Who is Virginia Kull??

Every few months, I find myself examining the familiar face Virginia Kull on the New York City stage. I first noticed Ms. Kull in Signature Theatre's brilliant The Orphan Home Cycle. Since then, I've seen her again in Michael Mitnick's silly play Sex Lives of Our Parents where she ironically plays the character Virginia at Second Stage Uptown. Then when I looked pass the awesome Frank Langella, there was Ms. Kull in Terence Rattigan’s Man and Boy on Broadway. Continuing on, there she was again in Leslye Headland's Assistance. As I write this post, Ms. Kull is appearing in Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn at Playwright Horizons, and if you ask me, she sort of steals the show. 

So, who is Virginia Kull? Well, I don't know. Extremely odd but I've done a bit of online searching and there are very few interviews. So here we have this young talented theater actress who is able to modulate so effortlessly between plays set in early 1900s, 1930s or today and very little coverage that allow audiences to get to know her better.

Well, let's try to piece something together. 

The 30 year old actress is from Austin Texas. While attending Bowie High School, she originally planned to be a doctor but got the acting bug along the way. From high school, she went on to study theater at the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. She graduated in 2004 and worked at the Dallas Shakespeare Festival that summer but would eventually moved to New York. 

Refusing to limit herself to just the NYC stage, she has quite a bit of regional theater under her belt. In a Broadway.com interview, she says, I’ve gotten some pretty weighty experience that wouldn’t have had at this point in my career if I hadn’t been willing to travel. If we were to dig a bit into her notices, they have been pretty good. As an example, The New York Times has described her as lovely, convincing, and "so good". 

In a Rapid River Art Magazine article by Marcianne Miller back in 2005, Ms. Kull is quoted as saying when comparing herself to the character Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House, I have a very child-like energy like she does…we’re both kind of quirky and silly…I have a desire to be in love…I’m not nearly as naive as she is…And I’d like to consider myself an incredibly emphatic person… At the time, the actress had never been in love, however, it must have eventually come her way because she married fellow Texan and actor Ryan Young in 2009.

Virginia Kull is definitely someone to watch out for on the New York City stage. While I am not familiar with her TV work, her theater performances have been consistently good, and hopefully, we can build up this profile of her over time. In the meantime, I say check her out in Rapture, Blister, Burn.