MNSU Theatre hosts final Studio Season play

KIMBERLY SHIPMAN
Staff Writer

An interview with the director of Boy Gets Girl, Kristin N. Fox

Now in the Andreas Theatre at Minnesota State University, Mankato, is Rebecca Gilman’s Boy Gets Girl. This production explores conflict between men and women and the way women feel as though they are only objects to society.
Kristin N. Fox, the director of Boy Gets Girl, is a first year graduate student at MNSU, and prior to attending, she studied in the Twin Cities area. She says her plan after graduation is to find a career in theatre, education, and leadership. In search of being an educational coordinator that creates a curriculum to teach all ages and abilities, and in the long-term, Fox would like to become a professor.
“My short-term goals are focused on graduation and getting back to working in the professional world,” she said.
Fox has been a part of theatre for over 20 years and has worked in nearly every aspect of it. All of it started out for her at a young age, with roles in elementary school and high school as an actress. Continuing on, she received her undergraduate degree for acting and also for directing.
She has stayed very active in the theatre community, and not just at MNSU. Aside from being a director, she said she has most recently worked as a stage manager for several different companies around the Twin Cities area. She also co-manages a theatre company that is mostly used for producing new works. Her roles in the shows cover a wide range of responsibilities; from director or producer, to a character on stage, or even the costume designer.
As a director, Fox said, “There is no typical day, every day brings different challenges and different goals.”
She said it is her job as a director to help the cast members develop a more real-life kind of character, rather than just a person robotically reading the scripts; this is called “table work.” The cast has a chance to all sit together and help develop a story and personality behind their characters. They figure out the different quirks and histories behind them as well.
Fox said, “It’s more about giving the actors the tools they need to create characters that are as true to life as possible.”
Once the actors have been able to go through this learning process with their characters, Fox said at that point it is her job to help them structure their movements for the stage, such as making sure the audience doesn’t only get to see them from the back or the side.
“Theatre is a tough industry to be in,” Fox said. It isn’t an easy profession, and it has hectic schedules to put up with. However, even when the times are tough, her advice to young theatre artists is, “If you love it enough… then do theatre. Be happy, and never look back.”