Halena Kays is a founding member of the Chicago artistic collaborative, The Ruffians, an artistic affiliate of American Blues Theatre, 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 Playmakers Lab.
Halena is an Artistic Associate with the Neo-Futurists Chicago where she co-created and directed Comfortable Shoes, Pop/Waits, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents, Burning Bluebeard, Daredevils, Daredevils Hamlet, Fake Lake, and Wildcat! (Jeff nominated for Best Direction, Best New Work, and Best Actor).
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); Misery, On Clover Road (American Blues Theater); Mothers (The Gift), Feast (part of a collaborative directing effort) with The Albany Park Theatre Project (The Goodman). Selected Regional: Do You Feel Anger? (Circle X, LA), Shapeshifter (Bard at the Gate with the McCarter Theatre Center), The Magic Play (The Olney Theater Center, The Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Portland Center Stage, and Syracuse Stage), Love Song and The Welkin (Nashville Story Garden), and Secretary (Nashville Rep’s Ingram New Works Festival).
Halena has been nominated for Chicago 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, and a proud member of her union, SDC, and an associate Professor and Head of Directing in Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan.
