Interview with NYU
Theater Chair Kevin Kuhlke
By Joan Baum, Ph.d.
“When that [he] was and
a little tiny boy,” as Feste—Kevin Kuhlke’s favorite role—says
at the end of Twelfth Night, he wanted
to be a musician, and he did became a guitarist. “But when [he] came
to man’s estate,” he followed another dream, to be an actor, director,
man of the theatre, and of course, as chair of the Department of Drama at New
York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, Kuhlke has realized
that dream and for the last two decades has been fostering it for others. Who
would have thought that NYU’s B.A. program would have grown so extensively—from
200 undergraduates thirty years ago to 1,500 today (with women constituting
65 percent and 95 percent of the student body coming from out of town), making
the department one of the largest and most competitive in the country (one
out of five get in)? In addition, the department boasts a highly selective
(24 students only) International Theatre Summer Training program in Amsterdam,
which Kuhlke founded and directs, and which he hopes provides students not
only with additional training but an opportunity to learn how to move around
on their own in a city where English is spoken, where festivals abound, and
where central location encourages exploration.
The department’s success
in attracting large numbers of applicants with higher and higher SAT scores
is extraordinary considering the diminution of acting jobs, but, as Kuhlke
says, those with a “passion” to work in theatre will continue to
apply for admission and stay in the city long after graduation, looking to
audition. Although other drama schools might claim as much, what sets Tisch
apart, Kuhlke notes, is its embrace of both academic and professional curricula.
Drama majors take 76 credits but also a hefty number of courses in liberal
arts. Tisch is not, in other words, a conservatory, though for sure artistic
training in one of its 12 affiliated acting studios constitutes the heart of
the major. Still, he tells prospective students, “if theatre, only, is
your love, then don’t come to NYU.” The play may be the thing,
but broad education will be king.
Admission to
Tisch turns on the recitation of a prepared dramatic monologue and an interview,
but Kuhlke looks at other factors as well: an openness to liberal arts and
to a “wide range” of acting methods that
a large program like NYU’s can provide. “Bigness here is an advantage.” A
relatively new father, he also tries to intuit what kind of studio would
best match the youngster before him. Though he himself trained with, among
others, Jerzy Grotowski, whom he cites as a mentor, Kuhlke wants to ensure
that “variety” is central to the Tisch experience. Before becoming
chair he held the position of director at NYU’s Experimental Theatre
Wing for ten years where he put on over 100 productions. He has also taught
master acting and directing classes in Cuba, Iceland, England, Switzerland,
Holland, Austria, Denmark and Germany–where he honed an appreciation
of how different cultural backgrounds affect interpretation and performance.
Although film
study at NYU has also grown tremendously, Kuhlke points out that acting on
stage requires more, and more concentrated, rehearsal time, more dialogue,
and more challenge in the sense that each nightly performance is a development,
with the actor playing to a live audience rather than to a camera. A tall,
handsome man with obvious stage presence–he greets his visitors dressed in Hamlet black–Kevin
Kuhlke clearly loves acting and directing, but he also takes his role as responsible
administrator seriously, holding orientation sessions for new students and
their parents, and acknowledging the fact that acting graduates have no jobs
waiting for them Out There. But as Sam Shepard (another Kuhlke favorite) might
say, if you’re going to be a fool, be a Fool for Love. Feste was.#
