TAC is a culmination of things I’ve been enjoying and thinking about since I was young. At six years old I found immense joy in creating theatre. I decided then that theatre would be my work in life, so I never understood why it was marginalized in my schools – relegated to purely an after school activity until I was in High School. By 15 I was acting, directing, writing, teaching theatre and hanging lights. This world of theatre, being on ladders and teaching made sense to me, yet it was more discouraged than encouraged because it was not “practical”. As an adult, I find that this most impractical theatre training of my youth is the ground on which I practically build an interesting fulfilling life as an adult. A life that has led me to Rwanda to use theatre to help heal the effects of the genocide; to train formerly incarcerated men to work with teens through theatre; to write a curriculum in four subjects to support Eve Ensler’s work with teenage girls and her plays, I Am An Emotional Creature: the Secret Life of Girls Around the World; and to teach hundreds of first through eighth graders mandatory theatre and design technology that reinforced their academics while developing their social and emotional growth and, of course, their theatre artistry.
What most bothers me about my own education is that every teacher, especially in high school, knew that theatre was my passion. Yet, instead of teaching me to build with my geometry, I was banned from the theatre for flunking geometry. I know now that if I had built with my geometry I would have understood it’s use and formulas in my limbs, which would have helped me to make understanding in my mind. As a teacher who has taught several subjects, it is my opinion that if a student does not understand the relevance of a subject, then the educational system has failed, not the student. Why should a student learn something if that student does not understand how what they are learning is useful? We understand the usefulness of what we learn by using our learning in ways that have meaning to us. Our educational system often does not emphasize the real application of concepts through making things that matter to us as students. TAC is an attempt to help bridge this gap. By bringing designers and technicians together with educators to create project-based lessons, TAC aims to create learning experiences that inspire students and deepen their understanding of what they are already learning in their classes by linking theory to practice. I am hoping that our program will grow and inspire others to use theatre as a tool for teaching academics and art, while developing social and emotional growth in students.
Kim has 20 years both as a theatrical professional and as a teacher. Kim holds an MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts from Brooklyn College; an MA in Applied Theatre from the University of Southern California; International Baccalaureate Certifications in: Primary Years 1, Middle Year Arts 1 & 2, Middle Year Design Technology 2; Alexander Technique Teacher Certification; and a BA in Theatre, Literature and Religion from Sarah Lawrence College. She was awarded the American Shakespeare Center’s Words in Action Award for Excellence in teaching Shakespeare in 2011. While teaching, Kim has continued to work as a professional production manager, stage manager and production electrician. She has worked for Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, George Lewis, Meredith Monk, Danspace, The Wooster Group, Conway & Pratt Projects, Festival Productions and many, many others. In addition, she continues to work as an Alexander teacher and to freelance in production.
In her free time Kim enjoys being with her friends and family, reading, cooking, fostering kittens, making packages of joy to surprise friends and family, getting to the ocean and writing plays, letters, journal entries, poetry, lists and notes in the margins of books.