Eric F. Avery is a writer, creator, designer, organizer, and performer with over twenty years of professional experience in theatre, immersive performance, and community-based art. Originally from Topeka, KS, his first public performance was in Mrs. Junke’s 2nd grade Christmas Pageant as Santa Claus. Theatre opportunities were scarce until Highland Park High School where in addition to being named Best Actor 2001 & 2002 for leading roles in The Wiz, The Lion in Winter, and Once on this Island, Avery organized and led an improv team that performed for the entire school. His engagement as a youth leader at Boys & Girls Club throughout his adolescence led Avery to win the 2001 Youth of the Year Award for the state of Kansas, subsequently receiving a $25,000 scholarship from Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network.
At the University of Kansas, Avery trained in theatre, film, and dance. Outside of the classroom he began to learn playwriting, devising, and other techniques in creating original works of performance. This extracurricular work on student and community projects inspired him to create his first original productions: Meet the Germans, a one person show about his travels in Europe, and The Life Times and Rhymes of Langston Hughes, a movement-based piece about the Kansas-raised author. Upon graduation, Avery was awarded the Kilty Kane, the highest honor granted by the KU Theatre Department, for his exceptional contributions to the department.
Avery’s professional career began in Minneapolis with the National Theater for Children where he toured as an actor locally and nationally. In addition to freelancing as a theatre and commercial actor he also co-founded Savage Umbrella (NKA Umbrella Collective), an artist collective dedicated to developing new performance works. During his tenure Avery created America:aciremA; The Winter Adventures of Happy, the SAD Clown; and Ex-Gays. In 2008, he moved to Chicago and, despite the Great Recession, managed to collaborate with multiple storefront theaters before accepting an AmeriCorps position in New Mexico.
In Albuquerque, Avery served as the Theatre Outreach Director at the VSA North 4th Art Center. There, he created artmaking classes for immigrants, taught improv to incarcerated minors, designed theatre curricula for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders, coordinated tours for mixed-ability theatre and dance companies, supported the venue’s technical and design department, and led community collaborations to create original performance works. In 2010, Avery was admitted to Towson University located outside of Baltimore, MD. In the MFA Theatre Arts program training is focused on developing “total” artists in advanced methods of creating performance, including writing, devising, improvising, directing, and designing. During this time Avery wrote a thesis concerning abstract puppetry and in the course of research made connections that led to a runaway puppet career after graduation.
Between 2013-2016, Avery primarily worked in Minneapolis and New York. In Minneapolis, Avery’s accomplishments included: The Elegant Experiment with artist Zainab Musa, a performance installation supported by a Cultural Community Partnership Grant; a building-wide performance installation Play[ing] + (P)house as part of a Naked Stage Fellowship; a commission from NorthernLight.mn to create Minneapolis3, a performance installation for the Northern Spark festival; a participatory installation 67 simple operations as part of his Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship; and an expanded production of The (Fabled) Life and (Imaginary) Death of Eric F. Avery at Intermedia Arts with support from a Forecast Public Art grant.
In New York, he collaborated with Lee bruer on La Divina Caricatura; Basil Twist on The Rite of Spring; Dan Hurlin on Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed; and Taylor Mac on A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, for which he was awarded a Bessie Award for Outstanding Visual Design [Puppetry]. In addition to freelance work, Avery created and premiered two performance installations during this period: it’s very difficult to keep at Five Myles Gallery, and the first iteration of The (Fabled) Life and (Imaginary) Death of Eric F. Avery at The Atlantic Terminal Community Center with the support of a Next Step Fund Grant from the McKnight Foundation.
In 2017, Avery took a sabbatical from creative practice to focus on health and well-being. Fueled by a desire to reconnect with land, he spent time on a farm in Virginia and stumbled onto its hidden past as a plantation, which was deeply troubling. However, the concept of food justice resonated, so he returned to Minneapolis to work for the Land Stewardship Project as a Community-Based Food Systems Organizer. His primary duties were to produce engagement programs developing community members’ food skills and their understanding of food systems through practical experiences in the kitchen and garden. Avery also designed and led a popular education curriculum about the Minneapolis Green Zones, an environmental justice policy initiative being developed in collaboration with frontline communities.
After leaving LSP, Avery attended Soul Fire Farms’ BIPOC Farmer Immersion program, which inspired him to continue to organize in South Minneapolis and bring some aspects of creative practice into the mix. This led to a period of cultural organizing projects focused on building connections between people that might not otherwise find each other. Activities ranged from conferences to parties to legislative hearings to developing a community think tank. During this time Avery entered into discussions with zAmya Theater Project about creating new arts-based work, ending the sabbatical.
In 2019, Avery began a research tour with zAmya concerning rural homelessness. The company specializes in using theatre as a tool for educating and destigmatizing topics such as housing insecurity, homelessness, affordable housing, and related issues. After months of development, A Prairie Homeless Companion toured to five communities across Minnesota and remains in the company’s repertoire. Later in the year Avery designed the puppetry for MOBY DICK at American Repertory Theater, and was awarded an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Design.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, while directing Urinetown at the University of Kansas, Avery was forced to cease in person activities, so changed focus towards writing and relocation. He moved to Los Angeles in 2021 and later settled in Oakland in 2022. Avery continues to live in West Oakland, California, where his work explores collective healing, participatory performance, embodiment, and the intersections of art, justice, and community. Recent collaborators include: Sharp & Fine, West Oakland Cultural Action Network, Grassroots Artist Advocacy Program, and The Cedars of Marin.
