Bio
Kestryl Cael is a dandy trans butch performance artist with too many stories to tell. Kestryl Cael has appeared at conferences, colleges, festivals, and local theatres across North America . Whether on-stage or behind a podium, ze considers it hir artistic duty to engage hir audiences in provocative dialogue without letting them take hir(or themselves) too seriously. Ze was a member of “The Language of Paradox,” a performance ensemble founded and directed by Kate Bornstein. Cael’s writing appears in anthologies such as Kicked Out, and ze is half of the performance duo, PoMo Freakshow.
XY(T), Kestryl’s solo performance debut, had it’s world premiere in Portland, Oregon, and it’s NYC premiere at UNDER St. Marks, as part of the 2008 FRIGID Fringe Festival. Critics described Kestryl Cael’s work as “provocative,” “brave,” “appealingly wry,” “heartfelt,” “profound,” and “essential.” XY(T) has toured across the country, delighting and discomfiting college students and soccer moms.
Kestryl wrote hir first play at age seven, an epic melodrama involving masks, unicorns, tigers, and entirely gender-neutral casting. After being cast as “The Father” in hir 2nd school play, ze has consistently been cast in roles that conflict with the gender of hir audition—most recently, ze portrayed a high-femme drag queen rendition of “The Duchess” in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Ze obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Anthropology at Lewis & Clark College, and a Master’s in Performance Studies at New York University. Kestryl occasionally works as a theatre critic for stageandcinema.com.
Kestryl Cael is currently developing 348, his newest solo performance piece. 348 is a searing examination of madness and forced institutionalization in America, rooted in Kestryl’s own experiences of being held against hir will in a “therapeutic boarding school” as a teenager. As part of PoMo Freakshow Productions, Kestryl worked with hir partner, Sassafras Lowrey, to develop a performance examining the politics of passing. Traitors without (T)reason explores the themes of betrayal, privilege, invisibility, sacrifice, subversion, and loss. Traitor’s without (T)reason debuted as part of HOT! The 17th Annual Celebration of Queer Culture at Dixon Place in July, 2008.
Kestryl Cael lives in Brooklyn, New York with his partner, two puddle-shaped cats, and a chihuachsund.
