We were lucky to catch up with Brittyn Dion Bonham recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brittyn, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I grew up in South Florida. Instead of snow days I got to miss school for hurricanes and auditions. On a hurricane day the men in my neighborhood stocked up on natural disaster essentials- weed, beer, and toilet paper. They shuttered window with hefty nails and discussing whose names were first on the hardware store’s generator list. When the storm made landfall we sheltered in place and watched different colors migrate through our TV until power went out.

And when the power went out, it was showtime for little actress- me. My dad pushed me out of the house in an oversized blazer with a hairbrush in my hand. He covered himself with trash bags and grabbed a camera. (The trash bags were his professional way to keep the camera dry.) We waited until our supernatural Floridian power told us the worst part of the storm was passing and dashed into the hurricane’s calming eye.

I knew to grip the hairbrush like a microphone and wait for my dad to count down silently. My hair lashed wildly around droplet covered glasses. My sister was barely 4 months old and about to experience more disaster than most middle-aged Americans. My dad told me it was a testament to the skills I’d acquired between auditions, commercial roles, and background TV work, if I could properly narrate this record breaking storm. My dad was teaching me a lesson in acting. This one: BE the News Caster. Staring at a 6’2” man covered in hefty stretch, I’d rely on my child improv for camera class and expertly detail the events around me no matter how many sharp palm fronds whizzed past my bare feet.

I don’t know if my dad held on to this footage but these moments play in my head at every audition, workshop, or experimental theater pice I work on. Inspired by the extreme weather-changing days of my childhood, I often experiment with sound, movement, color, and visuals in the art I make.

Looking back as an adult, half of me longs for a calmer childhood, a childhood full of placid beach visits and early bedtimes. However, I would not be the radiant artist I embody every day without the experience of child acting. I show up whether there has been a blizzard or a simple sun shower. I crave the constant changing conditions that comes with performance art. Nothing deters me after learning grace in the danger of a hurricane.

Brittyn, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi there! My name is Brittyn Dion Bonham. My passion is making experimental theater. The pieces I am jazzed by are funny and glittery and bubblegum and silly. Through my writing and devising I toy with the notion that intersectional feminism doesn’t have to be sad or intellectual or academic and haughty- art about femme issues can be fun. I love building experimental worlds through immersive realism- giving the audience control within a story. Short and full-length plays I have written often satirize famous men by telling the stories of silenced women they used to achieve their success. I have found so much creative expression from my own experience with uterus based illnesses and love exploring themes of femininity in my work.

I started my journey in the arts as a child actor. As I grew into a rebellious and tumblr addicted teenager, I turned to creative writing and became a member of the South Florida Cappies. Even as a teen I was obsessed with creative writing and performing my words out loud. I experienced all consuming inspiration artists like Lady Gaga, Janelle Monae, Charli XCX, Lana Del Rey, Mitski, Hozier and Marina and the Diamonds. I also drew inspiration from playwrights like Clare Baron, Martin McDonagh, and Suzan-Lori Parks. I built a strong daily journaling practice in my teens that continues now in my mid-twenties. As I began my own creative flows- I was blessed to see my studies in Theater and English at Florida State University through. It was at FSU where I met some of my best friends and collaborators. We focused on devising works with femme people- we even coined a term: “femplexism”.

I wrote and directed my first full length play, “Caffeinated Women”, as part of my honors project. This dark comedy navigates the impact of late-stage capitalism’s cornering of women and femme people. In this world, Caffeine is banned from consumption by men and highly marketed to women.

Since completing my studies. I have been so blessed to live all over Florida, Memphis, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Iowa. I’ve worked with children in all of these places and feel so lucky to have a deep understanding of imaginative play. My inner child heals every day I get to explore pretend worlds- my art is motivated by discovery. Working in non-union and indie theater in New York is a direct result of my long term teenage and early adulthood manifestations. I am beyond grateful for the people that support me and my artistic visions with their friendship and hard work.

My newest full-length play, “Rabbit. Rabbit. Rabbit. A Courtney Love Play” recently premiered in a workshop at The Flea Theater with wonderful direction by Katie Walker, Dramaturgy by Danielle Breitstein, and performances by Aaliyah Raghnal, Paul Jackson, and Caitlin Kirk.

Check out my theater collective: @Strangegirlzz- theater collective dedicated to showcasing the good things that happen to femme people and redefining the relationship between femininity and Americana.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Dr. Krista Ratcliffe has a wonderful book called, “Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, and Whiteness”. This book helped me understand the power of language, aphorisms, and how to understand the world in a country with failing education. I highly recommend anyone read this book to reshape their own limiting beliefs and relational skills.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Lots of artistic media explores womanhood and femininity, but I think in these stories we struggle to showcase women and femme people experiencing joy. I have found genres like romance and fantasy to be the only genres of storytelling that center good things happening for women/femme people. To me, it’s no coincidence that romance and fantasy are often viewed as a guilty pleasure meant to be enjoyed in secret with no attachment to the ‘unrealistic expectations’ they create. I want to amplify stories- mine or other’s- that highlight feminine joy.

One example of this theme is my Dada-ist play, “The Ball’. In this play, a very feminine playground ball imagines a world in which she holds the power to throw and to catch. Suddenly, she is conjured into humanity as a successful female novelist, able to toss her own stories. Excited to take her turn as the doer of action, she starts to wonder if being thrown, caught, and full of air might be easier than attempting to change the roles of the objectified. Most recently, this piece was scene at Arts On Site St. Marks.

It’s absolutely wild that experiencing joy as a femme person is a radical act, but in today’s America, I really think it is. I’m drawn to stories about feminism and femme resilience but I crave a space in which I can watch women/femme people existing without a fight or high stakes. These are the stories I hope to tell and be a part of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brittyndion.wixsite.com/website
• Instagram: @brittyn_in_the_stars

Image Credits
J Bobman for the photo of Caffeinated Women (2020)