We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful August Hundley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with August below.

Hi August, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I am happier as an artist now that I am my true self! When I was starting out auditioning and looking for creative work I may want to do, I wasn’t happy mentally or physically, but during the pandemic I truly got to look inward and discover things about myself I didn’t know were there. I was working retail in Carytown and was so unhappy in general with not being able to spend time in a creative space, and then a job opened up at Swift Creek Mill Theater as the Education Director and I said “Why not?” My mom is in education, and I’ve taught classes and had plenty of experience, so I took that risk. It’s been my full time work ever since. There was still something that didn’t feel right though, and I didn’t fully embrace myself until I also started working for Richmond Triangle Players. They cast me in Collective Rage in 2021, and I came out as Transgender on that process. I was so proud to be out and fully myself in the theater community in Richmond, and I knew from then on I would be so much happier, and it has really, truly been the best change I’ve made in my life. I realized that the creative life I’ve chosen for myself has made me embrace who I really am, and has helped me understand myself and the Queer community around me better. I do still wonder what it would be like to have a ‘regular’ job, but I don’t think I would feel as safe and secure as I do now.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My full time job is as the Education Director as Swift Creek Mill Theater. I teach classes and camps during the school year and summer time, and also manage all their student matinee performances for field trips during the year. I absolutely love seeing kids who have never experienced theater before fall in love with it just like I did growing up. My mom is a theater teacher, but she never pressured me into this field. I took classes and auditioned for shows throughout school, and then when I went to college, I was going to be a history major, but fell back in love with theater the minute I got cast in my first semester musical.

I also work for Richmond Triangle Players, not just as an actor sometimes, (Previous shows include Charlie in Scrooge in Rouge and Brad in The Rocky Horror Show just to name some favs) but they also have hired me the last two seasons as their Gender Consultant. A Gender Consultant is a newer term in the theater community, and I have loved creating safe spaces for the folks or the theater community. A Gender Consultant can do many things, like analyzing a theatre’s season selection for transphobic/homophobic content or tropes, running training for theatre staff on the proper use of pronouns and allowing space for practice, reading drafts of new work to ensure that authenticity is retained, meeting with directors before rehearsals start to talk through gender-related concepts, and touching base with actors about dressing room situations before they enter a space. I also stay up to date on current political situations and give the staff and theatre artists a safe person to go to in times of need. Though I’m not a therapist, I am someone who is up to date an educated on current events, so I am always a person they can come to and feel safe around. I have such fantastic conversations throughout a process with so many different people, and I feel so rewarded knowing that I’m helping create safe spaces at this theater. My hope for 2025 and onward is that I can work at more theaters in the area to do just the same.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Listen and hear. I think a really important way to support and engage especially now is to listen to what others are saying. Hear what they are telling you. A good conversation, a useful conversation, comes from both sides. Listen and then speak. I’m tired of seeing people cut each other off, or but into a conversation with little to no context. When trying to help a creative community, or a community in general, listening to people and hearing their side of the story and giving them the space to share is one of the most important things.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to help create and nourish safe spaces and communities all over Richmond and beyond. In becoming an educator, I want to allow students the space to think and expand what they want. I want to allow them the opportunity to discover themselves as well as the art around them. My goal as a teacher is to help them feel safe and listened to. Everyone deserves that, but they rarely receive it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @auggiehundley
• Facebook: August Hundley

Image Credits

Destiny Martinez, John MacLellan, Kieran Segaloff