WHO WE ARE
ELIZABETH HESS, Artistic Director
Ms. Hess is an actor, playwright, director, Arts educator and artistic director of The Hess Collective. (THC)
THC’s inaugural work, LOVE TRADE, premiered at La MaMa during their Tony-Award 2018 season. Their subsequent work, SPOILED, was in a developmental workshop at Dixon Place in 2019; the second co-production with La MaMa was postponed in 2020.
Ms. Hess’ other ensemble works include PERFECT CURIOSITY, developed at The O’Neill Theater Center/NYU; SCARBERIA, developed at TheaterLab/La MaMa; NOMADS, developed at The New Group/The Lark.
Elizabeth has performed her acclaimed solo work around the globe: DUST TO DUST in Bucharest, Kiel, Stockholm, Prishtina and New York, Off-Broadway and UN Conference on Gender Violence; LIVING OPENLY & NOTORIOUSLY, in Berlin, Bath, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Toronto, Yerevan and Off-Broadway.
Ms. Hess’ other acting credits include work with The New Group, Women’s Project, Irish Rep, MTC and NYTW in New York, as well as extensive regional theaters. TV credits include series lead in Clarissa Explains It All and numerous Indie films.
Her book, ACTING & BEING: Explorations in Embodied Performance, published by Macmillan in 2017, is based on her hybrid approach - culled from teaching acting/performance/playwriting primarily at New York University and masterclasses/ workshops internationally.
Elizabeth is the recipient of a Madolin Cervantes Grant; ITI Armmono Festival Director's Award; ITI Awards. Internationally, she was also sponsored by Regione Venezia in Italy; Columbia Global Center (CGC) in Chile; US State Department as an ACULSPEC participated in the ITI/UNESCO Conference in The Philippines; sat on the jury of the ITI Thespis Mono Festival in Germany and Saint Muse Festival in Mongolia and conducted a playwriting/acting workshop in Kosovo, resulting in the devised work, INTERNALLY DISPLACED. www.ElizabethHess.net
KELLY KIRBY, Managing Director
Kelly is a New York based stage manager and theatre professional. She has stage managed various productions in and around the city. Her credits include The Conversationalists (The Bushwick Starr and Kimmel Center) Fern Hill (59E59 Theatre), Nixon in China (The Princeton Festival). She was also an intern at New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Season and on Signature Theatre’s production of F**king A. Kelly received a Bachelors of Business Administration with a minor in theatre from Adelphi University and is very excited to join The Hess Collective in creating theatre!
AFFILIATE ARTISTS
