Hilary Adams – Program Director & Founder of Kids Make Theatre Statement of Purpose
From the very beginning of Hilary’s theatrical adventures, her passion has been about the power of storytelling to positively transform, heal and empower individuals and communities. She was so lucky to get to see all sorts of theatre as a child, and spent many happy hours standing on the TKTS half price line in NYC with her mom, waiting to see what tickets they could get. It was like winning the best lottery ever, each time. Once she learned that many kids do not have an opportunity to experience and create theatre as she had, and knowing how important it was for her, Hilary embarked on a career that weaves together strands of different types of theatre, combining what is called professional and educational theatre. She loves to learn and practice with all ages of theatre makers, from very beginners to top-of-career artists. At the heart of it, the passion and joy of collaborative storytelling, and the potential for it to provide a place of belonging, strength of purpose and tools for empowered communication are universal.
Kids Make Theatre is created to embody this spirit of theatre as a transformative practice that can uplift, empower and celebrate individuals and communities.
Hilary Adams – Program Director
Hilary started her decades-long theatre career at the top of a tree as an owl in a school play. From that auspicious beginning, she began directing plays as a teenager, including assistant directing a kids’ musical theatre program at a community center, and studying acting. Her theatre-filled college years included a semester at NYU in a special film program for theatre students, a term at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, and working overseas for a year with a touring children’s company, Proteus, in Basingstoke, England. Hilary graduated from the Evergreen State College – although she didn’t attend graduation as she was driving through sheep herds and avoiding bulls to put on plays for communities in grange halls and barns.
After completing her work with Proteus, Hilary headed back to New York city where she was super fortunate to land her first job on Broadway after only a couple of months, as second assistant director on the musical Titanic, thanks to being awarded a Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Observership. She went on to work on several more Broadway shows, including Assistant Director on Aida (also in Chicago), Collected Stories, Reckless, and assisting playwright David Henry Hwang on Flower Drum Song. Hilary was awarded five Manhattan Theater Club Fellowships and a Drama League Fellowship, and is an alum of the Lincoln Center Theatre Directors’ Lab. She has directed hundreds of plays and musicals, and has a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Director of a New Play, for an adaptation of Moby Dick. Her two master’s degrees are in Applied Theatre and Ethical Leadership. Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.
When not making theatre, you likely can find Hilary hanging out with her amazing cat Frankie, or at a barn as she is a bit horse crazy.