In 1985 Hennessy joined Contraband, an acclaimed multi-disciplinary collaborative under the artistic direction of Sara Shelton Mann, before co-founding the performance collective CORE in 1994. Most recently, he has served as the director for Circo Zero, which he describes as a circus that creates intimate spectacles. Hennessy has received numerous Isadora Duncan Dance Awards for activism, choreography, and design as well as a Bay Area Theater Critics Circle Award, two SF Weekly Black Box Awards, and many others. A founding faculty member of the Arts and Social Change program at New College of California (1990-97), he is currently on faculty of Goddard College in the MFA Interdisciplinary Arts Program.

KEY CONTACT PERSON(S)/EXECUTOR OF ESTATE:
Keith Hennessy
2842 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
keith@circozero.org
www.circozero.org
www.848.com/hennessy

HUMAN REPOSITORIES OF THE WORK
(name and contact info, relationship to the artist and the work, assessment):
Keith Hennessy, see above

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION:
(location, format, condition, assessment):
Hennessy holds video documentation of all works listed below with master tapes in a variety of formats.

PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION
(location, format, condition, assessment):
The San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum (SFPALM) holds a publicity photo for Box by Pantheon Studios, and an untitled 1994 photo by Glenn Caley Bachmann (both photos BW 8x10).

MOVEMENT NOTATION
(location, type [including notes taken by dancers], assessment):
None identified.

PRODUCTION MATERIALS
(scores, sound recordings, set/costume designs):
Hennessy holds sound recordings, costumes, and some set pieces for the works.

ORAL HISTORY:
None identified.

PERSONAL PAPERS
(location of newspaper clippings, printed programs, press releases, notes, files, diaries; assessment):
SFPALM has 1 file of clippings, press releases, and photos from the early 1990s to the present. (NOTE: As of December 2003, this file is not listed in the SFPALM online catalog.)

IMMEDIATE NEEDS
(archival assistance? storage? other?):
List current holdings in SFPALM online catalog.

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION:
The performance text to Hennessy's Sacred Boy was published by Abundant Fuck Publications in 1990. Hennessy's essays have appeared in High Performance, Movement Research Journal, Changing Men, Contact Quarterly, RFD, Anything That Moves, P-Form, Callboard (SF), Colorado Men's Council Journal, and the book Riding the Sexual Frontier. His work is documented in the books Gay Ideas, Out in America, Beyond Definition, in the zines Dingus, Dead Fish, Touching Body & Spirit, and in the magazines OUT, The Advocate, P-Form, Anything That Moves, Wilde, Reclaiming Quarterly, and New Zealand's Stamp.

OVERVIEW OF WORKS PERTAINING TO HIV/AIDS
(title, premiere date, music, production notes, performers):
Hennessy provided the following list with the note that "many benefit performances, one-time-only events, and quickly made performances since 1988" have not been included. He also notes that Mandala and Ice Car Cage do not directly reference AIDS, but rather "emerged from [San Francisco's] overlapping queer and art communities that were deeply engaged in the culture of AIDS."

Mandala (1988-90)—collaborative dance/performance work by Jules Beckman, Jess Curtis, and Hennessy; Theater Artaud, San Francisco

Saliva (1989/90)—performance, text, choreography, improvisations, set and costume design by Keith Hennessy; music by Jules Beckman; premiered December 1988, under a freeway South of Market, Clementina St., SF (also performed at California Men's Gathering, June 1989; Clementina St., San Francisco, March 89; Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, July 90; New College of California, San Francisco, March 1990 and June 1990 [Act I only])

Improv x AIDS (1990)—New Langton Arts, San Francisco (June)

Sacred Boy (1990/92)—solo performance with music by Norman Rutherford and Set Design by Jack Davis; New College of California, San Francisco (March 1990)

The King is Dead (1991)—solo performance; includes text co-written with Essex Hemphill; New College of California, San Francisco (April)

Homohex (1991-96)—annual naked queer street ritual performances co-created with Jack Davis; music by Jules Beckman and many quest drummers, Castro District, San Francisco

Heat (1993)—solo performance; 848 Community Space, San Francisco (April)

Ecstatic Songs and Manifestos (1994)—solo performance; includes video titled Ambient Erotic Manifesto; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

Psychic Driveby (1994)—created and performed by CORE: Jules Beckman, Jess Curtis, Hennessy, and Stanya Kahn; includes Hennessy's text The Cocksucker Manifesto; Playscool, Salt Lake City (June)

Box (1995)—solo performance; 848 Community Space, San Francisco

Unsafe, Unsuited (1995-2000)—improvised work created and performed by Ishmael Houston-Jones, Patrick Scully, and Keith Hennessy; Southern Theater of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (January 1995)

Palpitations (1997)—solo performance; includes the video A Brief History of Hurt; San Francisco Art Institute (April)

Closer to the Bone (1997)—performed by Queer Artists' Collective; directed by Keith Hennessy; Diverseworks, Houston, Tex. (June)

Ice Car Cage (1997-00)—collaborative dance/performance work by Jules Beckman, Jess Curtis, and Hennessy; commissioned by Lesbian/Gay Dance Festival, San Francsico

Antibody (2000)—solo performance; live music by Alisson Hennessey; set by Seth Eisen; 848 Community Space, San Francisco

2.3 (2000)—benefit performance for fifteen-year anniversary of Hamburg's AIDS services organization, Hamburg, Germany

Neo-Dandy Cabaret (2002)—written & performed by Kirk Read, Tho Vong, Mattilda aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore, and Reginald; directed by Hennessy; New Conservatory Theater Center, San Francisco (November/December)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Evans, Everett. 1997. "Provocative Programming." Houston Chronicle (18 May): 12.
• Gere, David. Forthcoming. How to Make Dances in an Epidemic: Tracking Choreography in the Age of AIDS. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Graham, Bob. 2000. "Flying With God, War and Sex: Cirque Batard puts Social Issues into the Ring." San Francisco Chronicle (29 October): 37.
• Hennessy, Keith. 1996. "What Happens When the Revolution Doesn't Come?" High Performance (Spring).
• Howard, Rachel. 2002. "A New World Circus." San Francisco Examiner (18 June).
• Jowitt, Deborah. 1995. "The Space Between." The Village Voice (4 April): 75.
• Kaplan, Rachel. 1989. "Spit Your Way to the Holy Land" [review of Keith Hennessy's Saliva]. Coming Up! (January).
• __________, and Keith Hennessy, eds. 1995. More Out Than In: Notes on Sex, Art, and Community. San Francisco: Abundant Fuck Publications.
• Wilkinson, Kathleen. 2002. "One Hoop Shy of a Three-Ring Circus: Keith Hennessy's Circo Zero is more than just a show." SF Gate (21 June).