Presented by Equity Bank
When Cynthia Levin, the longtime artistic director of Unicorn Theatre, decided to retire after 45 years, the search was on.
The multi-talented, outgoing, creative Ernie Nolan has answered the call, but not all by himself. “I’m coming to Kansas City with my husband, director, choreographer, and writer, Abe Reybold, and our two cats, Brutus Rochester Reybold Nolan and Bishop Nickleby Reybold Nolan,” he says.
If you detect just a hint of children’s theater in his response, you would be correct. The Detroit native spent the past seven years as artistic director of the Nashville Children’s Theatre. As both a playwright and director, Nolan’s resumé includes notable projects with the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Chicago Playworks, and the off-Broadway New Victory Theatre.
A graduate of both the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Program (with a BFA in musical theater) and The Theatre School at DePaul University (with an MFA in directing), Nolan also served as assistant professor of theater studies at The Theatre School. In 2007, Nolan choreographed Unicorn’s production of La Cage Aux Folles.
“I’ve found that my education background gives me a certain clarity of storytelling,” says Nolan, a self-described “multi-tasker” who relies on “the magic of Post-it notes.”
He will go through a lot of Post-it notes for the ambitious 2024-2025 season at the Unicorn, which debuts new and contemporary plays for Kansas City audiences of all ages.
“I can’t wait to continue the tradition of new work at the Unicorn and to also create some of my own bold plays on those stages,” he says.
How did you get interested in theater?
Going to the theater was a part of my family’s love language. Some of my favorite childhood memories are all of us sharing theatrical experiences together. Both of my parents performed in high school and college, they even played opposite each other and won at a national one-act play festival. Eventually, they went into teaching and academia. My mother has a master’s in children’s theater and my father’s doctoral thesis was on David Storey, the British playwright and novelist. So, I guess you could say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I love sharing my love of theater with audiences of any age.
During your time at Emerald City Theatre in Chicago, you created the nation’s first performance space for interactive and immersive theater experiences for children age 5 and under. Why is it important to engage very small children in theater?
I say, “Start them young!” Going to the theater shouldn’t feel like a foreign, stuffy experience. So often, young people are threatened with rules and a certain list of “perceived behaviors” for the theater. Not only does this make it a regular activity, but it also helps young people learn how to become members of a community, which is what theater going is! Even experiencing theater for the very young as an adult is a revelatory experience.
You’ve been a playwright, director, choreographer, and artistic director. What is on your bucket list of theater experiences you’d like to try?
It might sound funny to say, but my bucket list is actually full of projects I don’t know about yet. I’m excited about creating more immersive projects and exploring all the spaces inside of the Unicorn, as well as outside. As an avid vinyl collector, I was recently tickled to find a play written to be performed inside a vinyl record shop. I’ve also become obsessed with Kansas City’s history, especially the historic Jewel Box Lounge, which hosted drag performance art in the late 50s and drew a suburban crowd of people who just enjoyed the show’s spectacle. I’m looking forward to exploring and celebrating that history.
What are your plans for the Unicorn Theatre?
I’m hoping to build on Unicorn’s incredible legacy of new work, as well as continue being the platform for the voices of underrepresented writers in the theater. In addition to making it the hottest ticket in town, I’m excited to explore further how to make our theater feel like the “city’s theater,” where people not only see themselves on stage and in the audience, but a place where people feel their stories are told. I’m also excited to throw a little of the unexpected in there. Pieces that someone might be surprised to hear about at first and then realize, “Of course Unicorn is going to tell that story! I can’t wait to see it!”