Joni Marie McLeod

For many years, Joni's (she/her) artistic medium of choice was theatre. Musical theatre to be precise. But once she started broadening her horizons, she couldn't stop exploring all the mediums. She started writing, and had 2 short plays produced in the Mendocino College Festival of New Plays. She was the composer and musical director for the original play Wild Fire by Jody Gerhman. She started to not only be on stage, but to work backstage as a stage manager, prop master and stage hand. She started directing and teaching music and musical theatre at the School of Performing Arts and Cultural Education. And then she arrived here, with this wonderful group of people, and was given the opportunity to be part of Hardly Artists film production of Thank You Ten in 2021. A new spark was ignited! Since then, she has been part of Hardly Artists productions as an assistant director, producer, camera assistant and she got to try her hand at writing a co-directing her own short film, A Talk of Shame. She discovered her love for Excel spreadsheets, creating and maintaining production calendars, meeting notes and to-do lists for the group. She recently started editing, and is excited to expand that skill. When she isn’t focusing on Hardly Artists behind-the-scenes and her day job, she spends her free time looking for any opportunity to be part of a theatre OR film production to keep the artistic spark alive.

After dabbling in many aspects of art and theatre, she no longer has an "artistic medium of choice." All she knows is that she wants to continue learning and creating and soaking up every minute in and out of the spotlight she loves so much.

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." – Maya Angelou