Greenwich Academy Alumnae

Greenwich Academy is lucky to have Linda Key as Upper School drama director because her list of accomplishments is overwhelming. Not only is she committed to teaching girls at GA, but she is dedicated to producing new works by women. As artistic director of Six Figures Theatre Company, she produced such shows as Katt Lissard's Dark Lantern, Sherry Kramer's The Wall of Water, Maria Morrett's Women in Confinement as well as over 15 full productions, 10 workshops and 70 play readings of new works by women.

Added to her many production credits are the unprecedented two Fringe Firsts from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. GA and Brunswick students, aka The Red Chair Players, claimed the prize for The Laramie Project in 2002, which was performed the following spring season by then graduates of the two schools at the Cochrane Theatre in London, where it received rave reviews. This past summer, The Red Chair Players 2004 also received the coveted award for Bang, Bang You're Dead, a show about school shootings.

Linda's scope is truly global as evidenced by her production and direction of Embracing Freedom: The Immigrant Journey to America on Ellis Island for the Statue of Liberty/ Ellis Island Foundation, and she is commissioning its newest play this year. She also has served as director of the Process Company at the Mint Theatre Company and New York liason for Melbourne Theatre Company, State Theatre of South Australia, Brink Theatre Productions of South Australia and Mannie Manim Productions of South Africa.

Linda's experience extends beyond production and direction. She has developed screenplays with Willy Holtzman and Joan Ackermann. As an actress, she played Mrs. Williams opposite Val Kilmer in Joe the King, a film by Frank Whaley (co-winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival). She is an affiliated artist at New Georges, a member of Lincoln Center's Director Lab '99 as well as a survivor of Actors Theatre of Louisville and Ringling Brothers' and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Along with her teaching at GA, Linda has taught acting at the School for Film and Television and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Q: What inspires your career in the performing arts?
A: "So many things. My drama students at GA are my main inspiration these days. Their enthusiasm is amazing. How great it is when you see them understand a concept and the light bulb goes off in their heads. Right now, the project I'm working on that is inspiring me is a theatrical adaptation of the Angela Carter novel Nights at the Circus. It is a fantastical love story set in London at the turn of the century."

Q: How did GA prepare you for your career in the performing arts?
A: "It gave me an education — a great education. It gave me a critical mind, an ability to read plays and understand them. I graduated into the world able to speak clearly and intelligently about theater, about which I care very deeply."

Q: Did you have any mentors at GA that inspired you?
A: "When I was at GA, my drama teacher Jeremy Clulow was my mentor. He produced wonderful plays, ran drama club and generally inspired me to go after a career in the theater. He told me it was possible. He even helped me get my first summer stock job at Ivoryton Playhouse when I was a GA junior. And Kate Burt, the Middle School drama teacher, inspires me every day."

Q: How do (did) you train for your career after GA?
A: "I attended Northwestern University and majored in performance studies, acted in and directed a lot of plays there. Then I spent a year at Actors Theatre of Louisville — a sort of boot camp for theater training — where I acted, took classes and did tons of backstage work. Then I ran my own theater company in New York City for six years, which taught me all about directing, grant-writing, producing, fundraising and dramaturgy."

Q: What is your advice for students and alumnae interested in pursuing acting as a career?
A: "Make sure you really love it. Being an actor or director takes a huge amount of persistence, patience and toughness of spirit. It is incredibly rewarding to have a career in the performing arts, but it definitely has its challenges. You have to be tough and stubborn."