Melli Bond

Melli (Melanie) Marie Bond was born (1975) in Massachusetts, USA to an Ecuadorian mother and American father. Melli is a an actress, theatre practitioner, and dancer/choreographer. Melli is the Co-founder and Creative Director Emeritus of Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, which opened in May 2013.

Melli graduated from Christiana High School, where she performed in school plays and participated in cheer-leading on the Varsity Team for three years. She went to The University of South Carolina where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and English Literature and was a sister of Chi Omega sorority. Having spent her undergraduate junior year abroad at University of Hull, Melli returned to Hull as a postgraduate student for a Master of Arts in Theatre Production.

Whilst an MA student, Melli met fellow Hull theatre student Jez Bond and upon graduation they joined forces to develop a plan for creating a new theatre and began scouting possible sites and funding sources. In 2010, they were able to put a down payment on a disused building near Finsbury Park station and begin its conversion into a theatre containing two auditoria of 200 and 90 seats. Following a high-profile fund-raising campaign, Park Theatre opened in May 2013. In 2015, Park Theatre won The Stage magazine's Fringe Theatre of the Year Award. As Creative Director and Associate Artistic Director Melli was responsible for many aspects of the company. Melli curated the Park 90 seasons, co-curated the Park 200 seasons, designed, launched and ran the Creative Learning Programme and, curated art exhibitions for the gallery space featuring work of both local and foreign artists -often as a parallel to the work onstage.

Melli created and lead Script Accelerator, a new writing program at Park Theatre with the aim to support emerging practitioners and novice theatre makers. Several Script Accelerator's plays would go on to have full productions in Park 90.

Melli contributed in a variety of ways to in-house productions at Park. Melli played the role of Frances in These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich - Park's inaugural production in 2013. Melli choreographed the seasonal shows - Sleeping Beauty and Jack and The Beanstalk, as well as the star studded : Whodunnit(Unrehearsed) (2019) all written by Jez Bond and Mark Cameron.