Years active 1999-2010 Name Juliana Francis | Role Playwright Children Margarethe Jane Kelly | |
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Other names Julianna Francis, Juliana Francis-Kelly Occupation Stage, film, television actress Spouse David Patrick Kelly (m. 2005) Movies The Girl from Monday, Manuelle Labor, The Ontological Cowboy Parents Gunnar Mengers, Susan Mengers Awards Obie Award for Performance Similar People David Patrick Kelly, Richard Foreman, Marie Losier, Hal Hartley | ||
Prelude 15: Juliana Francis Kelly, AnimalParts, Colin Gee, October 9th 2015
Juliana Francis, also known as Julianna Francis or Juliana Francis-Kelly, is an American playwright and actress. She is the recipient of an Obie Award for her performance in Richard Foreman's Maria Del Bosco, and a Dramalogue Award for Reza Abdoh's The Hip-hop Waltz of Eurydice. As a performer she is best known for her work with Richard Foreman's Ontological Hysteric Theater and with the late Reza Abdoh's internationally acclaimed Dar A Luz company, of which she was a founding member. Francis-Kelly has also performed for many younger theater auteurs, including Young Jean Lee, Pavol Liska, Lear DeBessonet, as well as Whitney Biennialist filmmaker Marie Losier (in Losier's The Ontological Cowboy and Manuelle Labor—in collaboration with Guy Maddin).
After the untimely death of Reza Abdoh, Francis-Kelly began writing plays and screenplays. Her first play Go Go Go (which she also performed in) was directed by Anne Bogart, performed at PS 122 in New York City and at the London International Festival of Theatre at the Institute for Contemporary Art I.C.A. Go Go Go was published by Theater Forum Magazine and T3 in Europe. It was subsequently translated into Greek and performed by actress Marili Mastrantoni in Athens and in Kiel, Germany. Her second play, Box, was directed by Anthony Torn and performed at The Women's Project, The Ontological Hysteric, at the Reverend Billy's Millennium's Neighborhood Festival, at Here Arts Center, and was published in the anthology Rowing To America (Smith & Kraus.) An Italian-language version was performed at The Fontanon Festival in Rome. The Baddest Natashas, also directed by Torn, was performed at The Ontological Hysteric and published by Open City. Saint Latrice, which she also directed, was performed at The Collapsible Hole and PS 122. A German-language version was performed at Theater-Graz in Graz, Austria.
In 2004 Francis-Kelly received a Sundance Screenwriting Fellowship to develop Saint Latrice into a screenplay for The Killer Films Company.
Francis-Kelly has received project support from The NEA, The Jerome Foundation, TCG, NYSCA, chashama Inc., and The Greenwall Foundation.
She married David Patrick Kelly on August 14, 2005.