Kristi Papailler

ASSOCIATE EDITOR, KENTUCKY

Contributions to IDEA:
Kentucky 11

Bio: Kristi Papailler is a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and is the co-founder of Juneteenth Legacy Theatre. Kristi is an actor, director, theater educator, producer and stage manager. She has held leadership and education positions with Actors Theater of Louisville, Stage One, and the Louisville Children’s Theater. She has also served as the co-chair of the drama department at the Sacred Heart School for the Arts. Ms. Papailler is currently a University Ethnic Minority Fellow at the University of Louisville, where she is pursuing an MFA in Theatre Performance and a certificate in African American Theatre. Kristi studies dialect under the tutelage of Dr. Rinda Frye. Ms. Papailler’s regional theater credits include: Rhonda Lynn in Christmas Belles, Lucy in Dracula,, and Cal in To Kill a Mockingbird at Kentucky Repertory Theatre. She appeared as Irma Slocum in Stage One’s production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. At Sacred Heart School for the Arts, Kristi has directed Who Pushed Humpty, The Brother’s Grimm, Out of Order, Dracula, Stone Soup and Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Beowulf. She is also the production stage manager for Louisville’s World Fest with Ken Clay and Associates. Kristi’s commitment to theatre for social change led to her creation of JLT’s Emancipate and Empower program, which offers students and adults real-life solutions to oppression through dramatic expression. She is also the creator of Sacred Heart School for the Arts and Nativity Academy’s Drama Change Exchange Camp. This two-week intensive uses Theater of the Oppressed, Viewpoints, and Improvisational techniques to address social-justice issues with middle school students. Kristi is a teaching artist with Kentucky Shakespeare Festival and The Kentucky Center for the Arts. Kristi has a BA in Humanities with a concentration in the interdisciplinary studies of Theatre and Literature from the University of Louisville. She studied Viewpoints and Suzuki with New York City’s SITI Co. She studied Theatre of the Oppressed techniques with Chethan Talwalkar. Her current research includes African theatre of the Americas and the use of dialect in social justice.