Kate Valk (born March 6, 1957) is a founding member of
The Wooster Group
The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group (1967–1980) during the period from 1975 to 1980, an ...
, a collective of artists who make new work for the theater. Kate Valk began her work with the group in 1979 while she was a student at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
's
Tisch School of the Arts
The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic and media arts school of New York University.
Founded on August 17, 1965, Tisch is a training ground for artists, scholars of the a ...
.
In 2003 she was awarded a
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...
Grants to Artists Award,, and in 2006, the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' published an article featuring Valk.New York Times /ref>
Early life
Kate Valk was born on March 7, 1956 in
Spokane, Washington
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...
. Her mother was a nurse, while her father was a jack-of-all-trades; he worked, at various times, at a cement company, a post office, a remodeling company, and on real estate ventures. They moved consistently during her childhood, including to
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, and
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. This lower-middle-class childhood did not give her much exposure to the arts. At age 16, she worked part-time at Shepherd Pratt, a nursing home. She attended Towson State in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
for two years before moving to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
at the age of 19 to pursue a career in theatre. She attended NYU in the studio program and worked with
Stella Adler
Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher. ''
Wooster Group
The Wooster Group is a New York City-based experimental theater company known for creating numerous original dramatic works. It gradually emerged from Richard Schechner's The Performance Group (1967–1980) during the period from 1975 to 1980, an ...
was teaching for the semester and really enjoyed her experience with them. During her time in NYC, she worked for Ding-a-Ling Taxi.
Theatre career
After she finished college, she turned back to theatre and went to the Wooster Group in search of a job. She had worked as a seamstress during her time in the theatre, so starting in 1979, Elizabeth LeCompte hired her to work as a seamstress and for general help with production, including making props and transcribing. Her first role with the Wooster Group as an actress was in ''Route 1 & 9'', an adaption of
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' — a ...
’s
Our Town
''Our Town'' is a 1938 metatheatrical three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play tells the story of the fictional American small town of Grover's Corners between 1901 and 1913 thro ...
staged in 1981. She has appeared in every Wooster Group show since. She has also worked in film, appearing most notably in ''
The Manchurian Candidate
''The Manchurian Candidate'' is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
Th ...
'' as Agent Volk. In recent years, she has founded two different arts education programs. One of them is an in-school theatre curriculum at Dr. Sun Yat Sen Middle School in Chinatown, founded in 1992. The other arts education program is a free, three-week summer program for high school students, called the Wooster Group’s Summer Institute, founded in 1997.
Stage credits
Her stage credits include:
The Hairy Ape
''The Hairy Ape'' is a 1922 expressionist play by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It is about a beastly, unthinking laborer known as Yank, the protagonist of the play, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich ...
as Mildred Douglas, 1997
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
as Gertrude/Ophelia, 2007, at St. Ann’s Warehouse
''The Emperor Jones'' as Brutus Jones, 2009, at Owen Bruner Goodman Theatre
''North Atlantic'' as performer, 2010, at The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
''Vieux Carré'' as performer, 2010-2011, at The Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
''Early Plays'' as performer, 2012, at St. Ann’s Warehouse
''Cry, Trojans!'' as performer, 2014, at The Performing Garage
''The Room'' as performer, 2015-2016, at The Performing Garage
Film credits
Her film credits include:
The Golden Boat
''The Golden Boat'' is a 1990 American low-budget film directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. Shot in New York City, ''The Golden Boat'' is Ruiz's first film produced in the United States and has been categorized as an absurdist black comedy ...
as Amelia Lopes (1990)
The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez
''The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez'' is a 1991 silent film directed by Peter Sellars and starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, Joan Cusack and Peter Gallagher. It is a loose remake of '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''. However, the storyline was created as the ...
as Sue (1991)
''Dead Flowers Alice'' (1992)
''Fresh Kill'' (1994)
''
The Manchurian Candidate
''The Manchurian Candidate'' is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
Th ...