Kyle Haden
In his leadership role, Kyle represents the School of Drama on college and university committees, as well as a variety of external functions, and is involved in forming and maintaining partnerships, both locally and nationally. He is the Leadership point of contact for the Season Steering Committee, responsible for negotiating rights for performance with licensing companies, as well as casting all School of Drama productions. In addition to his teaching duties in the Acting/Music Theater program, Kyle is also the Artistic Producer of ColLABo, a production development incubator.
Originally from Pittsburgh, Kyle Haden is an artistic leader, director, educator, and Equity actor, as well as the artistic producer of ColLABo, a production development incubator. He is an Artistic Associate and the former artistic director of the Ashland New Plays Festival in Oregon. During his six-year tenure as artistic director, over a dozen new plays from ANPF went on to have premieres nationwide. Kyle also spearheaded their 2016 Women’s Invitational; one of the winning plays, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. Kyle is also a Senior Coordinating Producer with Black Lives, Black Words International Project, as well as a member of the 2021 cohort of artEquity’s BIPOC Leadership Circle.
As a director, Kyle has helmed various world premieres of productions across the country, including Parental Advisory: a breakbeat play (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), The Devil is a Lie (Quantum Theater), and the award-winning Hazardous Materials (Creede Repertory Theatre). Other shows he has directed include Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (City Theatre Company), The Royale (Creede Repertory Theatre), Waiting For Lefty (Quintessence Theatre); The Chief (Pittsburgh Public Theater), The Realness and A Brief History of America (Hangar Theatre Company), Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale (Island Shakespeare Festival) and The Tens (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville). Kyle was named a 2018 Drama League Directing Fellow, and is a member of the Drama League Directors Council.
Kyle has taught at various theater companies, including several years serving as the program manager at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Summer Seminar for High School Juniors. He previously held tenure-track appointments at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts and Southern Oregon University.
On stage, Kyle has performed at regional theaters nationwide, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (three seasons), Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Arizona Theater Company, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Pittsburgh Public Theater, City Theatre Company, Quantum Theatre, and Cleveland Play House, as well as various theaters in New York and Chicago. Kyle also appeared in Amazon’s American Rust and is the voice of Luke in the upcoming animated short film Where the Deer Sleep.
BA: Wake Forest University, MFA: Columbia University.