Artemisia Theater announced today the appointment of Kelcey Anyá as the company’s first managing director, marking a key moment of growth and renewed commitment to elevating women’s voices.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Kelcey to Artemisia’s leadership team,” said Julie Proudfoot, Founder and Artistic Director, Artemisia Theatre. “Kelcey’s fierce feminist voice, her incredible creative energy and her commitment to theater that centers all women make her a perfect champion for Artemisia.”
Kelcey Anyá
Kelcey Anyá is a multi-disciplinary performing artist originally from the bayous of South Louisiana. She began her performance career at the age of two as a dancer, fell in love with all things performance, and her motto became “as long as I can touch the stage, I’m happy.”
Kelcey Anyá received her Master's of Arts in Theatre, Performance and Practice with certificates in both Teaching and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. In 2019 she merged her love for education and the arts when she began her career as a teaching artist in New York City. Since then, she has juggled serving as the director of Colt Coeur Theatre Company’s annual education initiative (New York City), as a teaching artist and dance instructor with The Joffrey Ballet, and as a teaching artist with Pegasus Theatre.
Now in Chicago, she is also Founder and Director of the Kelcey Anyá Performing Arts Academy, LLC (KAPAA), an organization geared towards amplifying the voices of young Black and Brown storytellers through the arts.
“Assuming the managing director role at Artemisia is a merger of passion and purpose. Artemisia and I go together like two puzzle pieces joining to form an image we both knew existed but needed the other to complete,” said Kelcey Anyá. “The only constant in life is change so as we embark on this journey together, I expect Artemisia to grow and fuel my passions as they merge with my purpose and help me become while I return the gesture by doing the same. Cheers to a new season of growth and development!”
With the addition of Kelcey Anyá, Artemisia’s leadership team is 100 percent women, because “women still struggle to find a place where they can share their stories and be their true selves as artists,” said board president E. Faye Butler. “That’s what I love about Artemisia. It’s a sisterhood of leaders, who empower women as writers, directors, performers. A place where women can bring their fire, passion and lived experience and share true stories from their perspective.”
Artemisia Board President E. Faye Butler
In addition to growing its staff, Artemisia is planning a return to live performances in summer 2022, with another potential project in the fall, assuming it's safe to gather and present in-person live theater again. Stay tuned for Artemisia’s 2022 season announcement.
In the meantime, stay connected by visiting artemisiatheatre.org/podcast and subscribing to the company’s We Women podcast. Co-hosts Julie Proudfoot and Willow James introduce listeners to unique audio performances of feminist plays, discussions with playwrights and interviews with social justice leaders who continue to make the world better for women.
The next We Women episode, dropping Wednesday, February 9, features a conversation with Kelcey Anyá, Artemisia's new Managing Director, about all things feminism, career and getting started with the company.
We Women co-hosts Julie Proudfoot (left) and Willow James
About Artemisia Theatre: Making women heroes by sharing their empowering stories
Artemisia Gentileschi was a great feminist painter, forgotten by history. Now, she’s celebrated as the greatest female artist prior to the modern period. It shows why women’s stories are important. They change our perspective, on the past, the present and the future.
That’s why Chicago’s Artemisia Theatre was founded, to share women’s untold stories. Since 2011, Artemisia has enriched Chicago’s culture by taking creative risks, achieving artistic excellence, and engaging the audience directly to inspire compassion and social justice for women. Through its celebrated productions of classic and all-new feminist plays, its past Fall Fest of staged readings, and its current virtual works, and upcoming world premieres, Artemisia creates career-altering opportunities for African American, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA), Caucasian and LGBTQ theater artists.
Artemisia Theatre is a recent recipient of a Chi Biz Strong Grant and is also supported by the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, Arts Work Fund, DDT Law Group, Echo Limousine, Fox Pest Control, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Illinois Humanities, The MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity and the Arts at the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Rebellious Magazine for Women and Salvi Schostok & Pritchard Trial Lawyers.
For more, visit artemisiatheatre.org where you can sign up for the company’s e-newsletter and subscribe to its feminist podcast, We Women. Or, follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.