Master of Science Becomes Master of the Stage

Kortney Adams SM '00 transformed herself from environmental engineer to professional actor in the past decade, a process that has been at best a complicated one. Although she dabbled in drama in high school, Adams describes herself as “a classic engineering kid who took things apart and put them back together to see how they worked.”

As an engineering undergraduate at Washington University at St. Louis, Adams continued to act in her spare time. In her first job with an environmental consulting company, Adams traveled continuously to supervise hazardous waste cleanup sites. She no longer had time for theater, and that made her miss it more.

Coming to MIT to pursue graduate work, Adams assumed that her future professional responsibilities would likewise make acting impossible. She decided that it was “my last chance, so I was almost constantly in shows,” she says. “My advisor, Professor Trish Culligan, was very patient.”

“I have a special fondness for MIT because I feel like I found my art there,” says Adams. “I loved working with so many creative people and not feeling blocked out just because I was an engineer.”

Among her many memorable parts on campus: the title role in the MIT Shakespeare Ensemble’s production of Richard III.

After graduating with a master’s in engineering, the private sector beckoned but Adams demurred.

“I enjoyed consulting, but something else was calling me,” said Adams. While she felt that she could be perfectly content with environmental engineering, “I wanted to shoot for blissfully happy.”

Adams spent the next year working in a travel agency while figuring out what direction to take. “When 9/11 happened, suddenly the travel business tanked. Everyone reexamined what they were doing in their lives,” she remembered.

As a new year's resolution that winter, Adams decided to become an actor.

Other people who made a transition to acting after their MIT years gave Adams advice. These included Teresa Huang '97, a script writer, producer and actress in Los Angeles. After a year, Adams accumulated enough jobs to quit her temporary job as bartender and has been a full-time actor ever since. Her credits include movies, commercials, plays, and other performances. Adams narrated Make Way For Ducklings with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in 2003.

Clearly, her work has paid off. The Boston Globe praised Adams’s portrayal of a pregnant artist in From Orchids and Octopi, citing both her “warmth and intelligence” in her character’s “complex, changing, and utterly believable relationship with her husband.” Reviews for other roles described her as “classy and elegant” and complimented her “layered and intelligent performance.”

This spring, Adams will star in the Wheelock Family Theater’s production of Pippi Longstocking in Boston.

“One of my favorite things about being an actor is how much I learn that I wasn’t exposed to as a math and science kid,” Adams says. “I love getting to step into the shoes of all these different people and different cultures. Now I’ll get to learn about Pippi Longstocking and why kids love her.”