(They/Them/Theirs)

Director of Community Engagement
kaia@wamtheatre.com

Kaia is a healing-centered creator, space holder and story weaver who is energized and humbled by the capacity of every story to change the shape of what we know to be true. As the Director of Community Engagement with WAM, they are thrilled to nourish connections and collaborations among and between Berkshire-based artists, organizations, and communities. A long-time co-creator and member of the Collective Leadership Team of Survivor Theatre Project, they practice a deep commitment to collective decision-making, feedback seeking, and intersectional feminism. As a space holder and story weaver, their past credits include Let the Body Speak: A Performance Project (Hampshire College) and Rooooarrr: A Beautiful Anger (Survivor Theatre Project) and creations include Valley Storytelling Collective, Wagon Wheel Word, and Warp & Woof Stories. Most recently, they performed in Sister Act (Richmond Civic Theatre), Most Dangerous Women and The Birth Mother Project (The Lava Center). Kaia is committed to learning how to center and hold space for healing of historically silenced experiences in intergenerational community spaces. They have also served as a movement chaplain, offering emotional and spiritual support, and uplifting practices of self-care and community care, with activists. Kaia plans to hold space for experiences of climate grief with youth and activists in years to come. They are also dreaming into a project called Survivor Uprising Podcast, an interview-based storytelling project that will invite survivor artists, activists and healers to share from their work and reflect on their creative and spiritual journeys. Kaia received a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Hampshire College, an MDiv from Earlham School of Religion, and a certificate from Prison Yoga Project. Most recently, Kaia apprenticed with Fungi Alley to learn how to cultivate Shiitake mushrooms in their very own backyard. They are over the moon to join the incredible community of artists, activists, audience members and staff at WAM Theatre! You are welcome to connect with Kaia anytime at kaia@wamtheatre.com.