Karin Hendricks-Bolen

Associate Professor,
Mainstage Production Director

Contact

• Office: Bldg. 45, Rm. 103A
• Phone: 805-756-5079
• Email: khendr04@calpoly.edu
• Pronouns: she, her, hers

About Karin Hendricks

Professor Karin Hendricks-Bolen is the Associate Chair and an Associate Professor of Acting and Performance at the Theatre and Dance Department, teaching courses in Acting, Voice and Diction, Dialect, Musical Theatre, First-Year Experience, and Community-based Verbatim Theatre. She holds an MFA in Acting from the University of California, Irvine, and a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Arizona. Hendricks-Bolen works in professional theatre as an actor, director, and dialect coach. She served as a Resident Artist and Head of Movement Curriculum at PCPA (The Pacific Conservatory Theatre) for nine years, during which she taught and directed actors in training. She co-founded a Verbatim Community-Based Theatre project, Community Speaks!, which performed annually with PCPA from 2009-2016. Prof. Hendricks holds a certification in Eli Simon's Clown technique. After completing a mentorship with Simon, she has instructed his clowning approach for 15 years, during which she devised and directed over two dozen original clown shows. She was also mentored by Annie Loui, the founder of Loui Movement Technique (LMT).

Additionally, she has worked and collaborated with renowned teachers and directors, including Scott Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, Robert Cohen, Philip Thompson, Paul Barnes, Nancy Stark Smith, Annie-B Parson, Anne Bogart, Leon Ingulsrud, and Mihai Maniutiu. She has spoken at conferences and taught workshops for La Mama Umbria International, Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference (ATHE), Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), California Educational Teacher's Association Conference (CETA), The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), StateraArts, Hollin's University, PCPA's Teacher's Weekend, Umpqua Community College, and The Great American Melodrama. Workshops taught include Bridging Movement and Impulse, The Story Matters: Supporting Gender Equity through Conscious Theatre-Making, Introduction to Verbatim Theatre, Rules of Comedy for Actors, and The Simon Clowning Technique. Prof. Hendricks-Bolen is the proud faculty advisor to Cal Poly's comedic Improv Troop, Smile and Nod.