News

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT) has announced that Brian Kite has been named interim dean beginning January 1, 2020. Kite currently serves as the special academic senior associate dean at the School and chair of the Department of Theater. He begins his term on January 1, 2020, after current Dean Teri Schwartz steps down on December 31, 2019.

"Chancellor Block and I appreciate Brian's willingness to serve as interim dean, and we have every confidence in his ability to provide strong leadership and continuity for the school," said Emily Carter, UCLA's Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.

Before joining the UCLA faculty in 2015 as a professor and chair of the Department of Theater, Kite was the producing artistic director of La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and directed many of its critically acclaimed productions, including Billy Elliot, Miss Saigon, Little Shop of Horrors, Dinner with Friends, Driving Miss Daisy and Proof. Under his innovative leadership, La Mirada Theatre saw tremendous growth in both revenue and prestige.

Kite is the recipient of the Ovation Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his production of Spring Awakening and was also nominated for his productions of Les Misérables and American Idiot. He directed the national tours of Steel Magnolias, Judgment at Nuremberg, In the Heat of the Night, The Graduate and Pride and Prejudice for L.A. Theatre Works, and staged the first production of Miss Saigon to ever play in China. He also directed Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, which toured throughout China and was the first U.S. presentation of a play to perform at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts. He led a production of Cabaret in Bermuda under the patronage of the Queen’s Governor and last spring staged the South China premiere of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole in Mandarin at the Guangzhou Dramatic Arts Centre.

Kite is a chair emeritus of the Board of Governors of the L.A. Stage Alliance, holds an appointment as a visiting professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and is the artistic director of the award-winning Buffalo Nights Theatre Company.

Posted: December 6, 2019