Playlist profile: Kurt Kwan

If you’ve seen Kurt Kwan onstage, odds are you remember him. In his years in Twin Cities theaters he’s made his mark with highly energetic, physically specific performances and characters that dare you to ignore them. You probably shouldn’t take that dare. Kurt was introduced to Rick Shiomi by a mutual friend out of the blue, and from that seemingly chance meeting began a long career and creative relationship with Shiomi’s company. With the recent change in artistic leadership at Mu Performing Arts and his first role on the main stage at the Guthrie in Othello, there are changes rolling through Kurt’s life. Here he talks about the early days, his influences and what he sees coming down the road. Your artistic history is heavily associated with Mu Performing Arts (formerly Theater Mu), do you think of it as an artistic home or just another place you work as an actor? I would definitely call it my artistic home. I have so many colleagues and friends that I’ve been able to work with and create with there. And especially in this next phase where Randy [Reyes] is Artistic Director, it’s an amazing space to be where you feel like you have investment in the product and the institution. Early on I think that shaped my work style, because that’s how I feel I work best. Rather than being a hired gun who comes in and does a gig and then moves on to the next one, a lot of the places I’ve been able to work, I feel invested in the institution: why they create the work they do and what they’re trying to achieve. It’s become a model of sorts. Pillsbury House, Mu and Ten Thousand Things are all in that family. And that’s not to say that a lot of theatres in town aren’t mission oriented, but I think some of them follow through to deeper levels. How’s the show going? This is the first show that’s been produced by the Guthrie that I’ve been in, so I don’t know what their normal houses look like, but I have an idea from talking to fellow actors and other people in the institution. So I’ve been really excited by walking out onstage and seeing younger people in the audience, and large groups of them coming through, excited by the story. I think there’s great work being done onstage. Of course, I haven’t actually seen the show in over a month. But from backstage I can hear that the audiences are responding really well. Who are some of your favorite actors, national or local? More than individuals and names, I look at styles of acting and what people bring. I always enjoy people who bring a level of honesty and integrity to their performances. What are some of your favorite productions or performances you’ve seen? Angels in America at Pillsbury House was one of the first shows I saw when I moved to town. It was such a great production. I know I’ve seen a great show when I walk away at the end and I feel a kind of vibration inside. I know that sounds kind of dumb, but you know that you’ve just witnessed something and you’ve just experienced something communally. And maybe you can’t express it at the time but there’s something shaking in there. And that will just unravel over time as you think about it, either consciously or not. One of the great things about being in Othello is I’ve seen so many of Marion McClinton’s shows and I wanted to be part of this process largely because of him. I’ve walked away from so many of his shows knowing that something amazing just happened. What does your dream career look like? [Laughs] I don’t have time to dream, man. I’m too busy workin’, trying to get it done. That’s slightly flip, but I feel blessed to be able to do what I do with who I do it. I love my job at Pillsbury House and they also encourage us to be working artists. That feeds both the institution and also me, individually, as an employee and artist in the community. I love where I’m at. If there’s something else, I don’t know. What’s the best advice you ever got? I don’t know that anyone’s ever sat me down and said, “Listen…” But I think in my work I try to keep it all together. In the artistic world there are so many loose ends, you always appreciate when people come at least slightly bundled to the door. Just to keep things professional. Because it’s hard enough to do the work we do, so I always like someone who brings something to the room that builds and feeds the process. Work ethic is so important. I really appreciate actors who work hard at what they do, who take the work seriously without taking themselves too seriously. If you could change one thing about the professional world what would it be? I wish I was excited as a theater artist to see more theater. I don’t know what that looks like exactly. How do we get theaters to really encourage artists to come see the work and say, we want you as craftspeople and arbiters and creators of what we do to see this, because we want you to know what we do. We think this is good art and we want to share it with you and for it to become part of your lexicon as you move forward. Maybe it’s a pass, an Artist Pass. What are some dream roles/plays/projects for you? My dream is to have older Asian American actors, so I can stop playing Randy [Reyes]’s father. And he can stop playing mine. Dream roles. I’ve been surprised about the level of new work that’s being created for the Asian American community. There are a lot of exciting playwrights coming up, some more established than others, and I think they’re creating great plays and roles for actors that I’m really exited about and hope come my way eventually. In the canon, I’d love to do Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Years down the line, maybe. But, too, I’m often surprised by the roles that I get called in for. In a good way. That people think of me when they think of certain roles is exciting too. What’s your first memory of seeing a live performance? One of my earliest memories, I was young, under 10, and it still haunts me to this day. It was a touring show of Heart of the Beast and I think they were doing some sort of Christmas narrative or something. It involved large, sort of floating, ethereal, slightly menacing puppets. The story was about a lost child who had been displaced and I remember walking away feeling very unsettled about life. And I didn’t like it. How did you start as a performer? I was fortunate because my parents and my grandmother took me to shows, so I saw a lot of theater growing up, but it never really crossed my mind that I could do that. It seemed something out of my world and access. But then in 11th grade during a Speech class, I was doing a demonstration about how to make peanut butter in your blender. After that amazing demonstration, there was a girl in the class that was in the Drama Club, and she said I should audition for the upcoming show. I liked her just enough to do it. That was the beginning. I also took boundless joy from making my babysitter laugh. From the age of 3 I just loved cracking her up. I would make shows and be goofy and whatever it took to make her laugh. That was powerfully addictive. When did you decide to make it your profession? I think I made the decision long before I ever did it. I was living in Madison and working in restaurants and I would go to auditions and it was really discouraging. All these people would have their headshots and résumés and lists of credits and I’d be there, the only person who wasn’t white. But in the back of my mind I thought that’s what I want to do and what I want to be. Even thought I didn’t really know what that meant. What is a role/process/production you’re proud of? I would say two. The Romance of Magno Rubio which was directed by Orlando Pabotoy. He had originated the role of Magno in New York and they brought him in to direct. So Randy was in it, Sherwin [Resurreccion] was in it, Pogi [Eric Sumangil] was in it, Arnold [Felizardo] was in it. So it was five characters, all Filipino, and it was about guys who had come here and worked in the agricultural industry in the '20s. The process was so incredible because we had this amazing script, and I got to work with a lot of friends and we just dived into a whole other world together. It was one of my favorite ensemble pieces. Those are my favorite experiences, where, even though there’s a “lead,” the process and the product feel like an ensemble. And then A Streetcar Named Desire. I loved being a part of that. It was an amazing script and my first time working with Tennessee Williams. To be able to dive into that and unearth the layers there was really fun. To be in the room with that creative team and create that world was so good. Why do you act? I act for a lot of reasons but the reason I continue to act is because I enjoy playing. On another level it’s about serving a community that I feel like I belong to and being a representation in the world for them. That shapes a lot of my ethos as a performer. When you have a lot of good players in the room and they bring all their skills to bear on something, there is no greater joy than that. What keeps you going? [Laughs] ‘Cause I’m dumb! A lot of it is what I just said, but there’s also the desire to get better. That’s part of what I took from Othello. I got to sit in a room with a lot of very talented people and watch them work. What tricks they use, how they do it. I love being able to learn and mature, both as an actor and as a person. Here’s what I enjoy about being in shows: sometimes what we do is a craft, sometimes what we do is a job and sometimes it feels like art.