Someone running a theater internship told Kay Thorn at age 18 they probably should not pursue musical theater. Good thing Thorn didn’t listen — Charleston would have been robbed of one its most dynamic talents.
Thorn has been lighting up stages with big, bold personality and undeniable stage presence for years. A mainstay at Queen Street Playhouse since 2018, the coming 2021-2022 season will feature Thorn heavily, with acting or musical directing roles in four of the six shows this season. Sometimes, Thorn fills both roles.
Audiences will have seen Thorn in all sorts of things on the Queen Street stage in recent years. From last month’s super fun Decade of Decadence ‘80s cabaret to the incredibly fun and frenetic Head Over Heels in 2019, all the way back to Thorn’s Footlight Players debut in the 2018 Piccolo Spoleto run of Dirty Blonde.
During the pandemic, Thorn made a living helping produce audition tracks for singers doing virtual auditions and musical theater performances. Thorn’s prolific creation during this time is a testament to their talents on the piano and the quality of their accompaniment.
Now, as Queen Street Playhouse’s musical director, they are bringing musical expertise, a sharp eye and a no-nonsense approach to every show. Thorn will direct Ruthless! The Musical, Halloween: The Rocky Horror Experience, Matilda the Musical and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
“My biggest philosophy in anything I go about in life is 100% transparency and honesty,” Thorn said. “I’ve just always been that kind of person. I feel most comfortable just letting my cards lay out as they are. So the way that translates to music direction for me is I will never tell you something sounds good if it doesn’t sound good. I will always tell you something sounds bad if it sounds bad. But I’m always there to help you. I’m never there to be mean to you. I want arts around me to be better.”
Thorn is incredibly excited to finally be starring in Queen Street’s upcoming production of Matilda, which was postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic.
“Trunchbull’s been a dream role of mine since the show came out,” Thorn said, referencing the story’s bullying headmistress. “The moment I found out Trunchbull was played by an [assigned-male-at-birth] person I was like, yes, that is definitely my role. I have to play that at some point.”
Thorn radiates a warm and inviting charm, and when performing, that physicality and energy are intensified, making them impossible not to watch onstage. Whether it’s handily stealing the show as the exotic Pythio in Head Over Heels or bringing down the house with a rendition of Janet Jackson’s “Nasty,” Thorn is one of Charleston’s most dynamic and impressive stage performers. Along with Trunchbull, they will also be playing Frank-n-Furter in The Rocky Horror Experience.
Thorn believes in using their position to affect change in the Charleston arts scene, for artists of color and students alike. Last June, in the wake of the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests, Thorn made moves to bring Queen Street Playhouse to the forefront of the conversation around race relations and equitable representation. Thorn contacted all the Black artists who work with the Playhouse and drafted a letter urging the company and artistic director Brian Porter to stand beside Black Lives Matter.
“Basically, I put my foot down and said I can’t work there unless you do that.” The letter seems to have worked, as the theater’s season features a Black-led play as well as people of color in prominent roles throughout its shows, including a Black actor playing Matilda.
“I just see everyday in my profession all these rich white kids getting this fantastic theater education and music education in these after school programs because their parents are paying like thousands and thousands of dollars to get it for them,” Thorn said. “And I know that that’s something I would have benefitted from a lot as a child.”
Thorn hopes to continue their education so students can return to Charleston and implement programs that would serve underrepresented children in Charleston’s arts scene.
“I would love to see a program that gives local artists professional experience and gives them an opportunity to work, and then during the day gives the students an opportunity to learn from them, either for free or for very cheap. Because we owe that to our lower-income students. Especially in Charleston, where Black culture is so vital to our culture as a whole. It’s wild to me to watch Black people being excluded from the arts culture of Charleston when it’s just so Charleston to include Gullah storytelling and African-American storytelling.”
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