Brian Kite Named New Chair of UCLA School Of Theater, Film & Television's Department of Theater

Teri Schwartz, Dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), one of the world's most prominent academic institutions for entertainment and performing arts education, announced today the appointment of Brian Kite as the new chair of the Department of Theater.

"I am delighted to welcome Brian Kite as Professor and new Chair of UCLA TFT's Department of Theater," states Schwartz. "Brian brings an outstanding history of great teaching, mentoring, distinguished creative work and robust artistic direction and management, especially with the resounding successes of the multi-award winning La Mirada Theatre Company. We are confident that Brian will be a great leader for our Department of Theater. He will work tirelessly and with great imagination to help bring this jewel in the crown for UCLA TFT to new levels of excellence for now and the future."

BRIAN KITE was the producing artistic director of the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts from 2008-2015, where he directed numerous acclaimed productions including Billy Elliot, LES MISERABLES, Miss Saigon, Little Shop of Horrors, Dinner With Friends, Steel Magnolias, Driving Miss Daisy and Proof.Kite has directed live theater across the United States and abroad. He directed the national tours of In the Heat of the Night and The Graduate for L.A. Theatre Works; staged the first production of Miss Saigon to ever play in China; and directed Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, which toured throughout Mainland China. The production was the first U.S. production of a play at Beijing's National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA). He also helmed a production of Cabaret in Bermuda and directed Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie at Actors Co-op Theatre Company in Hollywood. For more than seven years, Kite was the director of theater programs at New York's French Woods Festival, directing more than 20 productions during his tenure there. His upcoming projects include a new production of Rent and an intimate staging of Green Day's American Idiot. In addition to his directing projects, Kite has taught at UCLA TFT for the past 10 years. Kite is the chair the Los Angeles Stage Alliance's board of governors and is the artistic director of the award-winning Buffalo Nights Theatre Company. He is the recipient of the 2013 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his production of Spring Awakening. Kite received his B.A. and his M.F.A. from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

For more information about the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, please visit the School's website.

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