Legally Blonde's Vivienne

Background:

"These days, I value the Miss America title to an extraordinary extent because it gives me access to communities where most AIDS activists can't get in the door. People are afraid to talk about AIDS, but they aren't afraid of Miss America. The credibility of the Miss America Organization is a tremendous asset in my work and has enabled me to become a respected activist. That's what Miss America really is these days. No, she's not a doctor or a scientist, but she can be a peer educator. With respect to AIDS and a lot of other problems facing teens, peer education is tremendously underrated. It's worked for me." Kate Shindle.

Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle has branched out in acting and has a relatively successful career on stage. She made her Broadway debut as Lucy in the Broadway production of the musical "Jekyll & Hyde" and played Sally Bowles in both the Broadway and national touring productions of the Tony-winning "Cabaret" revival. She now plays Vivienne Kensington, Elle Woods' main rival, in the Broadway musical based on the Amanda Brown novel and the 2001 film starring Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon, "Legally Blonde," which officially opened at Broadway's legitimate theater the Palace Theatre on April 29, 2007.

Having began singing at age 4, Shindle has provided her beautiful voice for a number of recordings and concerts. The 5' 11" beauty, who has chosen AIDS prevention as her platform issue during her Miss America duty, has traveled the country talking about HIV prevention, AIDS issues, and safer sex during her year of service. She has since continued participating in AIDS benefit events.

"...AIDS activism has become almost a trend. I personally never wear a red ribbon because I believe that actions speak louder than words or fashion accessories. As for my sincerity on the issue, I have always tried to demonstrate that I find meaning in the title of Miss America purely through the lives one can affect. I think it's pretty easy to tell if someone is sincere in their commitment to their platform issue, and mine has rarely been challenged, that I know of, anyway. But even if it were, I hope that I would be able to look beyond my own pride and see what's really important." Kate Shindle.

Kitty Lover

Childhood and Family:

Born on January 31, 1979 in Toledo, Ohio, Katherine Shindle grew up in Moorestown in the deep south of New Jersey. She attended Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in Pennsauken, New Jersey, where she appeared in shows like "Into the Woods" and "Godspell." She the went to Northwestern University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in theater and a certificate in musical theater in 1999. She has also done graduate level work at NYU and UCLA.

Kate now lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Harlem, New York City, alongside her kittens, Howard Roark and Vivvie.

Cabaret

Career:

Having began singing at age 4, 20-year-old Kate Shindle delivered the loudest-ever rendition of Barbra Streisand's popular song from the 1964 musical "Funny Girl," "Don't Rain on My Parade," which would impress judges of Miss America 1998, where she represented the state of Illinois as Miss Illinois 1997. After being crowned Miss America 1998, Shindle, who has chosen AIDS prevention as her platform issue, traveled the country talking about HIV prevention, AIDS issues, and safer sex during her year of service. She also participated in and chaired a session at a conference at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, becoming the first Miss America to travel outside the United States.

“My work with AIDS started after a professor in our theater department died right after I got to college, and subsequently a family friend discovered he was living with AIDS. Like most people, I didn't begin my activism until I learned the hard way that this epidemic could penetrate even my white, middle-class, suburban comfort zone. I always say that growing up, I knew that AIDS was killing people, but I didn't know whom or where. It's not that I was apathetic. It's just that I was uneducated.” Kate Shindle.

Graduating from Northwestern University, Kate Shindle moved to New York and got a job at a deli while trying to break into an acting career. She soon landed in the Broadway production of the musical based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Jekyll & Hyde," playing the beautiful prostitute Lucy, opposite Rob Evan in the title roles.

Not long afterwards, she returned to Broadway, starring as the English 19-year-old cabaret performer Sally Bowles, in both the Broadway and national touring productions of the Tony-winning "Cabaret" revival. Based on John Van Druten's play "I Am a Camera," which in turn was adapted from the novel "Mr. Norris Changes Trains" and a collection of short stories, "Goodbye to Berlin," by Christopher Isherwood, the production was directed by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall.

Shindle subsequently became a correspondent on the NBC morning news program "Today," as well as played small roles in Frank Oz's film adaptation of Ira Levin novel, "The Stepford Wives" (2004; starring Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, and Matthew Broderick), and Bennett Miller's Academy Award-winning biographical film, "Capote" (2005; starring Philip Seymour Hoffman). She was also spotted as a guest in an episode of CBS long-running soap opera, "As the World Turns."

During this time, Shindle, who has sung with The Atlanta Symphony, The Cincinnati Pops, and at popular New York venues including Joe's Pub, Birdland, Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex, Ars Nova, Danny's Skylight Room, has provided her beautiful voice for a number of recordings and concerts. Her first CD, “Christmases to Come,” was released in 1999 on SSP Records.It featured the Chicago jazz ensemble Skip Sams' Society Sound, and was used to promote AIDS awareness and raised money for the National AIDS Fund. Her first proper solo CD, “Till Today,” eventually hit the stores in 2003. It was produced by Skip Sams and released on Sams' own label. Later in 2005, Shindle recorded Frank Wildhorn's "Dracula," and "Jekyll & Hyde - Resurrection" in 2006, both on Wildhorn's label GlobalVision Records. Next, she will joins composer Jeremy Schonfeld for a concert in conjunction with the release of his new CD, “37 Notebooks,” in early May 2008 to benefit the Broadway Dreams Foundation.

Shindle also has done extensive regional work, including Arthur Miller's "After the Fall" (as Maggie) at The Alley, "Himself and Nora" (as Nora Barnacle) at The Old Globe, the musical "Gypsy" (as Louise), which was loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of the famous striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, "Into the Woods" (as Witch), the award-winning musical inspired by Bruno Bettelheim's 1976 book "The Uses of Enchantment," Agatha Christie's murder mystery "The Mousetrap" (as Miss Casewell), and "First Lady Suite" (as Amelia Earhart). Her other New York work includes William Shakespeare's classic romantic comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (as Helena), and "The Woman Upstairs" (as Kassan). She also won praise for her one-woman show, “Me and My Shadow: Songs I've Heard in Pageants,” and her headlining performance in “Nights on Broadway” at Caesars Atlantic City in New Jersey.

Additionally, Shindle, alongside her friend Jamie McGonnigal, co-founded the World AIDS Day Concerts to raise funds for various AIDS service organizations. It has since mounted productions of Stephen Schwartz's two-act musical play loosely based on the "Book of Genesis," "Children of Eden" (as Yonah), Stephen Schwartz's musical based on the life of the son of Charlemagne, "Pippin" (with Ben Vereen and Rosie O'Donnell), the musical based on the 1909 classic children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, "The Secret Garden" (as Mrs. Winthrop), and the musical "Rags."

"As an AIDS volunteer, I have seen victims lose their youth, their self-esteem, and their dreams for the future. Because AIDS is a major killer of Americans ages 25-44, it is critical for Miss America to show concern for the magnitude of this disease and its effect on the public." Kate Shindle.

Shindle now plays Vivienne Kensington, Elle Woods' (portrayed by Laura Bell Bundy) main rival, in the Broadway musical based on the Amanda Brown novel and the 2001 film starring Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon, "Legally Blonde." After a pre-Broadway tryout at the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco, the Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, officially opened at the Palace Theatre on April 29, 2007 to mostly positive reviews. It has since been recorded for an MTV airing and will be followed up by West End and US tour productions.

Meanwhile, Shindle has branched out in writing and her writing has been published in "Newsweek," "The Advocate" and "Poz." She has penned a novel titled "Crown Chasers," about a girl entering a pageant, and is currently working on her second novel, tentatively titled "November."

Next, Shindle will be featured in a concert version of the new musical “Tales From the Bad Years,” which will be directed by Daniel Goldstein. It will presented in early May 2008 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, located within the West Bank Cafe, where Shindle will be joined by Michael Arden, Nick Blaemire, Steven Booth, Josh Henry, Brynn O'Malley, Laura Osnes, Julie Reiber, Phoebe Strole, Natalie Weiss, and Josh Young.

"Five years from now, I want to have some strong theater and possibly TV and film credits, and I might be in L.A. I've also just released a Christmas CD benefiting the National AIDS Fund at www.ssprecords.com, and I am working on a demo, so I'd like to have a recording contract. In other words, I want a fairly stable career. Twenty years from now, who knows? If the world still has AIDS, I will still be an activist. Maybe a family, depending on how financially stable my life is. I don't want to have kids and have someone else raise them while I work all the time. I don't want to be 42 and still trying to figure out how I'm going to pay the rent every month, which is a definite possibility with a performance career. And the one thing I know for sure is that in 2019, I don't want "Miss America 1998" to be at the top of my resume. It will always be on there, just as it will always be part of who I am. I'm proud of that, but I don't want the only great achievement of my life to have come when I was 20. I feel like I still have a lot left to accomplish, and I can't wait to find out what new challenges lie ahead." Kate Shindle.

Awards:
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