Regina: Avianna Hudym
photo by Aidan Morgan, intro by Mary Blackstone
Beyond being a talented performer and artist, Avianna Huydm is a selfless community builder and a generous colleague. She has for several years given her time as a regular participant in Regina’s Playwrights Reading Circle. Playwrights and actors involved with the Centre for the Study of Script Development come together once a month for a reading of work in progress. Avianna is a such a good reader and so generous with her feedback that writers frequently request her as a reader—and write parts with her in mind. Additionally, when the Regina theatre community came together last winter to foster a more cohesive and sustainable creative life in the City, Avianna volunteered to work with other artists to address one of the key areas identified as needing improvement. They noted that there were not enough opportunities for formal and informal networking. Avianna took on the challenge of finding spaces and refreshments for periodic informal gatherings to address that need for networking. The health of all communities—not just creative communities—depend on selfless leaders like Avianna who see a need and quietly go about filling that gap. Our Regina arts community benefits from her generosity of spirit as well as her creative work and talents.
KC: What kinds of projects are you involved in right now?
As usual, I’m stirring several different pots. Here’s a quick tour of what I’ve got cookin’:
Currently I perform as part of The Mutual Affection, a backup dance crew formed in support of Natural Sympathies- she’s a local musician with ultraglam bedroom synthpop stylings. We’ve performed for a few festivals now (including Sled Island and Gateway!) and at various shows in Saskatoon & Regina. We recently celebrated the launch of NTRL SYMP’s new album+film Porous as part of Silt Studio’s grand opening party. It was such a joy to pack the house with all our friends and fellow artists and celebrate new art, new creative spaces, and dance our pants clean off!!
I’ve recently been engaged in some community driven efforts to revitalize Regina’s theatre scene. There are a lot of people working in lots of different ways toward this end, but I myself am involved in supporting artists meeting one another & building stronger social bonds outside of the bubble of work projects, finding productive ways to nurture critical engagement with one another in our small, small community, and making space for the development of new works. It’s all stuff that can seem indirect or amorphous at times, but it is nevertheless deeply important to me.
I’m also in the preparation stages for a new dance project. The details are still coalescing so it’s hard to speak to specifics, but ultimately I’d like to work on choreography and start making video content with all my friends and fellow Regina creatives. Right now I’m focusing on re-training my body, finding collaborators, and securing lab space to work in, but I’m looking to get started on developing some movement right away in the new year.
And, as ever, I’m writing. There’s something big and complex I’m attempting to synthesize through a project I’ve been calling The Fountain- it’s a thing I develop and write notes for whenever I’m able, but so far I’ve found it difficult to carve out the discipline needed to make any sort of real headway with it. So, if anyone out there just so happens to be looking to be a casual research assistant for no real reason other than chaos told you to then uhhhh….. come talk to me, I guess?
KC: What is your day job? What do you like about it? What's challenging?
I work at several locally-owned businesses around town, all of the food-and-alcohol-service variety. I’m a bit of a generalist, so I’m all over- I work front of house, I do prep, I expedite, I sling beer… and I wash a lot of dishes, lol. There’s a lot to like about what I do- it’s very active, grounding & present work, and is always providing my body with interesting challenges to navigate. There’s something about working with food that demands your best, fullest attention, which I really appreciate. It keeps my reflexes quick and my senses sharp.
The energy drain is my big challenge- it’s not highly paid work, so I really gotta put the hours in if I wish to keep paying my bills in a timely fashion. Overall I’ve managed to find an ok work/rest balance, but I will admit that I’m envious of white collars and the luxury of just… taking a day, if needed. There are times where I feel pretty demoralized over having to hand the best portions of my time and energy over to employers, and I struggle with my sense of self-worth on a surprisingly regular basis. Oh, and the physical cost to my body is sometimes heftier than I care for- for instance, it’s absolutely fried the skin on my hands. I do truly like my day work, but it can be a real mixed bag.
KC: What is important to you?
Ha! no small question. Here is an incomplete list of some of the concepts I try to align myself with, which seems like just as easy a way to answer this question as any:
art
rest
agency
self-awareness
humility
flexibility
empathy
culpability
mystery
KC: What do you like the most, and least, about Regina?
I love the size of it- cue the jokes, haha. I was raised a farm kid from a small town (isolating) who then lived in a big metropolis for a while (overwhelming), so I find Regina has that ‘just right’ kinda feel, with a pace & rhythm that I get along with real well.
I deeply dislike the way transit & transport is handled here. The pervasiveness of casual bigotry. And the aesthetics of the new suburban developments make me feel bewildered and sad, although I suppose that that isn’t something unique to Regina.
KC: What is your impression of Saskatoon?
Saskatoon is very lovely, and I have a lot of good memories there. I lived there for a very hot second wayyyyy back when Stonebridge was still just a twinkle in some developer’s eye. I’ve performed there several times, and I always look forward to getting the chance to visit. I’ve been really impressed (especially lately) with the amount of new and interesting art coming out of Saskatoon, and there are just so many fun things to engage with in the city. I wish I could better afford the energy to visit regularly (or that I didn’t take travel quite so seriously), because it always feels as though there are a zillion things I’d like to do while I’m there, but not nearly enough time to do them all in. (with one exception: I will always find a way to get my butt over to Darkside Donuts)
KC: Finish this sentence: If the best of all possible worlds was reality....
...then we would be living in a world so radically, transcendentally removed from the one we think we know as to be almost completely unrecognizable.
KC: How has your identity helped you / hindered you?
YIKES, another big question. I often struggle with identity because there are parts of mine that are in flux as I grow and come into more awareness of my self. However, to condense it to its most concrete parts, I am a White, Queer, Able-Bodied, Working Class Artist. It’s a complex set of axes to work with, one often at odds with itself. It’s granted me resources and a sense of safety that is generally not extended to Black and Indigenous folks, other people of colour, and physically disabled people. Those same things also cut me off from connection, and keep me tethered to the oppressive structures I so yearn to dismantle. I’ve also been marginalized, particularly along lines of gender and class- missed opportunities, closed doors, threats to safety, the psychological toll of knowing that the structures under which we live are designed to keep us in harm’s way, etc etc. However, I can’t help but feel a deep sense of empathy that has grown in me as a result. Overall, I don’t know if I care to cut up my experiences of identity into ‘helpful’ or ‘hindering’- they all just inform me. They inform me, the work I do, and how I am able to approach it.
KC (From the Proust Questionnaire): How would you like to die?
Alone. Under the sky, if possible.
Lastly, please list any links you want to include here:
instagram handles:
@venusgoliath
@naturalsympathies
@maltynational
@beakschicken
@huntergathereryqr