Kevin Douglas Worldwide

Kevin's featured in an article in today's Chicago Sun-Times by Hedy Weiss about up-and-coming actors. Here is part of it.

Four cast
See tomorrow's stars today as these budding Chicago actors shine

August 3, 2007 BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic

They are all young -- in their 20s or early 30s -- and not only have they amassed a number of impressive stage credits but they have demonstrated exceptional versatility and polish in recent productions.

What's more, each of the four actors profiled here possesses a certain indefinable quality -- something that stamps them as special when they are onstage but also suggests they are interesting people in real life, too.

So here is a critic's quartet of fresh faces well worth keeping an eye on.

KEVIN DOUGLAS IN "LOOKINGGLASS ALICE"

These days, Kevin Douglas spends his time in Wonderland, shapeshifting from one strange character to another in Lookingglass Theatre's "Lookingglass Alice." Not incidentally, in his climactic turn as Humpty Dumpty, he also is jettisoned from a 12-foot-high ladder that sends him nose-diving into a small trap-door opening where his landing is padded by a big bag stuffed with sponges. It leaves the audience gasping.

"There's someone down there to watch and make sure I'm alive," says the actor, with a dry chuckle.

"When I took the role, I watched a video of Doug Hara [the original Humpty] doing the fall," Douglas recalled. "Then I flew out to Philadelphia to see Doug do it live and I thought: 'Wow, what have I gotten myself into?' There are some secrets, but mostly you've got to be sure to keep your head down."

Small, fleet and impossibly graceful, Douglas, 32, first flashed on my radar when he played multiple roles -- most notably a brilliant, motor-mouthed ventriloquist's dummy -- in Lookingglass' production of "Black Diamond," about the recent brutal wars in Liberia. Channeling presidents (both the Bushes and Clinton), he spoke and moved with astonishing speed and dexterity.

"As a kid, I watched a lot of cartoons and sitcoms on TV," he said, explaining his gift for voices.

Born in Toronto, he moved to Texas at age 10 and arrived in Chicago 11 years ago to attend DePaul University's Theatre School. A member of MPAACT, the black theater company with which he has performed seven shows ("I wouldn't be who I am now without that company," he said), he also studied at the Second City Training Center and is one half of a comedy duo, kevINda, with partner Inda Craig-Galvan. And it is sketch comedy that might well be the key to his future.

"We got a great response this past February at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and the question we kept getting was: 'So, when are you moving out to L.A.?' My dream is to one day write my own TV show, and unfortunately those opportunities are just not available in Chicago. For the past three years, every time I tried to leave, something kept me here. But this time, I'm determined to head out west in October."

"Of course, I'll come back to Chicago," said Douglas. "I want to be able to do both kinds of work."

His theater dream? "I'd like to do a play where I am one character all the way through; I've been playing a lot of multiples recently."

"Lookingglass Alice" runs through Aug. 26 at the Lookingglass Theatre Water Tower Water Works, 821 N. Michigan. Call (312) 337-0665.

hweiss@suntimes.com

- Inda