By DORIS RUBENSTEIN
Did you have a favorite high school teacher? Was that person Jewish? At Detroit’s Mumford High (the “Jewish” high school of the era) in the 1960s, my fave was a red-headed Spanish teacher named Gertrude Armstrong. And, yes, Mrs. Armstrong — despite her Irish looks and WASPy name — was quite Jewish.
The same might be said for the teacher in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ current production of the ever-popular musical Grease. Miss Lynch’s real name doesn’t sound that Jewish either, but Kim Kivens, who brings the role to life, is well-known in our Jewish theater community and theaters all over the Twin Cities.
She doesn’t fit the Jewish name/appearance stereotype (like Mrs. Armstrong). Still, I’d categorize her as one of the hardest-working Jews on the Twin Cities theater scene.
Kivens knows which teacher guided her towards a career on the stage: It was her fourth-grade teacher at Cedar Manor Elementary, Miss Campbell. According to Kivens, Campbell gave her and her classmates “room to have imaginary playtime.”
Chanhassen Dinner Theatres has produced Grease twice before. Each time, it’s been a smash. The run for this production is eight months long. Performances sell out quickly. What’s the draw? Could it be in part Kim Kivens? With her long résumé, might she have a fan base?
Kivens has had no trouble making a living right here in the Twin Cities. It’s rare for her to have long gaps between gigs. She’s performed in seven productions at Six Points Theater (formerly known as Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company), including the one-woman tour de force What I Thought I Knew. Theater Latté Da has kept her busy, too, with performances that include Merrily We Roll Along and, most recently, Scotland, PA.
She’s performed at the Guthrie, at Children’s Theatre Company and on other stages, as well as in voice-overs for television and radio. And it’s rare for this tiny singing, dancing and performing ball of energy to be the focus of a play. She excels in the character actor roles.
Kivens isn’t a native Minnesotan, but she’s close to it, having moved here from New Jersey during kindergarten. St. Louis Park Schools and B’nai Emet Synagogue did much to cultivate her nascent talents. As early as junior high, she was acting in synagogue youth group productions of shows like Free to Be You and Me, West Side Story, Little Shop of Horrors and Bye Bye Birdie.
At St. Louis Park High School, she reprised a couple of performances from B’nai Emet and also appeared in The Music Man. Her three summers at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin provided additional musical stage experience.
With these experiences and her early training at Moorhead State and the University of Minnesota, Kivens was chosen to be the first live Snoopy for the new Mall of America’s Camp Snoopy, in 1992. Wearing the costume of the world’s most famous beagle, she took that persona to become an ambassador for the amusement park and its various programs and attractions. She had barely turned 19.
That was a momentous year for Kivens. She and some friends were searching for a (nonexistent) party at the U of M’s Sigma Alpha Mu house when she met her most important leading man: Joe Kivens was president of the “Sammy” house at that time, and an unrehearsed dialog ensued. That unplanned “audition” eventually led to marriage and their daughter Lily.
With such a plethora of early experiences, it’s no surprise that Kivens has had a professional career that is prolific not only in terms of the number of productions she’s acted in, but also the number of theaters where she’s taken the stage: seven with Theater Latté Da; 11 shows with The Chameleon Theatre Circle (a personal enterprise of the two Kivenses and other theater friends); four with the Children’s Theatre Company, and shows at Park Square, Daleko Arts and others, not to forget Camp Snoopy’s playhouse.
Her voice has promoted Blue Cross Blue Shield, Wings Financial, the Minnesota Star Tribune and other companies in commercials and announcements.
Grease is her second appearance at Chanhassen, the other being about a Jewish performer, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.
Kivens says that her favorite role of all time is 87-year-old “Bubba Brayna” in The Chanukah Guest at Six Points. She said, “Bubba Brayna has no personal boundaries; she does and says whatever she wants!”
All this said, I think that actor Michael Gruber, in his Grease role as Vince Fontaine, summed up both Mrs. Lynch and Kim Kivens when he asked the gang, “Isn’t she just terrific?! Terrific! Terrific!”
You might not know it, but Kim Kivens is the one that you want to see.
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Grease is playing at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres through Oct. 24. For information and to make ticket reservations, go to: chanhassendt.com or call 952-934-1525. CDT is located at 501 W. 78th St., in Chanhassen.
(American Jewish World, March 2025)
