A new theater opened at Dartmouth College last week bearing the name of a famous alum: writer, actor and producer Mindy Kaling. Known for her work on shows like “The Office,” and “The Mindy Project,” Kaling's gift to the school is intended to give students the opportunity to explore comedy and improv work. NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa spoke with her the day of the grand opening of the Mindy Kaling Theater Lab.
Transcript
So you're here celebrating the grand opening of the Mindy Kaling Theater Lab at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. Can you tell me what this lab is going to provide to students?
I hope it provides them a place to experiment with new work. Obviously, as someone who creates my own projects, for the most part, I'm hoping that it's a place where writers can workshop their new plays, actors can workshop their new materials, just places to feel safe to fail and try again.
This was a big investment from you. What inspired you to give back to Dartmouth Theater students like this?
It was a big investment, thank you. The idea of being in a position to give money, to have my name on something… I don't come from generational wealth or anything like that, and that feels so outside of anything that me or any of my family or anyone has ever been near to. So that in and of itself feels daunting and very unusual. So I'm still getting used to that.
In terms of what it means for my college, I loved Dartmouth so much. It has inspired almost all my projects. Like when I think about “The Sex Lives of College Girls,” I came to Dartmouth to research that show. When I think about “The Office” and characters like Andy Bernard, just the world of Dartmouth really looms large in so many of my works. It's given me so much. It gave me the confidence to come out to New York and then Los Angeles to have a career. So I just feel so excited and lucky to give back. I feel like I don't have enough gratitude. That's something that people are always reminding you to have and I almost never have. And so this is a really great opportunity to be like, OK, this is my expressed gratitude in a real physical way.
You explored the performing arts during your time at Dartmouth. You were a part of an improv group here. How did Dartmouth play a role in your acting, writing and producing career going forward? Where does Dartmouth hold a place in your heart when it comes to that?
It is so integral to everything that came after. So when I was at Dartmouth, that was the first time that I really was able to write things and perform in them. I would write sketch shows with my friends, and we'd put them up by ourselves, and we'd ask our friends to direct them and score them and light them. So that kind of like, “we have to do this ourselves” philosophy that has been in almost everything I've done, really was born here. I learned a lot about tenacity and failure and how to take failure, which is such a huge part of being an artist, particularly in Los Angeles. And so that all started here. But because the school, like we're in a little bit isolated in Hanover, everyone would come to every production because it was like the only thing to do in town. And so for me, I felt so lucky to go to a school… I could have gone to school in New York City or Los Angeles or any of these other places, but there was a really concentrated interest and captive audience here, like literally captive audience, that had nothing else to do. So it really built my confidence
When students here at Dartmouth use the Mindy Kaling Theater Lab, what do you hope are the memories or lessons they walk away with when they leave those doors?
I mean, coming from comedy and doing so much comedy in my time here and then subsequently in my career, I really hope it's a place that's filled with laughter. I mean, I obviously hope serious plays and music and everything is also practiced there, but I really want to think of it as a place where comedy can come and live on campus. I mean, that's sort of my selfish desire, but that's what I hope it's used for a lot.
