Katherine Kavanagh

Katherine Kavanagh


Professor
Speech, Communications and Theatre Arts

EMAIL: kkavanagh@bmcc.cuny.edu

Office: S-628N

Office Hours:

Phone: +1 (212) 220-8000;ext=5187

Professor Kavanagh is a tenured, full professor and theater maker. She has studied directing, theater management and producing in classrooms and rehearsal rooms.

Since arriving at BMCC/City University of New York, Kavanagh has developed new courses, collaborated with BMCC and CUNY colleagues from Theater, English, Business, Economics, and Criminal Justice, and actively mentored junior faculty in multiple departments through BMCC’s Teaching Academy. An early architect of the Theater Program, Kavanagh served as the Theater Program Director for ten years. Under her leadership, the theater major grew to become the largest theater major within City University with connections to Broadway and Off-Broadway companies.

Collaboration and social justice are major themes in her work. Today, Kavanagh continues to bridge BMCC’s theater program with the New York theater industry, where she has been an active member for more than twenty-five years. She has launched and advised on workplace readiness workshops, backstage opportunities and educational partnerships with Theatre Development Fund, The Broadway League, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage Theatre, Soho Rep, WalkRunFly, Emursive (“Sleep No More”), Primary Stages, and the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. She has partnered with these companies to systematically address inequity and inclusion in the theater. Creating experiential, hands-on classes is a priority for Kavanagh as she prepares students for a life in theater. Many BMCC theater majors have gone on to work with the companies named above and executive leaders from these companies are frequent guest lecturers in Kavanagh’s class “Theater Management: Exploring Theaters of New York and Beyond.”

Additionally, Kavanagh has several global connections; including a twenty-year relationship with Northern Ireland’s Sole Purpose Production, a theater dedicated to social justice. In 2019 she was an associate producer for the award-winning production, “Blinkered,” at the Irish Arts Festival in NYC. She has toured original work to Israel, Scotland, and Nicaragua, and traveled to Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates for research projects.

Before her tenure at BMCC, Kavanagh served as the Director of Minor Latham Playhouse, where she produced international theater artists (including Dario Fo & Franca Rame, Peter Sellars & Hua Wenyi) and taught in the Barnard-Columbia College Theater Department for ten years. She was awarded a multi-year grant by the Kauffman Foundation to design a hybrid course for women interested in arts leadership. Additional courses included Theater Management, co-teaching Rehearsal and Performance and Theater of New York City. During this time she devised and directed work throughout the East Village; served on the board of The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center; and helped launch the NYC Fringe Festival as the Director of Community Affairs in the inaugural year.

Kavanagh has written and devised several plays including; “13 Heavens and 9 Hells” (with Jess Lynn, published by Baker’s Plays), “Still Life w/ AIDS” (co-authored with Denny Partridge), and “The Four Freedoms” (devised for NYCFringe). In 2020, she wrote a musical “The Life of Mary Rogers: An Incredible, Plausible, Entirely Made Up, True Story from 1841” with Tariq Hamami and Thomas Hodges. The stage production, starring BMCC students, was canceled due to COVID, so Kavanagh reimagined and adapted the show into a four-part audio musical that aired in 2021. She is currently developing it for the professional stage.

In Advanced Theater Workshop, Kavanagh has devised new work with students including “Sonho: a dream in progress,” “Spring Sing” (a cabaret of songs and text based on stories from 19th century New York), and “One Night,” a play exploring issues of pro-choice and anti-choice. In recent years she directed “Almost, Maine” by John Cariani and “Everything Will Be Alright” by Tariq Hamami as part of BMCC’s season.

Kavanagh has served as a board member for several companies in the past including the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, BMCC’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Brooklyn Children’s Theater, and Manhattan Theatre Club’s Educational Council. A life-long learner, in 2018 she trained with Tectonic Theater on “moment work” and devising nonfiction theater. In Spring 2023 she participated in a professional development workshop with New York Theater Workshop. In spring 2024, Kavanagh will conduct research in Ireland and Northern Ireland, funded by a PSC-CUNY Research Grant.

Expertise

Producing Theater, Theatre Management; Collaboration; Generating New Work;  Economics of Theater

Degrees

  • MFA Columbia University’s School of the Arts, Creative Producing and Theatre Management
  • BA Antioch College, Theater

Courses Taught

Research and Projects

SoHo Rep Professor Kavanagh works with the leadership team to bring guest speakers into the classroom and students to SoHo Rep’s productions every season.

Industry Access Creating programs to enhance BMCC students’ theater education and exposure to the New York theater industry by collaborating with Manhattan Theatre Club and How to Stand Out to support BMCC students in becoming more competitive candidates for theater internships and jobs.

WalkRunFly Inc. Professor Kavanagh has partnered with this dynamic production company helmed by Warren Adams, Brandon Victor Dixon, and Jenifer Isaacson, to create practical opportunities and internships for students. Students have worked with Tony nominated artists assisting WRF in different departments such as stage management, technical support and dramaturgy. http://www.walkrunfly.com/

LOVE / YOUTH FOUNDING PRODUCERS: Akin Salawu, Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Chandra Thomas, Hope Salas, Kat Kavanagh, Winter Miller. CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: Sinead O’Connor, Matisyahu, Antony and the Johnsons, Ben Jelen, Colman Domingo, Nilo Cruz, Lynn Nottage, Kia Corthron, David Henry Hwang, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Betty Shamieh, Staceyann Chin, Jessica Care Moore

In fall of 2010, 5 artists concerned with the alarming rise of suicides of LGBT youth asked a simple question: What would happen if we mobilized the very best resources of the theater, music, film and visual arts community to help students across the country address the prevalence of bullying in their schools and communities? LOVE/YOUTH is the answer to this question – a mass galvanization of nearly 100 high profile and emerging artists who created high-impact works of art and social media that explore the roots of bullying of LGBT youth and build a world where all children and youth are free to discover who they are without fear of persecution.

Second Generation at Second Stage Theatre Professor Kavanagh created a partnership with Second Stage Theatre (2009-2015) which allowed hundreds of BMCC students to attend the theater for free each year.  Students networked with patrons and staff at the theater during the pre-show party and engaged in the Q & A with the creative staff of the production after the show. This program is on hiatus.

Publications

“13 Heavens and 9 Hells” with Jess Lynn. Baker’s Plays.

“The Role of Performing Arts Centers: A Case for the City University of New York” The International Journal of Learning

“Why David Ives Pulled the Rights to a Student Production and Other True Stories of Producing in Academic Programs” Conference Paper: Association for Theatre in Higher Education

“CUNY’s Creative Campus: Performing Arts Centers on the College Campus”, Conference Paper: Popular Culture Association Conference

“The Value of Social Entrepreneurship” Conference Paper: Association for Theatre in Higher Education

“Creative Fundraising Techniques” Conference: New York State Theatre Education Association

Honors, Awards and Affiliations

Articles on some of Professor Kavanagh’s productions, programs and research:

Theatre Program Debuts Original Musical Podcast, “The Life Of Mary Rogers”  https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2021/02/01/theatre-program-debuts-original-musical-podcast-the-life-of-mary-rogers/

BMCC Theatre Production Keeps Show’s Spirit Alive and Strengthens Community https://www-old.bmcc.cuny.edu/news/bmcc-theatre-production-keeps-shows-spirit-alive-and-strengthens-community/

Tony Nominee Brandon Victor Dixon Meets with BMCC Students https://www-old.bmcc.cuny.edu/news/tony-nominee-brandon-victor-dixon-meets-with-bmcc-students/

BMCC President Antonio Pérez attends the stunning BMCC production, Almost Maine, written by John Cariani and directed by Theatre Professor Katherine Kavanagh https://www-old.bmcc.cuny.edu/wp-content/newsletters/12152016.html

Bridging the Drama Divide/news/bridging-the-drama-divide/

The Curtain Rises /news/the-curtain-rises-on-chit-chat/

Toward a True Creative Campus /news/toward-a-true-creative-campus/

Broadway Speakers Bureau Attracts Theatre Students /news/broadway-speakers-bureau-attracts-theatre-students/

Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/news/050108_bmcc_career_fair.shtml

Additional Information

Articles on some of Professor Kavanagh’s productions, programs and research:

Theatre Program Debuts Original Musical Podcast, “The Life Of Mary Rogers”  https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2021/02/01/theatre-program-debuts-original-musical-podcast-the-life-of-mary-rogers/

BMCC Theatre Production Keeps Show’s Spirit Alive and Strengthens Community https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/news/bmcc-theatre-production-keeps-shows-spirit-alive-and-strengthens-community/

Tony Nominee Brandon Victor Dixon Meets with BMCC Students https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/news/tony-nominee-brandon-victor-dixon-meets-with-bmcc-students/

BMCC President Antonio Pérez attends the stunning BMCC production, Almost Maine, written by John Cariani and directed by Theatre Professor Katherine Kavanagh https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/wp-content/newsletters/12152016.html

Bridging the Drama Divide/news/bridging-the-drama-divide/

The Curtain Rises /news/the-curtain-rises-on-chit-chat/

Toward a True Creative Campus /news/toward-a-true-creative-campus/

Broadway Speakers Bureau Attracts Theatre Students /news/broadway-speakers-bureau-attracts-theatre-students/

Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/news/050108_bmcc_career_fair.shtml