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A Chat with Kate Shindle

By: Feb. 17, 2004
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Craig: You just had a show at the Ars Nova which will be repeated again on Feb. 22nd entitled "Me and My Shadow - Songs I've Heard in Pageants" which leads to our first question - What was pageant life for you like growing up? How did you get involved in pageantry?

Kate Shindle: I actually didn't compete in pageants until I was about 17, and then very sparingly. As a senior in high school, I entered a program called America/>/>'s Junior Miss, which doesn't even identify itself as a pageant. They count your grades and your SAT scores, and there's no swimsuit competition. Plus, the winner gets a medal instead of a crown.

I got involved in that, as well as in the Miss America program, primarily for scholarships. I entered a local pageant (Miss Chicago) my freshman and sophomore years at Northwestern. It was one of the few that I could reach by train from Evanston/>/>, and I didn't have any real results other than learning the ropes. It was a casual thing, my participation those first two years — I didn't put a ton of effort into it, and frankly, it showed. I came away without a dime of scholarship money, no roses, no runner-up position. Junior year, I realized I needed to commit to it in order to get anywhere, and that philosophy sort of rocketed me into the Miss America job six months later.

 Craig: Do you have any amusing stories (not in your act) you could share with our readers about your experience in pageants?

Kate: Well, my experiences were pretty positive. I meet former contestants who tell me that someone shredded their evening gown or something, and I just think it's horrifying in light of the fact that I've always viewed Miss America/>/> as an organization which tries to celebrate and reward the best aspirations of young women. I find myself wondering how some of these women were motivated to stay involved when they came into contact with such negativity.

The only moderately amusing thing I fell victim to happened on the final night of competition in Atlantic City/>/>. I had worked my ass off to get ready for that swimsuit competition. Seriously, it did not come easily for me, and I was really proud of the results I achieved. But if you watched the Saturday night telecast, you might question whether I was really in shape, because I didn't look quite as good as I had during preliminaries. One of the other contestants had told me that if you eat something, it doesn't show up in your body for 48 hours, and I had been had been so healthy all summer that I embraced that wholeheartedly. Saturday during the day I stuffed myself full of ice cream, fried chicken, whatever. Needless to say, said contestant was lying through her teeth, and I totally bought it. Ah well, live and learn.

Craig: Ok, so in 1998 you won the title of Miss America/>/>. That was a very busy year for you both personally and professionally. How did your life change and how were you able to use your Miss America/>/> title to further your platform (AIDS and HIV awareness)?

Kate: Well, the Miss America job is primarily one of activism. I traveled 20,000 miles a month that year, and 90% of it was work focusing on my platform issue, HIV/AIDS prevention. Frankly, I don't think there's any reason to have a Miss America program if it's just all about putting a young woman on a pedestal for ceremonial reasons. We have enough random celebrities saying "look at me, I'm on TV". In order for the Miss America program to be worthwhile, it has to transcend that.

I had the opportunity to attack the AIDS issue from every angle — speaking to students, lobbying, addressing legislators, teachers, health care professionals, the World AIDS Conference, the National Press Club, you name it. It was amazing. Frankly, I got a lot of access to communities that didn't want to talk about AIDS because of that crown. Miss America/>/> is a known and trusted institution in a lot of those places, and I took full advantage of that.

Craig: It's now a year later, how did you transition from Kate Shindle "Miss America/>/> 1998) to Kate Shindle, actress? What doors had opened or what obstacles did you encounter?

Kate: Well, that's a lot of story to tell, and it's really the foundation of the show I've put together. Being a former Miss America/> had a tremendous effect on how I was perceived when I went back for my senior year, and when I moved to New York/>/> with my theatre degree in hand. A lot of people expect that when you come out of something like Miss America/>/>, you just want to stay famous. Frankly, I've found that celebrity is a pain in the ass unless you have something substantive to focus on. It was true when I was Miss America/>/>, and it's true now that I'm a working actor. My career ambitions have to do with finding a career path which gives me enough autonomy to satisfy my inner control freak. Getting there might require another run-in with celebrity, but this time I know what I'm getting into.

 

Craig:  Although your Broadway debut was in Jekyll and Hyde, your star-turn some would say was in Cabaret. What was that experience like?

Kate: Cabaret was absolutely incredible, and it's a role I'm sure I'll do again periodically. Since the Broadway show closed, I've had two offers to do the show. Unfortunately, both were bad timing and I had to say no. It's my understanding, though, that the revival staging is being licensed, which excites me to no end.

I spend some time on the whole cabaret experience in my solo show, too, and the abbreviated version is that it will unquestionably be something I look back at in 50 years as a highlight of my theatre career. The caliber of talent involved in all aspects of the production was unreal, both on and offstage. I was flying blind in some respects--when I was hired to play Sally on the tour, I was 23 and thought that my theatre degree meant that I knew everything. What I very quickly realized was that I still had a lot to learn, and I set about learning it every time I went onstage. Doing the show on Broadway, though brief, was a real culmination of everything I had struggled with on the road. Really, really, fantastic.


Craig:  Back to your Ars Nova gig - what can people expect on February 22nd? And what was the process like putting your evening together?

Kate: The show is called "me and my shadow", and it addresses in detail some of the issues we've touched on already. How does one go from the notoriety which comes with being Miss America/>/>--not all of it positive — to being a senior in college again? And how does it affect a young actor's life, even with respect to something as mundane as getting a job waiting tables?

Obviously, it's about music as well, and there's some Kander and Ebb, and a Marcy and Zina song, and a Lippa song, and a Finn song. There were so many composers I wanted to include —Michael John LaChiusa is a favorite of mine — and it was tough to narrow it down. But I had help shaping the show from Jen Bender, who is a very talented young director just coming off of Avenue Q, and Michael Sinclair, who music directed and is also one of the finest and most affordable voice teachers I've ever worked with. We worked together a couple of years ago when I went in a couple of times for Musetta in the Broadway La Boheme, and I couldn't believe the things my voice was able to do if I worked at it.

I hope that the show has a nice arc — it's a lot of fun to do and we've had some great audiences.

Craig:  Any songs that you had to cut that you wished you didn't?

Kate: I was doing "I'm the greatest star", which is just a blast and a song I've always wanted to sing, but it didn't feel right in the show. Also, there was a Wildhorn song called "Anything Can Happen" in the first performance back in November, but it was too close to another ballad, so we reshuffled things and it bit the dust.


Craig:  Standard question here - you've been a role model to many women, who do you look up to and why?

Kate: Hmmmmm. I don't really have traditional role models, I tend to aspire toward characteristics rather than toward people. I admire tenacity above all, but I also think that too often basic kindness and courtesy get abandoned because things are so crazy and everyone's so ambitious. Work ethic is important to me, as is the ability to laugh at one self. And I am always, always drawn to intellect.

Craig:  What are some of your favorite theater roles? Songs? Musicals?

Kate: I was offered a production of Evita last year; I'm dying to do the show but I sold out for something which paid about three times as much. Commerce over art, that's my philosophy. So that's at the top of the list of shows I need to sing. I would love to sing Florence/>/> in chess, and when they start looking around for new green girls in Wicked, I'd probably sell my soul for an audition.

Some friends and I recently did a big benefit of Children of Eden (I sang Yonah) which was the fulfillment of a dream for me. I don't often speak in those superlatives, but for me that experience was absolutely transcendent, and we've been talking about taking a version of that concert to other cities.

Craig:  What does the future hold for you? What's on the horizon?

Kate: Yikes, I'm busy, which is great. I spent last summer and fall shooting a small role in "The Stepford Wives" film, which is released June 11th. I may or may not look for a new home for this solo show after the 22nd, because I'm having a great time. I would love to stay at the Ars nova, but they're really determined to not become a place that's all about cabaret, and I respect that they want to develop new theatre pieces. It's such a wonderful space, though, and they've been great to work with. I'd also like to do something that's not so book-heavy — I'm dying to do an evening of standards with a great trio.

Also, I released an album about a year and a half ago, which is mostly Broadway/cabaret music, but I'm meeting with producers about a pop project and I've been writing a lot. And at the moment I'm doing a workshop of a new musical called flight, based on the life of Howard Hughes, playing a sort of composite character of many of the women he had in his life over the years. I loved film, but it does feel great to be on a stage, singing. That's something I don't think I'll ever get tired of.

Finally, I'm still active in a lot of AIDS-related causes, and am starting to make noises about some of the developments in the movement. This abstinence-only education campaign is horrifyingly stupid and irresponsible, because there is not a single program which has been proven to work for even a majority of students, let alone everyone. It's as if the administration and these activists are saying that if kids don't get in line, they deserve whatever consequences they get. I'm a conservative, so it's important to me to be vocal. These things should not be partisan issues. They should be issues of good public health policy. As long as the ignorance in America/>/> exceeds the constructive action being taken, I will be an AIDS activist.

To purchase tickets to Kate's Ars Nova show, click here.

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