Kevin Mayes began his career as an assistant to the landmark director Lloyd Richards at the O’Neill’s Playwrights Conference after graduating from Yale. While in NYC, he acted in many shows at LaMama, The Living Theatre, the Lincoln Center New Play Series, Theatreworks, and various BMI workshops. Though it seems like a few lifetimes ago, he’s still pretty amazed that he had the opportunity to be the musical arranger / coordinator for the original production of Wendy Wasserstein’s THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG at Lincoln Center.
He took a break from his career in the theatre to try his hand at business, and co-founded an internet development company in Chicago that had some success. He then spent 7 years as the Director of Internet Communications for Aon Corporation, an enormous insurance broker headquartered here in Chicago, and traveled the world. Somewhere along the way, he married the love of his life Javid Madix, and helped raise Ahkeem, who is now (YIKES!) 17 years old, and just happens to be the coolest kid he’s ever met. Period. Really.
Kevin left “corporate” about four years ago and returned to his career in the arts with a deeper understanding of his personal creative mission AND just in time for the recession (WHOO-HOO!). He currently works regularly as an actor, director, musical director, and singer in Chicago. Favorite projects include THE ADDING MACHINE at the Next Theatre, GROSS INDECENCY at BoHo, and THE TRICKY PART, MY FAVORITE YEAR and A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE at the Bailiwick. For those last two shows, he was nominated for a Jeff Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Currently, he’s co-writing an original musical titled BLOOM about “tulipmania” in Holland during the 1630’s, as well as managing the Bailiwick as its Executive Director. |
