Spokane student accepted into prestigious Royal theater program
He would have cut an imposing figure: 6 feet 3 inches tall and dressed in a suave suit jacket. Except Kylle Collins is holding a small Star Wars action figure and grinning.
“I mean, you like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, so why would you put them in a shoebox and throw them off a cliff?” he asks of his childhood toys, many of which are displayed throughout his room. “I was always careful with everything.”
His attention to details – whether it’s polished shoes or movie figurines – is taking him places.
Collins, 22, is one of three American students accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s Technical Theatre and Stage Management program this year, and the third Washingtonian ever accepted into the prestigious London school, according to a school spokesperson.
“RADA’s reputation is the hardest school to get into the world,” Collins said.
Between 500 and 1,000 people apply for about five spots in the Technical Theatre and Stage Management program, he said.
Collins always has been interested in theater, his parents, Bobbi Collins Whitehead and John Whitehead, said. However, both believed he might pursue sports instead.
“We knew he was going to be tall and strong … we thought he’d play football,” Whitehead said. “That was one of those things where he was born with the eye to theater.”
From a young age, Collins was always “stealing my paint and my glue gun” and setting up elaborate stages for his toys, said his mother.
Although he played football at Gonzaga Prep and acted in a number of plays, he was more interested in the construction and design of sets and props.
“The magic of it is people don’t know how it works,” he said of theater props. “The more you can make it seem like magic … it just makes it a better experience.”
Collins has worked on a number of local productions. Most recently, he designed and built the mechanical rose used in the Civic Theatre’s “Beauty and the Beast.” The rose drops its petals, which was a challenge for Collins.
Working on props brings him closer to the history of popular culture, he said. And he does his best to honor that history.
“People don’t want your giant revival of the shows,” he said. “They want the closest thing to the Broadway.”
He will spend days researching props until he understands exactly how they were built. Using that knowledge, he’ll build his own props. For some shows he’s willing to bend the designs a bit. Others are untouchable.
“Phantom and Les Mis are sacred to me,” he said. “I always look at what Broadway did first.”
Collins applied to RADA last year after working in a number of productions in Washington, Oregon and North Dakota. He said he applied to several prestigious schools, but when he heard back from RADA the choice was clear.
Most recently Collins was working in the Spokane Symphony’s box office, and occasional theater production.
Jennifer Hicks, the director of development at the symphony, said Collins designed and built props for the symphony’s production of Star Wars earlier this year.
“I know he’s going to go far,” she said. “He has made some really unique things.”
A predilection for obsession has helped Collins in his career; he is happy working on minute details for days.
“I excel in the areas I’m very interested in and I don’t in the areas I’m not interested in,” he said.
Collins flew to London on Sept. 11. And started classes the next week. The schedule is intense: he’s in school from about 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Sunday. But his love for theater, specifically the fantasy inherent in a production, makes the work worth it.
The school costs about $24,000 per year, which is a stretch for Collins’ family, but they will make it work, Whitehead said.
“People will always need fantasy, especially with some of the stuff going in the world right now,” Collins said. “To make somebody happy is a good reason.”
The original story incorrectly stated the number of American students accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The mistake has been corrected.