Melody Bates is a native Oregonian actor and writer based in New York City. She began acting as a child, appearing in local plays and in a feature film that was shot in Oregon’s wine country. She fell for Shakespeare early—within a year of seeing The Taming of the Shrew at the Oregon Shakespeare festival, she was directing herself and her brothers and cousins in a midsummer production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, staged on the fair shores of Odell Lake in the Cascades, costumes pulled from their grandma's dress-up box, line prompts whispered from behind pine trees, the lake lapping at the edges of the play.
She is a versatile and talented actress who works in stage and film in a wide array of genres. She is a three-time winner and eleven-time nominee for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards, with nods including Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance as “Dina” in J.Stephen Brantley’s Eightythree Down, directed by Daniel Talbott. Other nominations include Outstanding Revival of a Play for her play R & J & Z, two nods for Outstanding Ensemble, which she won as part of the Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant company, and Outstanding Original Music, which she and Rebecca Hart won for The Cabaret at the End of the World. She appears regularly on the Metropolitan Opera stage, where she has played small acting roles in all of director Bartlett Sher’s Met productions, and has worked with other notable directors including Phelim McDermott and Sir David McVicar. She has a longstanding relationship with Deer Isle, Maine, where her acting credits include Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra, Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Maria), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night (Olivia/ Aguecheek). Her first full-length play, R & J & Z, was written for the island's Opera House Arts as part of a two-year residency, and premiered there in July 2014 to audience and critical raves. The Maine premiere was followed by a highly acclaimed sold-out run in April 2015 at New York City's New Ohio Theatre. Her play AVALON, a radical and ambitious telling of the legends of Avalon and Camelot, was created in collaboration with Maine sculptor Peter Beerits. The August 2019 world premiere of AVALON, staged in Beerits' multi-acre woodland arts installation, was a sold out phenomenon, with rave reviews from audiences and critics alike.
Film and TV acting credits include Law and Order SVU, PBS Great Performances, Ask for Jane, Purity, Naked/ Spurious, Investigation Discovery's I Am Homicide, Occupy Elm Street, Public Hearing, and Have You Seen Tom. Other theatre credits include John Jahnke’s Alas the Nymphs (BAM Next Wave); Mike Gorman’s If Colorado Had an Ocean, Biffin’ Mussels, The Poet and the Lumberjack, and How and Why I Robbed My First Cheese Store, and Andrei Serban’s Caucasian Chalk Circle (La MaMa E.T.C.); WaxFactory’s Blind.ness (PS 122 & Cankarjev Dom, Slovenia); Mac Wellman’s Obie-winning Jennie Richee (Chicago and NYC) and The Invention of Tragedy (Classic Stage Company); No Mother to Guide Her and Craft (Flea Theatre); Robert Woodruff’s Godard: distant and right (NYC and Paris). As a company member of Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant, Melody has performed at the Cleveland Public Theatre, Boston's A.R.T., Joe's Pub and several other NYC theatres. Melody created the 4th-8th grade drama program at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School, where she pioneered a year-long immersive Shakespeare collaboration project which culminates in a full production of one of Shakespeare's plays. She lives in Brooklyn with her gifted husband and frequent creative partner David Bennett, and holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University.
She is a versatile and talented actress who works in stage and film in a wide array of genres. She is a three-time winner and eleven-time nominee for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards, with nods including Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance as “Dina” in J.Stephen Brantley’s Eightythree Down, directed by Daniel Talbott. Other nominations include Outstanding Revival of a Play for her play R & J & Z, two nods for Outstanding Ensemble, which she won as part of the Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant company, and Outstanding Original Music, which she and Rebecca Hart won for The Cabaret at the End of the World. She appears regularly on the Metropolitan Opera stage, where she has played small acting roles in all of director Bartlett Sher’s Met productions, and has worked with other notable directors including Phelim McDermott and Sir David McVicar. She has a longstanding relationship with Deer Isle, Maine, where her acting credits include Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra, Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Maria), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania), Macbeth (Lady Macbeth), Measure for Measure, Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night (Olivia/ Aguecheek). Her first full-length play, R & J & Z, was written for the island's Opera House Arts as part of a two-year residency, and premiered there in July 2014 to audience and critical raves. The Maine premiere was followed by a highly acclaimed sold-out run in April 2015 at New York City's New Ohio Theatre. Her play AVALON, a radical and ambitious telling of the legends of Avalon and Camelot, was created in collaboration with Maine sculptor Peter Beerits. The August 2019 world premiere of AVALON, staged in Beerits' multi-acre woodland arts installation, was a sold out phenomenon, with rave reviews from audiences and critics alike.
Film and TV acting credits include Law and Order SVU, PBS Great Performances, Ask for Jane, Purity, Naked/ Spurious, Investigation Discovery's I Am Homicide, Occupy Elm Street, Public Hearing, and Have You Seen Tom. Other theatre credits include John Jahnke’s Alas the Nymphs (BAM Next Wave); Mike Gorman’s If Colorado Had an Ocean, Biffin’ Mussels, The Poet and the Lumberjack, and How and Why I Robbed My First Cheese Store, and Andrei Serban’s Caucasian Chalk Circle (La MaMa E.T.C.); WaxFactory’s Blind.ness (PS 122 & Cankarjev Dom, Slovenia); Mac Wellman’s Obie-winning Jennie Richee (Chicago and NYC) and The Invention of Tragedy (Classic Stage Company); No Mother to Guide Her and Craft (Flea Theatre); Robert Woodruff’s Godard: distant and right (NYC and Paris). As a company member of Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant, Melody has performed at the Cleveland Public Theatre, Boston's A.R.T., Joe's Pub and several other NYC theatres. Melody created the 4th-8th grade drama program at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School, where she pioneered a year-long immersive Shakespeare collaboration project which culminates in a full production of one of Shakespeare's plays. She lives in Brooklyn with her gifted husband and frequent creative partner David Bennett, and holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University.