From Whimsy to Ruthless Ambition

Professor acts, teaches, directs, and inspires

By Maria Carrig


This summer Kevin Rich, adjunct professor of theatre, was doing more than prepare classes for the fall semester and work on his garden. He starred at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, one of the best Shakespeare festivals in North America, playing the title role in "Richard III," as well as Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and a donut-eating gendarme in Molière's farce "Scapin."

Kevin Rich, adjunct professor of theatre at Carthage, in Richard III

Originally from the Chicago area, Prof. Rich graduated from Grinnell College and the Yale School of Drama, and has acted all over the country, from New York to California. Recently, he returned to his Midwestern roots, teaching at Carthage and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside while acting and directing locally.

Can a working actor find happiness in Kenosha? For Prof. Rich, the answer is an emphatic yes.

"A lot of my friends who have been successful in theater are now in Los Angeles, trying to work in television," he says. "But I am much more excited about creating possibilities in a smaller community. In the professional world it's easy to get boxed in, and I hate that. I would rather play Richard III in Normal, Ill., than 'the computer geek' or 'the best friend' over and over again in New York."

Rich gives an 'outstanding, layered performance

"Richard III," Shakespeare's perennially popular history play, depicts the rise to power of Richard Plantagenet, a ruthlessly ambitious younger son, who believes his physical deformity justifies his elimination of everyone who stands in his way. The audience is initially seduced by Richard, who confides to us his resentments and his plans to master a world that has rejected him. Though horrified by his heinous crimes, we admire the fact that he goes down fighting, shouting "My kingdom for a horse!"

Reviews of the show, presented in an open-air theater at Illinois State University, consistently praised Rich's "outstanding, layered performance in the title role. He offers a cruel and complicated individual whose despicable acts are not only understood but very nearly forgiven."

Director Henry Woronicz explained why he cast Rich in the role of Shakespeare's most entertaining villain: "Kevin is a wonderful actor. ... His natural instincts and his casting have been toward the more comic roles, but he has a tremendous range. There's an old saying in the theater that if you are going to play a villain, try to find his good parts, his funny parts. It's lovely to have an actor who understands the comic side of Richard, but also when he wants can turn into a malevolent force."

"It's lovely to have an actor who understands the comic side of Richard, but also when he wants can turn into a malevolent force."

— Henry Woronicz, Director

Prof. Rich describes Richard as "an outsider. His self-described asymmetry puts him at odds with his society and its moral code, so he follows his own rules in turning the tables. As audience, we observe this guy's actions and call him a monster — and he certainly does become one — but as the actor playing him, you've got to first work to understand why he did what he did. That's been my favorite part — trying to make the audience have a hard time hating Richard. Because before that mask comes off at the end of the play, he's a charmer — he's got a lot of his peers completely fooled. As he says himself, 'I can smile, and murder while I smile ... and frame my face to all occasions.' Playing that kind of character ... as an actor, it doesn't get any better than that."

Searching for inspiration

Regional theater can be a rewarding but risky business, as Prof. Rich learned last year. He acted in several productions for the Milwaukee Shakespeare Company, including a starring role as Berowne in "Love's Labor's Lost," which played to sold-out houses. But shortly after he joined Milwaukee Shakespeare's education program, the economic crisis forced the company to shut its doors almost overnight, canceling its spring schedule.

"A lot of professional theater is on a respirator in this country," Prof. Rich declares. "Many theaters believe they have to cater to the affluent, older audience that subsidizes them. So theaters play it safe, giving their audiences what they think they want, but in playing it safe they're killing theater. Frankly, it only takes one uninspired play to keep someone from buying another $50 ticket. For a story to inspire an audience, it first has to inspire the people telling it. If theater is to stay alive, it must involve exploration and creative freedom, and that demands risk.

"My job as a professor is to do, to create. When I teach a class, my students and I frequently create a piece of theater. ... Those are the kinds of bridges I would like to build: creating theater with students that can become professional theater, but that was put together without constraints on time and creativity."

— Kevin Rich

"This, I think, is where academic institutions like Carthage can be vitally important to the future of theater. Academia is a place where we can create work freely. My job as a professor is to do, to create. When I teach a class, my students and I frequently create a piece of theater. In my recent Theater for Children course, we created a play for young people about 'Billy Shakespeare' and took it to local elementary schools, then to Milwaukee Shakespeare and showed it to the artistic director, who then commissioned me (with an NEA grant that we successfully applied for) to develop a whole series of plays about the young Shakespeare.

"Those are the kinds of bridges I would like to build: creating theater with students that can become professional theater, but that was put together without constraints on time and creativity.

"I'm interested in finding new audiences, in getting people to see plays for the first time. I want to make theater accessible to contemporary audiences, to young people. This doesn't mean simply catering to a particular group's tastes. Shakespeare made his plays popular without compromising the quality of the story he was telling and I think our theatre can too. I'm less interested in doing theatre that's diamonds and caviar — valuable to a small audience — than I am in telling stories that are more like water: nourishment for everybody.

"So Kenosha is an ideal place for me. It's a community with great storytellers of its own that is also within commutable distance of two great theatre towns. My plate has been full since moving to the Midwest in 2006: I’ve worked consistently as an actor in Chicago and Milwaukee, and have been directing as well — I recently directed a show at Bradford High School, a play at Carthage ('Fighting Words') and a play I wrote for children at Northlight Theater Academy in Chicago — and I've got several projects lined up for the coming year."

Theatre Department supports creative freedom

Prof. Rich praises Herschel Kruger, chair of Carthage's Theatre Department, as "an inspiration to me and to the students, both because he supports innovation and creative freedom in the classroom and because he encourages his faculty to work in the field. My professional involvement has already allowed me to get several Carthage students involved in professional internships and apprenticeships. All of our theater faculty are involved in productions outside Carthage. Kim Instenes designs all over the place, Neil Scharnick directs and Martin McClendon just spent the summer at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, acting in their 'First Look' production of 'Honest,' an original play by Eric Simonson that Carthage students premiered this past spring.

"My hope, ultimately, is to work as a full-time professor in a community where I can help start a company that would serve as a professional creative outlet for students and faculty alike, and have a tangible, positive impact on the community. I'm certainly no stranger to the challenges of working in the arts during difficult economic times, but I'm finding that if you stay in touch with your goals and connected to your passion, the work comes. It's not enough, as artists, to say we are important. We have to be important. If we have an important effect on a community, the work will come. I don't know of anyone who couldn't benefit from being inspired for a few hours."

Maria Carrig is an associate professor of English, Theatre, and Great Ideas at Carthage.