Spotlight on...Kevin Tierney

Author: Melissa Marshall

Dressed in a cozy terry cloth bathrobe and armed with a cup of tea and his biting wit, Kevin Tierney '08 spent an hour of an overcast Saturday morning divulging his impressive theatre career to The Middlebury Campus. The joint Theatre and Italian major from Southborough, Mass. offered his views on theatre parents, the state of the Middlebury College Musical Players and even traumatic childhood memories during this exclusive interview.

The Campus: When did you first decide that you wanted to sacrifice your social life, regular sleeping schedule and sanity for the sake of theatre?
Kevin Tierney: I've been involved in theatre since the sixth grade, and I've always done all types of shows, from musicals to serious theatre. During high school it was all serious theatre, and then I got to Middlebury and I auditioned for MCMP because I wanted to try out for everything possible. So I did some work with them, but it wasn't until my third semester that I really jumped into the deep end and plunged head first into MCMP. That is when I decided that this was my club and this is what I wanted to be doing. I volunteered to direct Into the Woods by Steven Sondheim during the spring of my sophomore year. So that's probably the decision that most thoroughly annihilated my regular sleeping habits.

TC: Being the busy bee that you are, you were one of the coordinators for the Middlebury-supported theatre group Middleground this summer. Can you tell us a little about that experience? How does the program benefit the children as well as the counselors?
KT: Middleground was a very interesting experience. It's a camp for Addison County kids ages 7 to 14, and this summer we put on two shows after four weeks of camp. I think what was great for the kids was that we took theatre very seriously - we had high production values and high expectations for the kids. For the kids that ended up really getting into it, they had a great experience because maybe in the past they did theatre with a "whatever attitude." We made them try to really think about it and get deeply involved, more than just showing up at camp because it's something to do and a way for the parents not to have to deal with them for five hours a day. I definitely learned a lot about the whole organizational aspect and theatre parents. There are all levels of parental involvement, from those who don't even walk their kids to camp to the people who are calling twice a day trying to make sure that we're following their rules. You learn how to work with people but still maintain what you set out to do and not bend too much to the pressure of people who are older than you, but who are frankly not running the organization that you know how to run. You have to stick to your guns - I may be 21, but I know what's going on.

TC: Now you and Laura Budzyna '08 are co-administrators of the Middlebury College Music Players - an organization that struggled a bit last year under inexperienced direction. What are your goals for the group this semester?
KT: Last semester we had an exciting couple of months while I was abroad in Italy. When I got back I found out that we could no longer use the Zoo due to damages done in the last semester and that we need to rebuild our reputation. So that is my biggest goal for the year - to reestablish MCMP as legitimate, hardworking people - because we are. And we put on good theatre, that's always been my stance. MCMP does good theatre, and I don't want anyone to have to doubt that. I also want to cooperate a little more with the Theatre Department. It's hard to get the department to support us because often I feel that we're seen as this outsider group that's stealing resources, and they may think that we're not doing serious theatre. But through quality theatre, I want to prove that MCMP has what it takes - we're good and that we're going to keep on being good. Yeah, we've had some mishaps, but overall we're a strong group and I want to keep it strong.

TC: What projects are in the works for this, your senior year?
KT: For the fall semester, I am going to be directing another Steven Sondheim show, Merrily We Roll Along, that will be produced in McCullough from Nov. 8-10. And looking further into the future I hope to have my final thesis project: a translation piece. I would like to translate a couple work of Italian theatre into English. Those are my two big projects, and hopefully I'll have a big project in the spring - who knows.

TC: What was your most embarrassing theatre moment?
KT: Oh man, I need to think about that one. I need to go back into the reaches of the depths of beyond anything I really want to think about. I haven't really forgotten any major lines on stage or dropped my pants on stage. Pretty much an embarrassing show to do all together was in eighth grade we put on "Puberty: The Game Show." I was the contestant who lost at puberty. Use your imaginations - that was embarrassing.