Halena makes live performance with interesting people.
She is a director, devisor, performer, and educator living in Chicago and Ann Arbor.
halenastarrkays@gmail.com
I would like to acknowledge that my home in Chicago and Michigan resides on the traditional homelands of the Three Fire Peoples - the Ojibwe, Odawa and Bodewadmi. The area was also a site of trade, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes.
The state of Illinois is currently home to more than 75,000 tribal members and the Chicagoland area is currently home to one of the largest and most diverse urban Native communities in the U.S. Illinois is also the territory of Ho-Chunk, Miami, Inoka, Menominee, Sac, Fox, and their descendants.
By making a land acknowledgment, I recognize that Indigenous peoples are the traditional stewards of the land that I now occupy, living here long before Chicago was a city and still thriving here today.
I am a physical storyteller. A director, devisor, clown, parent, and daredevil. I value a good belly laugh, surprise, and, holding creative work with an elegant lightness in non-hierarchal collaboration. I enjoy a good spit take.
My long-term artistic curiosities include interrogating the relationship of the audience and performer (physically and emotionally) through site specific work, events, magic, circus, and an infusion of deliberate randomness in the live experience. My work feeds my desire to remain playful and responsive to ensembles, community, and my own desire for shenanigans.
“What some people would call antics, I would just call a good show.” Iggy Pop
I am aware that white American theater is rooted in racism and white supremacy, that racism causes harm, and that harm is a form of abuse. I strive to diminish the impact of racism through the deliberate application of anti-racist practices to reduce harm.
In all aspects of my work, I strive to practice radical hospitality and radical inclusion. I endeavor to use my pedagogy and performance practice as a tool for resistance rather than a retrenchment of power. My commitment to an anti-racist practice is sustained, ongoing, and foundational to my practice.
Let’s make work in a humane, human, and generous way. Let’s see each other in our full humanity and respect the journey that brought us to the moment of artmaking together. And, let’s share some joy and silliness.
Recent anti-racist resources where I’ve recently gained more insight, language, and provocation to action:
https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/01/trouble-explaining-oppression/
https://leagueofchicagotheatres.org/anti-racism-resources/
https://howlround.com/anti-racist-theatre
https://www.nicolembrewer.com/
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Halena Kays is a founding member of the artistic collaborative, The Ruffians, a former member of the Big Apple Circus Clown Care unit, past artistic director of The Hypocrites, former co-artistic curator for Theater on the Lake, and co-founder and former artistic director of Barrel of Monkeys (now PML).
Halena is an Artistic Associate with the Neo-Futurists where she directed Wildcats!, Comfortable Shoes, Pop/Waits, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, Burning Bluebeard, Daredevils, Daredevils Hamlet, and Fake Lake. Selected Chicago directing credits: Endgame, Ivywild, Six Characters in Search of an Author (The Hypocrites); The Magic Play (The Goodman), Lord of the Flies (Steppenwolf); How a Boy Falls (Northlight Theatre); On Clover Road (American Blues Theater); Feast (part of a collaborative directing effort) with The Albany Park Theatre Project (The Goodman); Mothers (The Gift). Regionally Halena has directed The Magic Play (The Olney Theater Center, The Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Portland Center Stage and Syracuse Stage), Shapeshifter (Bard at the Gate with the McCarter Theatre Center) The Welkin, Love Song (Nashville Story Garden), Secretary (Nashville Rep’s Ingram New Works Festival), and Do You Feel Anger (Circle X, LA).
Halena has been nominated for Jefferson awards for Best Supporting Actress, Best Direction, Best New Work, and Best Production, named one of the top 50 “players” in Chicago theater by NewCity, is a recipient of the prestigious 3Arts Award, and received a signed letter from Mr. Rogers saying she was “special” in 1978. She is a UT-Austin and Northwestern grad, assistant professor and head of directing at the University of Michigan, and parent to Ripley- a complete badass. Proud member, SDC.