Nelda K. Balch

Building a Playhouse from the Ground Up

Kalamazoo is known world-wide for many things, with a focus often upon industry and the rich assortment of products that were developed and sold here. But it should be just as imperative to draw light upon those educational institutions that have also widened Kalamazoo’s reputation beyond our borders. Their centrality to the growth and progress of the area cannot be undervalued when employing history as a gateway to understanding the social fabric and cultural character of the city. It is with this in mind, that looking toward those individuals who came to Kalamazoo to teach or to learn, can offer hints at why such a character developed the way it did. One such cultural asset, whose vision and labor drew attention to Kalamazoo College, was Nelda K. Balch, a pioneering professor who transformed the college’s theater program upon her arrival to Kalamazoo in the mid-1950s.

Bringing the Avant Garde to Kalamazoo

Nelda Kurtz (1916-2011) was born on Kelley’s Island, Ohio to Robert and Lydia Kurtz, both children of German immigrants. A middle child of six other siblings, Nelda was raised to be independent and strong-willed. She knew from these early years that in order to be heard, she would need to be resilient and self-motivated. When she was in elementary school, her father was transferred to Alpena, Michigan for work. Nelda excelled in academics, which pleased her parents, both of whom surrendered their professional ambitions and academic pursuits to focus on the family’s financial stability. Their support and encouragement went a long way during the difficult years of the Great Depression, when many of her age left home and school for work opportunities. Unsure exactly what drove her passion for dramatic theater while young, Nelda’s reminiscences suggest it was certainly not from exposure to high quality theater in Alpena, as there was very little. Instead, she was inspired by an English teacher at her high school who stressed the values of living an intellectual and artistic life. She also took elocution lessons once a week from a local minister’s wife. She recalled that she was taught to recite the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar by a local minister and his wife, who had come to Michigan from the south.

“It wasn’t always that way. At first, there was Nelda Balch. Everything else followed”

–Professor of English, Conrad Hillberry

Later, Balch earned degrees at Albion College, the University of Minnesota. She chose Albion College after Dr. Kenneth Hance arrived in Alpena on a recruitment visit. Impressed with Nelda’s talent and determination, Hance offered her a scholarship and room and board at his family’s house, in exchange for Nelda being responsible for occasionally having to tidy up the residence. Balch’s post-graduate work found her at the prestigious campuses of the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and Yale University. During the war years, Balch relocated to England and France while serving as a director of “three private flying clubs at military installations.” Before she joined the faculty of Kalamazoo College, Nelda married Donald Balch in 1948, the two having met while Nelda was teaching at Linfield College in Oregon.

“What she meant to theater at Kalamazoo College can never expressed in just a few sentences, but I will say this: Every class we teach, every rehearsal we have and every play we stage at ‘K’ in some way carries on Nelda’s legacy, a vision of theater that always puts student learning first, and a vision of theater that never compromises artistic integrity to make things a little easier for the audience.”

–Ed Menta, 13 May 2011

Prior to her joining the college’s faculty in 1954, the small liberal arts college had very little of what could be considered a modern theater program. There was only a small, outdated auditorium in Bowen Hall for staged performances, and what little existed of educational opportunities for students to engage in the dramatic arts, was administered through the English and Speech Department. It would not take long before Balch developed her vision for a radically new, invigorated curriculum, one that placed student-learning at its center, with a focus on studying and staging challenging works of literature.

In 1958, Balch boldly staged Irish writer Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, arguably the most groundbreaking play of the second half of the 20th century, but one that initially perplexed and outraged audiences and critics. Balch and her students were the first college company in the country to perform Beckett’s seminal play. A beguiling work of symbols and ambiguous meanings, Beckett’s celebrated play (premiered in 1953) reshaped the form, content and appearance of dramatic theater. Balch had fearlessly tapped into the artistic and philosophical zeitgeist of the 1950s and 1960s, embracing the cutting edge works that challenged both students and audiences. During her time in Kalamazoo, Balch was involved with over 200 productions. As much success as she had in growing the program’s reputation, Balch often had to justify her choices of literature to superiors that worried that such frank content might offend some of the Baptist school’s more conservative backers. Ultimately, Balch’s vision was one grounded in the importance of education.

“The theatre program, for her, was not merely a college entertainment, nor a small church-oriented school’s drama club. She wanted Kalamazoo College to vie for its place with large, well-known universities in theatre, as it did in other areas. That meant producing contemporary works as well as classics, experimenting with new forms as well as the traditional. It meant bringing the real world of theatre onto the college campus.”

Empancipated Spirits, p.290

Festival Playhouse

The motto for the Festival Playhouse is Theatre that is always provocative. Theatre that is always thoughtful. Without the pioneering influence of Balch, a far less strident and uncompromising motto might have taken root. Established in 1964, the Festival Playhouse was Balch’s development program that provided students with the opportunity to engage with intense, modern works of drama during summer months. Administered by Balch until her retirement in 1981, professional actors were invited to participate in working directly with students. The much admired actor Karl Malden came to campus as an actor in residence in 1970.  She told the Kalamazoo Gazette in 1985 that, “I wanted to bring a certain kind of theater to Kalamazoo during the summer, and we selected avant-garde, recently translated and classic plays.” Another pivotal moment in the development of Balch’s vision was when the Dorothy Upjohn Dalton Theatre was opened in 1977. Finally able to leave the archaic Bowen Hall behind, the new theater was outfitted with contemporary technologies and features. Dalton, a ‘K’ alumni, trustee and longtime actor was a good friend of Balch, the two of them having bonded over an appreciation of the dramatic arts. Decades earlier, Dalton had been an important part of the creation of the Kalamazoo Civic Players. The two women’s close collaboration over the years contributed to the continual growth and support of both campus and community theater.

Balch retired from teaching in 1981, eventually settling in Florida in her later years. At the time of her retirement, the college renamed the Playhouse Theater after Balch. Balch passed away in 2011.

Article written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, February 2025