Kim Tobin-Lehl is co-founder and currently Resident Artist of the Award winning 4th Wall Theatre Company.
Kim Served as Co-Artistic Director for the first 11 years of the companies existence moving into the role of the companies first Resident Artist in the 2021-2022 season with the purpose of furthering the companies mission of working toward a living wage and in an effort to help carry her aesthetic of acting and directing out into the larger national community. With 4th Wall, Kim has appeared in A Doll’s House, Part 2, The Glass Menagerie, The Realistic Joneses**, Between Riverside and Crazy, Collected Stories, Reckless*, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia* Woolf, Small Mouth Sounds*, Stage Kiss, Ho Ho Humbug 2.0, The God Game*, Faith Healer*, All Girls, Macbeth, God Of Carnage**, Body Awareness*, Dinner With Friends, Debt Collectors and Almost Maine, also Speech and Debate, at Stages Rep.; and Proof, at Texas Rep.
Her directing credits include; The Lifespan of a Fact, Between Riverside and Crazy, Pride & Prejudice, Rapture, Blister, Burn, True West**, Disgraced*, True West**, Lobby Hero**, Much Ado About Nothing, A Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Small Mouth Sounds, Best Of Enemies, Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train**. A Houston native, Kim received her BA in acting and directing at the University of Houston and appeared in professional productions matched with students of Arcadia and Death of a Salesman. She appeared in numerous regional productions, winning the “Actress Excellence” award at the Texas College Play Festival for her portrayal of Sarah in Children of a Lesser God.
*Nominated for Houston Press Award ,** Winner of Houston Press Award
In New York, Kim was an officer with the New Mercury Theatre Company, where (among other roles), she produced and starred (as Sally) in the 1995 revival of Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind. She was Co-Artistic Director of the Blue Sphere East theatre company (the New York sister company to the acclaimed Blue Sphere Alliance theatre company based in LA). In NYC Kim Studied with Gene Frankel, Stella Adler, at Circle In The Square, The Barrow Group with Seth Barrish and Lee Brock. Her studies also included Marion Seldes, Kevin Klein and F. Murray Abraham and The Public Theatre’s Summer Shakespeare Program. Some of her favorite Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway credits include: Talk to Me Like the Rain…, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Fifth of July, Fool for Love, Savage in Limbo, The Smell of the Crowd, Bed, Bawd & Beyond, Impassioned Embraces (Emotional Recall), Ctrl, Alt, Delete and Trust and the Barrow Group’s production Short Stuff Two and their production of her original One Woman Show, Inside Out.
In LA she trained with Sandy Marshall and Larry Moss. LA theatre credits include: the world premiere of Children of Shame, The Interrogation, Masseur, Baby with the Bathwater, Check to Check, and The Foreigner. Kim’s film credits include roles in The Big Lebowski, The Alarmist, and Sex Maniac, as well as the television series Sunset Beach.
Kim has numerous interviews and feature stories about her participation in Houston’s theatre and arts scene and her dedication to artists pay and the elevation of the quality of both the Houston artists and arts community and her dedication to the craft and elevation of the highest quality of art for Houston. She sits on advisory boards and volunteers her time to both the film and theatre community. She maintains collaborative relationships with theatre companies, casting directors and agents both in LA and NY to keep a talent exchange flowing into the Houston performing arts district and uses outside talent at 4th Wall Theatre as well as cultivating Houston talent to be able to compete in the national market.
In addition to her extensive body of work, Kim is a highly sought-after acting teacher, and her studio (based on the teaching principles of Stanislavski, Adler, Meisner and The Barrow Group) offers an array of courses (from beginner to advanced levels) in Meisner acting technique, cold copy work, script analysis, scene study, audition preparation, voice and text work, and on-camera acting. More details about Kim’s background and her current class offerings can be found at her studio website: www.kimtobinactingstudio.com., www.4thwalltheatreco.com
For a closer look at Kim’s directing credits, you can view and download her CV below and visit the 4th Wall Theatre Co website!
directing gallery
See selected images from highlights in Kim’s directing career from shows such as Lobby Hero, Pride & Prejudice, Much Ado About Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jesus Hopped the “A” Train and more.
4th Wall Theatre Company production photos courtesy of Gabriella Nissen.
Directing Awards & Press
Award Wins:
‘Best Director’ WIN – TRUE WEST by Sam Shepard
‘Best Play’ WIN – JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN by Stephen Adly Guirgis,
Kim Tobin-Lehl, Director
’Best Play’ WIN - Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan
Award Nominations:
‘Best Director’ Nominee for DISGRACED by Ayad Ahktar
‘Best Play’ Nominee – DISGRACED by Ayad Ahktar
‘Best Director’ Nominee – JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN by Stephen Adly Guirgis
“And did I mention that this edge-of-your-seat, constantly in motion, 85-minute production is at times quite funny? Of course, knowing that Kim Tobin-Lehl is directing, is there any doubt that this is an intense play about penetrating issues with a dash of comedy mixed in? Tobin-Lehl is the master of these kinds of plays (I give you her superlative cracks at last season’s True West and Lobby Hero as evidence), and here she rises to her own reputation, directing with urgency and perpetual traction.”
“Director Tobin-Lehl and the cast prevent the gravity of the story from collapsing into itself into a black hole of topical issues, misery and inertia. Tobin-Lehl manages to give each actor room to roam on the intimate stage and within their dichotomy-ridden characters...”
THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT by Jeremy Kereken, David Murrell & Gordon Farrell
“This piece directed by Kim Tobin-Lehl is excellent. She allows her actors to exude play freely on the stage and leads a production that will touch the heart of all audience members.”
“Kim Tobin-Lehl has always been an actor’s director, and she thrives with plays like this one. She’s paced the play with laser-like precision, giving her actors plenty of space for verbal fireworks, which in turn gives the show’s quiet bits extraordinary power.”
“Expertly directed by Kim Tobin-Lehl, this excellent cast is engaging and comedic while addressing serious issues of artistic and journalistic ethics.”
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Kate Hamill
“In addition to such a strong ensemble cast, I loved the direction of this play, which is like watching a high wire act—everything is fast paced and must run like a well-oiled machine, and it does.”
“...director Kim Tobin-Lehl and the exhilarating cast prettily wrap it all up for the holidays as a riotous romcom gift to audiences.Tobin-Lehl heightens the fun with musical interludes between scenes using blaring contemporary pop songs that produce some of the most entertaining set changes I’ve seen this year, while also making some of the characters’ emotional states all the more explicit.”
“But this does nothing to prepare you for Hamill’s adaptation, helmed here with such skill from director Kim Tobin-Lehl. Tobin-Lehl has controlled the chaos on stage…to create a brisk, highly energetic production that moves with the singular grace of a well-trained dancer.”
“Earlier this season, director Kim Tobin-Lehl proved herself a master of comedy, adept at navigating the treacherous waters of dark humor with her critically acclaimed production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN at 4th Wall Theatre Company. She puts those same skills to work in her production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s PRIDE & PREJUDICE And if the past is any indicator of the future, soon she’ll be three-for-three, because she’s slated to direct 4th Wall’s first show of the new year, RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN, by playwright Gina Gionfriddo.”
LOBBY HERO by Kenneth Lonergan
“4th Wall Theatre Company’s Lobby Hero is the Best, Most Relatable Show of the Year. Lobby Hero was so well done I didn’t really want it to end...”
JESUS HOPPED THE ‘A’ TRAIN by Stephen Adly Guirgis
“All are brought together in compelling tension by director Kim Tobin-Lehl… a compelling, thought-provoking and absorbing night of theater...”
Rapture, Blister, Burn by Gina Gionfriddo
“The play is directed by Kim Tobin-Lehl, and I loved the pace and the impeccable timing between the characters...”
“...an excellent and masterful staging of this one. Direction from Kim Tobin-Lehl is assured and well thought-out.”
A Midsummer Night's Dream
“...Stark Naked’s Midsummer is magnificently directed.”
“There is no such thing as perfection, but this production comes close.”