THE ELEPHANT PLAY Spotlight: HJ Farr

We’re thrilled to continue the creative team of The Elephant Play by Kelly O’Donnell with performer HJ Farr! HJ is an important contributor to Core Work and to The Revolution Has Called Places. The questions are inspired by Kelly’s beautiful play—make sure to RSVP for the 6/27 and 6/28 readings in NYC!

RSVP

Who is your favorite fictional pachyderm?

The Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant from Adventure Time (don’t worry, this elephant is not currently being used for war)

Did you ever met an elephant in real life? If so, what was it like?

I have! I was pretty young, but my local zoo had a program where kids and adults could ride an elephant around a small enclosure (I have some mixed feelings about this now), but I remember the feeling of the elephant’s skin, and even though each step was so big that I was a little off-balance even sitting, I remember feeling incredibly safe, like the elephant would never ever let me fall.

Have you ever felt separated from your herd?

Growing up, I often felt like I was perpetually trying to find a herd to belong to. And even when I would find one, it always seemed like I was just visiting. This used to make me incredibly sad, but these days I view it as heartwarming — look at how many different herds I’ve belonged to over the years!

HJ Farr (they/them) is a nonbinary actor/writer/aerialist originally from Cleveland, Ohio. They graduated with Honours from Sheridan Institute’s Music Theatre Program and moved to Madison, Wisconsin before finding a home here in NYC! Favorite experiences include playing Mac in Dumpster Flower (Broom Street Theater), Jason in Falsettos (StageQ), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (TheatreLILA), Pax in A Very Queer Holiday (streaming), directing black & white (Broom Street Theater), and performing aerial circus with Cycropia Aerial Dance, Madison Circus Space, The Muse Brooklyn, Aerial Arts NYC, Big Top/Let Them Eat Cake at The Slipper Room, and Ankole at Brooklyn Art Haus! “HJ loves Kip!”

How can people follow your work?

@hjenby on the social medias for silly things, kipventures.poetry.blog for my daily poetry, and hjfarr.com for more profesh things.