Petaluma Profile: For local actor-teacher, theater is her superpower

“I’m Supergirl!”

For some, such a proclamation could be merely a metaphor, or a temporary delusion, but for Katie Kelley, of Petaluma, it’s really true.

She is Supergirl.

And she has the costume to prove it.

A Petaluma High School graduate, Kelley grew up attending youth-based theater camps in Sonoma County, learning the craft of singing, dancing and acting while appearing in dozens of local productions. After graduation, she kept at it, seamlessly integrating herself into the Sonoma County theater scene, working her way up from minor ensemble parts to supporting and lead roles.

Earlier this year, she appeared in Spreckels Theatre Company’s drama “By the Water,” and on Sept. 7, she opens the U.S. premiere of the British comedy-drama “The Naked Truth,” at Left Edge Theater in Santa Rosa.

The mother of a first-grader, Emma - whom she calls “the biggest part of my life” - Kelley is a prime example of how single parents are getting by in the modern economy, working a number of different jobs to pay the bills. Most days, she works as an arts instructor at Alchemia in Santa Rosa, primarily teaching choir, dance and “junk journaling.” After that, she works as the director of teen productions at Young Actors studio in Santa Rosa, teaching theater classes throughout the year, and also directing the summer youth productions in the program’s theater space at Luther Burbank Center.

As if all of that weren’t enough, Kelley has yet another part-time gig as a photo editor for Petaluma wedding photographer Victoria Webb. But perhaps the most unusual of Kelley’s many occupations is the unique business she founded with her friend Jessica Martin.

“It’s called ‘Hope, Love and Magic,’?” she explains, “and we basically dress up as superheroes and Disney princesses and make appearances at birthday parties, festivals, farmer’s markets, and children’s hospitals.” In doing that work, Kelley has stepped into the wigs and costumes of countless beloved characters, including one of her personal favorites, Rapunzel.

“The hair is fun,” she says with a laugh.

Another popular character she’s been “specializing” in for the last few years is Queen Elsa from “Frozen.”

“That movie is such a phenomenon,” she allows, “so it’s fun to play her because of how excited kids get when I walk in in my Elsa costume. One thing I like about her is that, compared to the other Disney princesses, she’s just so powerful. Elsa’s not a princess, actually. She’s a queen, and she knows it.”

Hope, Love and Magic (HopeLoveandMagic.org), along with its catalog of fairytale characters, has recently added a roster of superheroes to its list of available icons. Employing actors from around the Bay Area, Kelley and Martin have assembled a super-team that includes Batman, Deadpool, the Black Panther … and Kelley’s own official superhero persona, Supergirl.

“She’s my new favorite because of what she represents, and how iconic she is,” says Kelley. “I’ve been through some hard things in my life, and there have been times when I didn’t believe I could ever be strong enough to make it. But I’ve come through anyway, and proved how strong I really am. Putting on the Supergirl suit is a reminder of how powerful I can be, if I really tap into it and refuse to be less than I am.”

That’s a lesson Kelley hopes to impart to the kids she encounters while wearing the cape.

“Exactly,” she says. “I always tell kids that they can be the superhero of their own life. That’s especially powerful when we visit hospitals. To see a kid fighting a battle with some terrible illness, it can be really inspiring to have Supergirl or Batman or someone come up and remind them of their strength.”

Because of this, Kelley says, though birthday parties are the bread-and-butter of the company’s business, the hospital visits - which they do pro bono - have become one of the most meaningful and important aspects of the Hope, Love and Magic operation.

“I‘ve seen so many little kids, who’ve been so sick and they might have just been crying, or not speaking at all, and a lot of times their parents haven’t seen them smile in a while,” she says. “Then a superhero walks in, and something just … happens. To see that transformation, the smiles on their faces or the fact that they sometimes start speaking for the first time in days, it’s just really amazing to be there. Parents follow us out all the time and say, ‘Thank you. She hasn’t smiled since we got here, and now she can’t stop.’”

And it’s not just the kids who need to be reminded of their own strength, Kelley points out.

“The parents are superheroes themselves, going through all they go through,” she says. “People ask us how we keep from crying, sometimes, when we’re visiting hospitals. But when we put on the costume, some type of magic shows up, and we just become that superhero. I become Supergirl. It’s afterwards that it hits, when we get home and take the makeup off. That’s when I cry sometimes. Some of these kids are going through so much.”

Kelley adds that, with so much time spent working and caring for Emma, it’s like taking “a mental health day” when she accepts a role in a play, a treat she allows herself once or twice a year.

“When I perform on stage, that’s for me,” she says. Of the part she’s currently playing in “The Naked Truth” - an image-conscious, pole-dancing Londoner with an outspoken demeanor and a very complicated relationship with her own “body image” - Kelley says, “She’s self-absorbed, and a bit thoughtless of others’ feelings - but of course, it’s a cover. I guess she’s not technically as ‘likeable’ as some other characters I’ve played, but I love her so much.”

On the surface, “The Naked Truth” is a play about a pole dancing class, along the lines of “The Full Monty,” but Kelley says it’s about more than just pole dancing.

“I tell people it’s about five women who come to take pole-dancing lessons, all for different reasons, and accidentally become friends,” she says. “These are women who would not have become friends in any other circumstance. It’s a beautiful story about friendship, and women who support each other.

“And yes,” she adds with a laugh, “and then there’s pole-dancing.”

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