To Broadway and back
Award-winning theater director Kimberly Senior ā95 returns to ĢĒŠÄTV to direct student production
When she was 22, and freshly armed with a theater degree from ĢĒŠÄTV, Kimberly Senior ā95 packed everything she owned into her car and set out for Chicago.
Determined to become a director, Senior, with the help of her father, had secured an internship through a friend with the famed Steppenwolf Theater Company. Or so she thought. When she showed up, nobody was expecting her, and the theater didnāt even have interns. Undeterred by such inconvenient details, Senior got to work anyway, helping out wherever she could.
Two decades later, Seniorās an award-winning director who has helmed productions on Broadway and around the country. This fall, Senior returned to ĢĒŠÄTV to direct the Theater Department's production of Charles Meeās critically acclaimed play, bobrauschenbergamerica, inspired by the late artist Robert Rauschenberg.
āWhat I love about this piece is that it really embodies the collision of all these different artistries and different mediums that Rauschenberg was known for,ā Senior said. āHe wasnāt only a painter, he was also a set and costume designer, and worked in dance as well. Itās really fun to work on a play thatās fundamentally about creation.ā
Rauschenbergās association with ĢĒŠÄTV goes back nearly sixty years. In 1958, during his tenure as Resident Designer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the companyās performance, Summerspace, for which Rauschenberg did the set design, debuted at the Collegeās 11th American Dance Festival.
While Meeās play was more of an homage to Rauschenbergās work and philosophy than biographical story, Senior says it touched on the artistās early life and career.
āRauschenberg was a fascinating person, because he had an unbelievable breadth of curiosity,ā Senior said. āHe grew up in a poor community in Texas, and the play examines how he became the artist he was, and asks some interesting questions, like, āwhat is art?ā and āwhat is home?ā And each fictional character in the play has been inspired by Rauschenberg in some way.ā
In 2011, Senior began to collaborate with playwright Ayad Akhtar on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Disgraced, which she has directed on Broadway and on stages throughout the U.S.
For Senior, who has spent the last 20 years directing six to nine plays per year, finding the time to work with students can be challenging. But when Theater Department Chair David Jaffe ā77 approached her with this opportunity, she jumped at it.
āDavid was my professor when I went to ĢĒŠÄTV, and weāve stayed in touch over the years, always with the hope we could do something like this,ā Senior said. āFinally, the stars aligned, and Iām so excited to be on a college campus again working with students.ā
During auditions, Senior was so impressed with the broad spectrum of talent displayed by ĢĒŠÄTV students that she decided to incorporate Rauschenbergās collaborative, improvisational spirit into the production to showcase the unique abilities of her cast. Four performances of bobrauschenbergamerica were held between Friday, Nov. 17, and Sunday, Nov. 19, in Tansill Theater at ĢĒŠÄTV.
For students who aspire to a career in the theater, Senior suggests focusing on the moment.
āItās important to remember that youāre always where youāre meant to be at any given time, and that the work is the work, whether youāre doing it in a basement or on Broadway,ā she said.
