Kim Tobin-Lehl To Become 4th Wall's First Resident Artist

4th Wall Theatre Company, Houston's home for extraordinary performances up close, is excited to announce its Co-Founder, Kim Tobin-Lehl, will become the company's first Resident Artist beginning in the company's 2021-2022 season.

In her role as Resident Artist, Tobin-Lehl will work artistically in two productions per season as an actor or director. Lehl and Tobin-Lehl will collaborate with the 4th Wall board to explore how to expand this residency initiative with additional Resident Artist hires over time. The vision of the Resident Artist position is to provide an artistic home for professional theatre artists and continue to cultivate 4th Wall's mission to build strong ensemble work and support better financial security for Houston's artists.

When asked about the role change Tobin-Lehl remarked, "My husband Philip and I have always envisioned 4th Wall as an artist-driven company where the quality of the work is our primary focus. A large part of my work has been cultivating relationships with various artists around the country to further enrich 4th Wall's production quality and its national community of artists. This role transition from Co-Artistic Director to Resident Artist will free me up to focus on strengthening those ties and creating additional relationships. The move is also important in taking the first step towards building a diverse group of Resident Artists who will have an artistic home for part of the performing season at 4th Wall which will not only strengthen the artistic foundation and future of 4th Wall, but of the entire Houston theatre community."

Philip Lehl, who will continue as Artistic Director moving into the company's 11th season, added, "Establishing an artist residency initiative is an exciting step forward because it brings us closer to achieving our goal of paying artists living wages. And Kim is the natural choice to originate this position. As the co-founder and a quadruple threat actor/director/teacher/producer in her own right, no one knows the company better or has more to offer than she does."

Tobin-Lehl reflects that the most important work of her more than ten-year tenure as Co-Artistic Director was in establishing an aesthetic of acting that helped to unite each of 4th Wall's productions. This aesthetic is rooted in her own extensive training and teaching career, which is built around the work of Sanford Meisner, and by transitioning into the Resident Artist position, Tobin-Lehl will ensure this aesthetic is maintained into the theatre's future.

Under her visionary leadership, she spearheaded many of 4th Wall's accolades including the Houston Press's "Mastermind Award" as well as four "Best Production" awards in the annual Houston Theater Awards (GOD OF CARNAGE in 2013, LOBBY HERO in 2017, JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN in 2019, THE REALISTIC JONESES in 2020). As Co-Artistic Directors, Tobin-Lehl and Lehl were also nominated several times for the "Best Artistic Director" award, winning once. As an individual artist, Kim has been nominated numerous times by both the Houston Press and Broadway World for her work as an actor and director, winning awards in both categories.

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