{{short description|American actress and playwright}} {{Infobox person | name = Talene Monahon | image = TaleneMonahon-byPhilipRomano.jpg | caption = Monahon in 2025 | birth_date = | birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | education = Dartmouth College (BA) }} '''Talene Monahon''' is an Armenian-American actress and playwright.
Her play ''Meet the Cartozians'' was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2026 Pulitzer Prizes |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2026|website=pulitzer.org }}Retrieved 2026-05-05.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=2026 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Talene Monahon |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/talene-monahon |website=pulitzer.org }}Retrieved 2026-05-05.</ref>
==Childhood and education== Monahon was born in Boston and grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/bio/talene-monahon/|title=Talene Monahon|website=Huntington Theatre Company|accessdate=May 6, 2026}}</ref><ref name="WKFI">{{cite news |last1=Killeen |first1=Wendy |title=French Impressions |publisher=Boston Globe |date=24 July 2005}}</ref> She is a 2013 graduate of Dartmouth College.<ref name="KSAC">{{cite news |last1=Schreiber |first1=Katherine |title=Monahon '13 discusses her acting career |agency=University News Wire |newspaper=The Dartmouth |date=12 October 2015}}</ref>
Monahon was a child actor in regional and amateur productions in the Boston area.<ref name="WellT">{{cite news |title='Oz' playing in Wellesley, with a twist |url=https://archive.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/03/16/oz_playing_in_wellesley_with_a_twist/ |access-date=20 January 2020 |newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=16 March 2006}}</ref><ref name="WKFI"/><ref name="KSAC"/>
==''How to Load a Musket''== ''How to Load a Musket'', Monahon's play about historical reenactment, was produced as a staged reading at the Cape Cod Theatre Project in 2017,<ref name="LAM">{{cite web |first=Beth|last=Armstrong|title=CCTP Presents 'How To Load A Musket' |url=https://www.capenews.net/arts_and_entertainment/cctp-presents-how-to-load-a-musket/article_61fec6c9-b63c-5321-bb1f-6e8e993ea45d.html |accessdate=20 January 2020 |website=The Enterprise<!--Possibly The Enterprise (Brockton) but possibly not--> |date=14 July 2017}}</ref> and had its premier production at Manhattan's 59E59 Theaters in January 2020.<ref name="59E59">{{cite press release |title=HOW TO LOAD A MUSKET makes world premiere at 59E59 Theaters |url=https://www.59e59.org/media/filer_public/bf/45/bf459ee4-e2ff-4fbb-b26e-194a50734f74/musket_release.pdf|website=59e59.org|publisher=59E59 Theaters |location=New York City|date=November 25, 2019|accessdate=July 14, 2021}}</ref><ref name="ASGR">{{cite news |last1=Soloski |first1=Alexis |title='How to Load a Musket' Review: A Play About Re-enactors Gets Real |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/theater/how-to-load-a-musket-review.html |accessdate=January 20, 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=16 January 2020}}</ref><ref name="BCAI">{{cite news |last1=Chadwick |first1=Bruce |title=A Play About Historical Reenactors Grapples With American Identity |url=http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/174075 |date=January 19, 2020|accessdate=20 January 2020 |agency=History News Network}}</ref><ref name="RSLM">{{cite news |last1=Snook |first1=Raven |title=How to Load a Musket |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/how-to-load-a-musket |website=Time Out New York |date=21 January 2020}}</ref>
Monahon began researching historical reenactment in 2015, first interviewing Revolutionary War reenactors in Massachusetts and New York, then interviewing Civil War reenacters and performance artist Dread Scott, who produced a 2017 reenactment of the 1811 German Coast uprising. Monahon's play is created entirely from the words of her politically, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse interviewees, whose views of their hobby evolve over the years during which the interviews took place.<ref name="OCLM">{{cite magazine |last1=Clement |first1=Olivia |title=Adam Chanler-Berat, Carolyn Braver, Ryan Spahn, More Tapped for World Premiere of How to Load a Musket |url=http://www.playbill.com/article/adam-chanler-berat-carolyn-braver-ryan-spahn-more-tapped-for-world-premiere-of-how-to-load-a-musket |accessdate=20 January 2020 |magazine=Playbill |date=25 November 2019}}</ref><ref name="ASGR"/>
==Acting==
Monahon has performed on stage in New York and other cities.<ref name="MPGCS">{{cite news |last1=Phillips |first1=Maya |title=Review: Stuck in Maine in 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/theater/nothing-gold-can-stay-review.html |accessdate=20 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=9 October 2019}}</ref><ref name="BBA">{{cite news |last1=Brantley |first1=Ben |title=Review: Stockard Channing Is a Mother to Remember in 'Apologia' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/theater/review-apologia-stockard-channing-roundabout.html |accessdate=20 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=16 December 2018}}</ref><ref name="LCH">{{cite news |last1=Collins-Hughes |first1=Laura |title=Review: In 'Widowers' Houses,' Loving a Slumlord's Daughter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/theater/review-in-widowers-houses-loving-a-slumlords-daughter.html |accessdate=20 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=14 March 2016}}</ref><ref name="MSAH">{{cite news |last1=Sommers |first1=Michael |title=How to Load a Musket: Re-creating Your Own Personal American History |url=http://nystagereview.com/2020/01/17/how-to-load-a-musket-re-creating-your-own-personal-american-history/ |accessdate=20 January 2020 |magazine=New York Stage Review |date=17 January 2020}}</ref><ref name="MWFF">{{cite news |last1=Windman |first1=Matt |title='The Government Inspector' review: Talented cast romps in high-energy, fast-paced farce |newspaper=Newsday |date=2 June 2017}}</ref> ''New York Times'' theater critic Laura Collins-Hughes describes Monahon as playing Blanche Sartorious in George Bernard Shaw's ''Widowers' Houses'' "with such take-no-prisoners ferocity that she awakened the sleeping man in front of me during a fight scene."<ref name="LCH"/> Terry Teachout, theater critic for the ''Wall Street Journal'', described Monahon's Blanche as "a startlingly predatory vampire," in a production of Shaw's work that was "as good as it gets."<ref name="TTWSJ">{{cite news |last1=Teachout |first1=Terry |title='Widowers' Houses' Review: The Things We Do for Money |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/widowers-houses-review-the-things-we-do-for-money-1458682431 |accessdate=20 January 2020 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |date=22 March 2016}}</ref>
Monahon has a handful of television acting credits, most recently appearing as Assistant District Attorney Conway in the CBS legal drama ''Bull''.<ref name=Monahon-IMDB>{{cite web |title=Talene Monahon at IMDB | website=IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10581304/?ref_=tt_cl_t9 |accessdate=28 April 2021}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Monahon, Talene}} Category:Living people Category:21st-century American dramatists and playwrights Category:American stage actresses Category:People from Belmont, Massachusetts Category:Dartmouth College alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century American actresses Category:21st-century American women writers Category:American women dramatists and playwrights Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:Actresses from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Category:American television actresses Category:American writers of Armenian descent