about wesleigh

Wesleigh Gates is a transfeminine artist and researcher building collective structures of connection and care through performance. She is currently a PhD candidate in Culture and Performance at UCLA.

Wesleigh holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and has extensive experience as a producing artist and generator of performance projects. Her original work has shown in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Boston; she has also performed in work by artists including Julie Tolentino, Caden Manson/Big Art Group, Emily Barasch, Brendan Drake, and Dan Safer/Witness Relocation. Wesleigh has received residencies from Los Angeles Performance Practice and Kelly Strayhorn Theater, a commission from the New Hazlett Theater (Pittsburgh), and support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art at the Frontier.

Wesleigh’s scholarly work bridges trans studies and performance studies; her dissertation project investigates collective movement practices in trans and travesti communities across the Americas. She has received the Fulbright/Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad award, the Thomas Marshall Graduate Student Award from the American Society for Theatre Research (where she co-convenes the Transfeminisms Working Group), and numerous merit awards from UCLA and CMU. She has been published in PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, Gulf Coast Journal, and most recently in a special issue of Media-N on trans new media art, with work forthcoming in TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly.

When not making, writing, or reading, you might find Wesleigh hiking, raving, or throwing hands with Trans Boxing LA.

CONTACT:

wesleigh.gates [at] gmail.com
wesleigh [at] ucla.edu