Matilda Kunin — leader in creating children’s theater
Thousands of Bay Area kids took their first onstage bows because of Matilda Manning Kunin, who knew how to make a child actor feel just like Pinocchio or Peter Pan or Pooh.
Kunin, founder of the acclaimed Young Performers Theatre and former head of the theater program at San Francisco’s Town School for Boys, loved getting children as hooked on drama as she was.
“She thought the arts complete the child,” said her son, Gregory. “She felt theater was a way to learn about life and about working together in an ensemble. She brought that passion to everything she did.”
Kunin, a tireless stager of scores of shows and a determined fundraiser for the nonprofit groups that put them together, died Jan. 9 at California Pacific Medical Center following a stroke. She was 83.
A native of Cleveland and a graduate of Northwestern University, where she acted in countless college productions, Kunin came to San Francisco in 1960 and organized a program for volunteers in San Francisco public schools.
In 1983, she founded the Young Performers Theatre, the first children’s theater company in Northern California, as a memorial to her son Anthony, who had died the year before in an accident. The group stages seven shows a year and conducts acting classes for children aged 3 to 14 of all economic backgrounds.
Over the years, her shows told the stories of Pippi Longstocking, the Wizard of Oz, Bartholomew Cubbins, Ichabod Crane and Christopher Robin, among others.
In a 1989 profile in the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle, Kunin was praised for providing “a profoundly civilizing influence (that is) fun and entertaining.”
Following Kunin’s retirement in 2016, her successor, Stephanie Holmes, called her a “phenomenal mentor (who) stayed true to her vision of making theater arts accessible to all children.”
Her son said Kunin was adept at making a child understand his or her character rather than memorize lines.
“Her gift was being able to get a child to stop fixating on the script and to understand the story,” Gregory Kunin said. “As long as you believe it, the audience will believe it. The audience won’t notice a missed line if the child has become the character.”
Kunin was a fundraiser for the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Opera, and also was active in the San Francisco Boys Chorus and Meals on Wheels.
In her spare time, she enjoyed traveling and seeing shows in New York City and in Ashland, Ore.
She is survived by her husband of 56 years, Richard, and her son, both of San Francisco.
A private service will be held Friday in San Rafael. A public memorial celebration will be held in San Francisco in the spring.
“Her gift was being able to get a child to ... understand the story.” Son Gregory Kunin