Meet East Sider Steve Kidd, Theater Teacher at Moses Brown

“The culture of a classroom has right and wrong answers, but arts have subjectivity, aesthetics and taste... [Artists and actors] have to be able to fail to try again, right?””

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Veteran actor Steve Kidd has played a wide array of characters, including that of a dragon slayer - in kindergarten! The former Education Director at The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre, Steve came in this month to Moses Brown School, where he will head the Middle School’s drama department and direct the Upper School’s two plays each year. A Shakespeare aficionado, Steve will remain a resident actor at The Gamm.

What drew you to Moses Brown?
"I’ve been working in Pawtucket and Central Falls schools for the last ten years. When I directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Moses Brown last fall, I was impressed by the staff... and student engagement,” says the newly-married Steve. “The new performing arts center that will be built is exciting.”

What’s on tap for this season?
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” he says, laughing. Steve, a playwright, acknowledges that mounting productions at Moses Brown might be challenging. “You have really big casts; it’s important to make sure that everyone’s time is worthwhile,” he says, adding that risqué plays or those with a great deal of violence, including some of Shakespeare’s works, might be unacceptable at a Quaker school. “We’ll have to navigate... what Moses Brown is about, but I think it’s important to push back a little.”

Acting and teaching acting are different – how do you teach acting?
“So many actors are good teachers because they’ve had good teachers,” explains Steve, a resident of Oak Hill. “It’s an active craft that needs human contact,” noting that it’s an amazing tapestry of tradition that we receive from our elders and hand over to younger actors who will replace us. “Acting is such a part of who I am and how Isee the world,” Steve says. “It’s kind of second nature for me to share that. Acting is teaching, listening, responding.”

Why is arts education important? Is learning to fail important?
“The culture of a classroom has right and wrong answers, but arts have subjectivity, aesthetics and taste,” Steve explains. “[Artists and actors] have to be able to fail to try again, right?”

How do you envision Moses Brown’s theater program five years out?
“More student-written and student-directed work; I’d like an independent student group to be responsible for the selection of the works that are staged”, he says. “We don’t always teach students that they can make theater on their own. It’s important to empower them.”

Nancy Kirsch is a Providence-based freelance writer. Contact her at writernancy@gmail.com