Woman of the Month: Shinah Joelle Hey

Hi there lovely people! Now that I'm back into the swing of things I'm super pumped to be posted the latest "Woman of the Month" highlight for the month of June. As a growing artist in the Twin Cities, I am so excited to be highlighting so many women in the community. And so, for the month of June, I give you lovely and extremely talented: Shinah Joelle Hey! I have seen her in many shows and am constantly blown away at the level of amazingness that comes from such a small person in height. If you're around the Twin Cities area, many of you have seen her in shows at various theaters such as Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Theatre Latte Da, The Ordway and MORE. I would also like to mention that she has recently just come off of a tour with the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences for the world premiere of the show "Me...Jane: The Dreams & Adventures of Young Jane Goodall." I'll let you guess what character she played (hehe). I can't wait for you to read her wonderful responses to these interview questions so here we goooooo!

Q:As a female artist, why do you feel it’s important for women to support one another?

A: As a female artist I feel it is important for women to support each other because if we don’t none of us will be successful. If you are not supporting 50% or more of artists in our field how can you say you support our field at all? Plus, women are AMAZING and what I have seen them be able to accomplish in our crazy sexist world is a miracle.

Q: Often times we as artists don’t talk about the “rejection” side of what we do. What are some ways that you’ve handled rejection or things not necessarily working out the way you don’t expect?

A: Rejection is THE WORST but for me it has gotten easier... sort of... I had a shift in thinking a couple of years ago. I realized I was happy with or without doing a show. I had a break for two months and was recently divorced and I was so scared of not booking and not being seen and not being busy with a show. Those two months were a blast. Being happier with my life outside of theater helped me not feel the pressure as much to book something to distract me from how unhappy I was. This is not to say I don’t get disappointed. There are certain theaters that feel like home to work at so the sting is especially hard on those but nothing is personal it is business.

Q: As women we are naturally conditioned to believe that we need to be in competition with one another versus embracing the camaraderie. What has been your experience? How can we as women improve?

A: I think it is important to acknowledge both sides of this. There is competition. We cannot deny that we are up against the same 5 people for every part you go in for. BUT we can treat each other like humans and know that we are all coming from the same space. No one deserves a part less or more than you. No one is the same as you. Make an effort to get to know the people you are going to spend a lot of time around. It will make auditions fun and you will start to see why those people are just as deserving as you are.

Q: We as artists on some level all deal with learning how to be confident in our abilities. What are ways that you have empowered yourself when it comes to being a female performer?

A: I have to say this is my number one struggle as a performer. Confidence! The one thing I can almost always find confidence in is that no two people are the same. I am very different from anyone else who auditioned or did the role previously. I think this gives me just enough confidence to put myself out there and make weird choices.

Thank you Shinah for these fantastic answers and for taking the time to do this short interview. Stay tuned for more posts in the next coming weeks. Big things are happening!

Love and light,

Jess.