Timothy Edward Kane, M.F.A.

Assistant Professor of Theatre

TK teaches acting, audition techniques, coordinates the senior acting showcase, and serves as the faculty advocate and intimacy consultant for departmental productions. His interests include pedagogies of performance process and intimacy direction. Kane was a top finalist for the 2025 Alice B. Hayes Award for Advising and Mentoring from the Faculty Center for Ignatian Pedagogy. 

He has been living and working as an actor and teacher in Chicago for 27 years. Some Chicago credits include: An Iliad (2011, 2013, 2020, 2025), Antigone, Gospel at Colonus, Othello, Oedipus Rex, All My Sons, Harvey, One Man, Two Guvnors, The Illusion, Wild Duck, Titus Andronicus, Uncle Vanya, The Romance Cycle and Hamlet (Court Theatre), the Midwest premiere of Blood and Gifts (Timeline Theatre Company), Buried Child, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arms and the Man (Writers’ Theatre), The North Plan (Steppenwolf Garage), Gaslight, Birthday Candles, Faceless, Lost in Yonkers, The Miser, She Stoops to Conquer (Northlight Theatre), and twenty productions at Chicago Shakespeare including: Merry Wives of Windsor, Tug of War: Civil Strife, Comedy of Errors, A Flea in Her Ear, and Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 (CST & Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK), Hamlet, and King John. Regional credits include work at: The Mark Taper Forum, Notre Dame Shakespeare, Peninsula Players, & Illinois Shakespeare Festival. TV: Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Empire. Member: AEA, SAG/AFTRA, National Alliance of Acting Teachers. 

He received his MFA from Northern Illinois University and his B.S. from Ball State University.  

Acting Awards include: 2025 and 2012 Joseph Jefferson Award (solo performance: An Iliad), 2023 Joseph Jefferson Award (Best Ensemble – Gospel at Colonus), 2017 Inductee to Illinois Shakespeare Festival Actor Honor Roll, 2012 Chicago Magazine’s Best Actor, Newcity’s 2014: 50 People Who Really Perform in Chicago, and 2007 After Dark Award (Best Performance – She Stoops to Conquer). 

Education

M.F.A., Northern Illinois University

B.S., Ball State University

Research Interests

Acting and Theatrical Intimacy