Joy Cunningham

Joy has spent her life in the theatre as an actor, writer, director, and teacher. She was a company member at the Academy Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia until Jaston Williams of Greater Tuna, who calls Joy “the real thing,” invited her to Austin, Texas. There she helped create In the West, a theatrical answer to Richard Avedon’s exhibit “In the American West”, and which toured for years before closing at the Kennedy Center and being made into a film. Joy co-created and toured the original country and western vaudeville musical The CowPattys. She founded and directed The Girl Project, the first of its kind inspired by Carol Gilligan’s work with adolescent girls. Joy toured her solo show Goin’ to Georgia as a Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Artist and Artist-in- Education. She has done film and commercial work and can be seen in the movie Late Bloomers, recently digitally re-released. Choreographer Deborah Hay calls Joy “one of the most talented human resources we have in Texas.”