CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois theatre department will have a female leader for the first time.
Kirsten Pullen, a professor of performance studies at Texas A&M University, has been named head of the department, pending approval by the U. of I. Board of Trustees. She will succeed Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, who has been department head for five years. Jenkins will remain on the theatre faculty.
Pullen is a native Midwesterner who grew up in Indianola, Iowa, and earned her bachelor’s degree at Grinnell College. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees in theatre research from the University of Wisconsin.
“The pull of family and the pull of the Midwest are huge,” Pullen said.
When she began talking with people in the Illinois theatre department, she quickly realized it was her dream job, she said.
“The energy and spirit of collaboration and engagement and activism is so important. All the things I wanted to do were already happening there,” Pullen said.
One of the draws for her is the department’s links to Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. She noted the Illinois theatre department is significant for its productions. While Pullen trained as an actor, she described herself as a scholar and a teacher rather than a theatre professional. But she also led the Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts at Texas A&M.
“It was a tiny version of Krannert Center,” Pullen said. “We did all this programming to strengthen ties between the students at Texas A&M and the professionals we were bringing in. To have that relationship already established and be able to grow it and work with (Krannert Center director) Mike Ross, who is kind of a legend, that is hugely appealing.”
Pullen said her priority for the Illinois theatre department is making it a leader in greater representation and inclusion of people both onstage and onscreen and behind the scenes.
She said Illinois prepares its students for finding jobs in the field, but she also wants to ensure they are prepared to lead the profession in collaborating with other artists and creating their own work.
Pullen teaches courses in theater history and performance theory at Texas A&M, and she directs departmental productions. She plans to remain active as a teacher and director at Illinois.
“Directing a show is one of the best ways to really get the pulse of the department and try out ideas on the ground. The stage is a lab for different ideas,” she said.
Pullen will also continue her work as a performance historian, with an emphasis on how female performers affect our understanding of acting, femininity and celebrity. She is the author of two books, “Actresses and Whores: On Stage and In Society” (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and “Like a Natural Woman: Spectacular Female Performance in Classical Hollywood” (Rutgers University Press, 2014). Her next project will look at cabaret performers, both female and men in drag, and how their performances provide different ideas on being male and female, particularly at a time when people are considering what it means to be transgender.
Pullen has been the director of graduate studies for Texas A&M’s M.A. in Performance Studies since its inception in 2010. She has been a faculty member at Texas A&M University since 2008. Previously she taught at the University of Calgary and Colorado State University.
Pullen has been active in the American Society for Theatre Research, serving as a member of its executive committee from 2011–14.
She will begin her duties at Illinois on Aug. 16.