Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dawn Heilung. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dawn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I moved to Chicago in hopes I would get the chance to boost my career as a performer but was met with unwelcome responses from most auditions I went to as an actor and a dancer. Lots of artistic spaces don’t know what to do with nonbinary and gender nonconforming artists. And the artistic scene of Chicago is not focused on telling the stories of trans people.

So 2 years ago I launched Gender Fucked Productions with a few friends and a lot of ambition. Since our founding we have been able to contract over 80+ trans artists and producers and we have generated over $30k in revenue that we put directly back into paying our team. We’ve performed at Thalia Hall, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Elastic Arts. We have also won numerous awards like 2nd best dance company and productions by the Chicago Reader and audience choice award at the Chicago Circus and Performing Arts Festival.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Dawn Heilung is a performer, producer, and wiggly spaghetti noodle. Dawn has been dancing for 13 years and has trained in numerous movement styles like viewpoints, droznin, partnering/lifts, and gaga. They’ve choreographed for multiple musicals like the Addams Family and Thoroughly Modern Millie and danced in Queer Dance Freakout since its inception in Texas in 2018! Dawn studied Dance and Musical Theatre at the North East School of the Arts and graduated with a BFA in Acting from Texas State University. (Go bobcats) In Chicago they have danced at Thalia Hall, The Den Theatre, Steppenwolf, and The High Hall. They have had their choreo featured in performances with the Chicago Dance Makers Forum and the Fly Honeys.

The big differentiator for Gender Fucked Productions is our no one turned away for lack of funds programming. All shows we do by trans people and for trans people. Our shows are always sliding scale and if someone from our community needs a ticket and can’t afford it, we slide to 0 for trans people.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We fund gender fucked from the community! So far we have made back the money we needed for all our performance spaces and rentals. Additionally we have a strong donor base that has helped us fundraise our initial operating costs for the past year.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Yes! We have had a lot of financial issues since we started but have since stuck through and maintained our 501c3 status. Artists don’t often make money on their performances because the working class is overworked and underpaid. Rental for rehearsal space and performance space is expensive and our community is not always able to pay for a $50 ticket for us to be able to compensate our team fairly.

We have shown resilience by finding creative ways to raise funds through grassroots organizing, and selling merch to maintain our work.

Contact Info:

• Website: genderfucked.org
• Instagram: @gender_fucked_productions
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@genderphuckedproductions4033/featured

Image Credits
All Photos by Jenn Udoni (he, they) @francoimages.photography on insta