Faculty Spotlight: Kirsten Ludin Humer, Theater

Professor Humer received dialect training from Louis Colaianni, the creator of Phonetic Pillows and the Phonetic Pillow approach. She studied with Colaianni at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where she earned an MFA in Acting and Directing. She is certified in Colaianni Speech. Humer is honored to be one of the first Registered Rodenburg Teachers in the United States. Her work with Patsy Rodenburg on presence has transformed her approach to teaching and coaching.

Describe a time where you felt you had found your calling in your field of study.

I can pinpoint the exact moment! When I was 13 years old, my parents took me to see Ibsen's The Wild Duck on the West End in London. I loved the play so much that my dad and I waited in the half price ticket line to see it again! At a young age, I was taken with the way narrative was able to connect the mind and the heart.

Please describe your career outside of and before APU, including non-teaching positions.

After graduate school, I moved to New York City to begin auditioning through my commercial and legit agents. While acting, I coached voice to professionals—doctors, teachers, and corporate professionals. I fell in love with voice work and, upon getting married, I relocated to Boston where I continued both acting and teaching. I built a solid career as a voiceover artist and teacher. While there, I decided to start my own business, Vocal Point Partners, coaching and teaching voice, presence, and dialect to actors and professionals.

What projects, if any, are you currently working on? Please tell us a little about it.

I am currently coaching several professional film and tv actors. I am also collaborating with colleagues in the Voice and Speech field to put together a panel and paper for Rodenburg Voice in Higher Education. During the summer months, I teach actors at the Michael Howard Studios and trainees at the Rodenburg Centre for Voice and Speech in New York City. After this particular season of online learning, I am even more interested in the translation of voice work to the medium of film, television, and new media. I hope to examine how we can practice presence through a screen.

What do you love about working at APU?

I love our students! In Theater Arts, we bring guest directors to direct plays. As a professional training program, it is essential that we provide our students with real world experiences. I love that our directors comment on our students to us! They are blown away by their talent, professionalism, their work ethic, and their care for each other. As followers of Christ, they are other focused! I often think about the WH Auden quote, “The slogan of Hell: Eat or be eaten. The slogan of Heaven: Eat and be eaten.” Our students practice caring about their neighbors' needs!

What makes you passionate about teaching your particular subject?

I love narrative. We learn so much through stories. In most dramas, we see characters unable to say the thing that needs to be said. I love teaching actors and all communicators the power of emotionally connected and logically astute speaking. The power of words magnifies with emotional connection. It is so much fun to help students not only understand the words or texts they are speaking, but to be able to speak them with full embodiment of mind, body, and spirit.

If you were given the platform to share a piece of wisdom with the world, what would you say?

In my classes, I speak about Romans 12:15, "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." In acting we practice presence. We train to learn how to be completely in the moment. I think the easy route in relationships is to be jealous of those who rejoice and to try to make those who mourn feel happy or okay. In Romans, we are asked, however, to really be present with others. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.