Célicia Theys

Project Developer

Portrait: 

Célicia was born to Belgian parents in… Belgium. Yet she was only three weeks old when her mother took her back to Kenya where the family had been living for two years. She grew up in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa, and turned 18 as she was descending from Mt Kilimanjaro.

This nomadic lifestyle made for scattered roots, and for a strong sense of belonging to the common denominator of every person she met in every country: humanity. When you ask Célicia where she is from, she usually either responds “it’s complicated” or “citizen of the world”…

The complex beauty of our human nature has fascinated her ever since she can remember, and when she realized that there was a tool- theatre- that enabled us to “play” with the emotions and themes central to the human condition, she felt called to something bigger, something important.

From impersonating “little orphan Annie” when she was ten years old to her current practice of theatre for social change, she has explored the central question “what is it that makes us human?” through many roles, travels, and different university degrees, from a BA in Modern Languages and Literature to an MA in International Development.

Today, she is setting up her own practice, wishing to encourage and reveal every person, group and community’s flame of extraordinary, that calling to act individually and collectively to co-create a world where difference is celebrated and our human commonality is sacred.