All the world’s a stage for theatre senior

With high hopes and big dreams, Kelsey Kindall ’18 enrolled in Messiah College as the recipient of the Daniel Volmer Scholarship, an honor bestowed to only two outstanding first-year theatre majors. As she prepares to gradate this month, she reflects on her past accomplishments.

A professor, a reality check

Kindall credits her success at Messiah, in part, to the instruction of Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance Dan Inouye. She says when she first came to the College, her “firecracker attitude” needed to be channeled in a constructive way. Cue Inouye.

In taking his classes, I was no longer able to slide through assignments,” said Kindall. “If I didn’t put forth my best, he didn’t put up with it.” With this reality check, she says she learned a valuable lesson: “The world wasn’t going to let me slide through, so he didn’t let me either.

That life lesson clearly yielded results. Inouye says she has grown as a songwriter and performer at Messiah.

“Kelsey is a disciplined and driven artist who is not afraid to pursue her passion and go after her dreams,” said Inouye. “She has begun to find her voice as a very talented songwriter.”

From one stage to another, opportunities continued to come Kindall’s way. Her talent and expertise took her from Messiah College to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut, resulting in her greatest networking opportunity yet.

Connections and opportunities

At the O’Neill, where she spent a semester and a summer, she worked with Broadway stars such as Kelli O’Hara (“The King and I”).

I couldn’t have put myself in a better network-heavy environment,” said Kindall.

As part of her experience there, she worked with Donna Dinovelli, a faculty member at the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. After the two composed a musical together, Dinovelli offered the Messiah student a spot at Tisch. Kindall deferred the offer to finish her Messiah degree, but the opportunity is still on the table.

In an official evaluation, Dinovelli wrote to Kindall, “If you ever decide to continue as a musical theater creator, know you have a home at NYU... . Hope to see you there, one day.”

Today Messiah, tomorrow the world

Adding to her résumé, Kindall studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland, her junior year. “Messiah’s study abroad program is essential,” said Kindall. “People who don’t take advantage of it, why are you messing this up?”

While in Ireland, Kindall says she performed in a showcase at The Gaiety Theatre.

I think the coolest part of Gaiety was working on grounding myself as an actor,” she explained. “After working with Gaiety ... I don’t feel the need to put on anything or feel stressed with the need to entertain. As long as you believe in what you’re doing and are invested, the audience will be, too.

A place of 'yes'

As she prepares for a post-grad life of auditioning for theatre productions, Kindall said she asks herself, “Am I doing this to glorify myself or to glorify God?”

Ultimately, she sees her career as her calling. “Everyone wishes for hope, for a redemptive story,” she said of her theatre work. “And if what I’m doing gives that hope to people, then I know I’m where God wants me to be.”

—Jake Miaczynski ’20