Kathleen Gabriel

Like so many artists before her, Kathleen's passion for play and theatre developed at an early age.  As a child in Denver, Colorado, she enjoyed telling stories, creating characters, singing, and, to her father's dismay, hugging members of the opposing tee ball team instead of tagging them out.  Aside from skiing, Kathleen let traditional sports fall by the wayside, opting for dance classes, choir, and theatre camps instead.

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Kathleen stayed busy with the Rocky Mountain Children's Choir (now called the Denver's Children's Choir) from age six through eighteen.  By her freshman year of high school, Kathleen was a member of all three top audition-based ensembles in the choir: The Fourteeners (an all female chorus), Thin Air (a mixed group, The Fourteeners plus the male equivalent, The Mountainaires), and Altitude (a small, jazz a cappella ensemble).  When she wasn't in choir rehearsal, Kathleen participated in musicals through the Wolf Theatre Academy (WTA) at Mizel Arts and Culture Center at the Denver Jewish Community Center.  Kathleen made her WTA debut when she was eight years old as Toto in The Wizard of Oz and ended her career at eighteen with Maureen in Rent.  She also took weekly singing lessons from Bob Downard from fifteen to eighteen.

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Already surrounded by music through her extracurriculars, Kathleen decided she should pursue her theatrical interests academically.  In seventh grade, Kathleen began studying at Denver School of the Arts (DSA), a magnet school (grades 6-12) for the performing arts as a theatre major.  There, she received ninety minutes of theatre training every day alongside her academic classes.  Kathleen applied and was accepted early to her top school, Drake University, and graduated DSA in 2014.

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Kathleen is a graduate from Drake with a BFA in Musical Theatre.  Throughout college she busied herself with challenging academic classes, a serving job at the Drake Diner, and lots of theatre (of course).  In the fall of 2016, Kathleen participated in the Moscow Art Theatre Semester through the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center.  Though her Russian language skills are still a bit shaky, her foundation in acting and movement has never been stronger.  Traveling and studying at the birthplace of most contemporary acting methods, seeing the potential of theatre and art, continues to inspire Kathleen in everything she does.

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When not on or around the stage, Kathleen can be found on the ski slopes with her older sister, Laura, playing Scrabble with her mom, or cracking bad jokes with her dad.  If she is none of those places, there is a very good chance that Kathleen is with the family dog, Boots, showering him with lots of love, kisses, and good boy! s.

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Kathleen is spending the 2018-2019 season working with the Missoula Children's Theatre as a touring actor/director.  She is traveling across North America putting on Blackbeard the Pirate with local children aged 5-18. 

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In the future, Kathleen would like to further pursue her passion for theatre in addition to her love for people with a career in drama therapy.  She has seen and experienced the healing power of theatre in her own life and hopes to give that back to her community.  In the meantime, Kathleen will continue to audition and practice her art in as many ways as she possibly can.