiful [Celebration Barn Theater] people that were at the performances on Thursday and Friday. I hope Karen Hurll Montanaro and I made you proud!

        —Robert Post, Director of Tony Montanaro: A Love Story

I felt transported to so many places, feelings, memories watching the show. Love radiating from Karen. Beautiful work Robert and Karen. Glad to hear you are doing another performance and I hope many many more.

        —Mary Ellen MacLean, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Such a beautiful portrayal of a beautiful Love story while it is true that this show brought back many memories of my own Barn experience, it also revealed so much of the unknown, unseen of Tony...his own childlike qualities.

        —Denise Reehl

Thank YOU for the wonderful show and the lovely time afterward! One thing I forgot to mention was the humor you incorporated. I was impressed by how many laughs you got! You had so many great lines that connected us and lifted our spirit. Again, great job!!

          —Motoko Dworkin

Yesterday I caught the first matinee ever to be offered at the Celebration Barn [Theater], of this lovely show. I sat there, and perpetually wept as I watched the story unfold through dance, mime and video footage. I was reminded of something my friend Mike Newsom once told me, that as long as there are humans performing in places like the Barn, telling stories and evoking emotion from the listeners, then the world is going to be ok. Even as I drove away I could still feel the presence of a “sweet sadness” in my throat, and the notion that being human was indeed the best thing going on this planet. Thank you Karen Hurll Montanaro and Celebration Barn Theater, and thank you Tony Montanaro wherever you may be.

        —Daniel Rennie

Karen Hurll Montanaro, I will tell you, the moment you sat down to “watch TV” was the first moment the tears came. I was absolutely transported to my childhood and watching Sesame Street. Wow, that was visceral.

        —Daniel Rennie