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Durand and the theatre

At the The Adventures of Tom Sawyer site where the above photo also comes from, Durand lists Forever Plaid, Godspell (Unplugged) and Robin Hood as his favourite theatre gigs so it's pretty clear he's been in those 4 plays at the very least. Dark Angel Bios also lists Kiss Me Kate in addition. The Maximum Crowe KD Interview gives some sort of a timetable for what he's done before. To quote: "Always a performer, his professional acting career began at age 17, when he was picked for a five-month tour of Canada as a rapper in the show Spirit of a Nation.
Years later, he was touring with a production of Forever Plaid when he told his agent to start sending him on auditions for feature films. For "Mystery" -- the first film he auditioned for -- he flew to L.A. to play hockey with Russell and others in the cast. His run in Forever Plaid ended Dec. 17 (1997), and less than a week later he learned he'd won the part of Tree."

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Dec 6,2002/ Just found a couple of more reviews, thanks to the YahooGroup...

"There are a few dark thrills, mostly involving the stalwart villain of the adventures, the tall, raven-tressed Injun Joe of Kevin Serge Durant, whose baritone is as muscular as the arms that lift Tom Aldredge's boozy Muff Potter perilously aloft." --
MALCOLM JOHNSON
(Good heavens... All I can say to that)

"Kevin Serge Durand starts off with welcome menace as Injun Joe but fails to bring any range to the role (for which Ludwig is equally to blame)." -- E.
Kyle Minor

"Physically, Kevin Serge Durand is an imposing Injun Joe, but he needs more help from Ludwig and Ellis to establish his crucial character more firmly."
-- MARKLAND TAYLOR

"In addition, Kevin Durand's Injun Joe has plenty of power and presence, and a voice to match."

Tiny mention of Durand

Broadway reviews, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer:

Through it all, most of the cast pull off their assignments with a bright charm except, of course, the villainous Injun Joe (Kevin Serge Durand) whose charm seems more of the Javert/Chauvelin variety from “Les Miserables” and “Scarlet Pimpernel.”

I was able to find a review or two about his Broadway debut in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, where he played Injun Joe. A New Tom of Our Times has a very sweet and funny bit about Kevin and his inability to stop grinning for photos, plus a lot more, of course.
"Durand's a big grinning galoot, and it takes several tries before he can grimace menacingly in character for a photograph. "Can you lurk menacingly or something?" we ask. "You mean not smile?" And he tries, but the grin wins. "Uh," the photographer pleads, "can you not smile a bit more?"
New Haven Advocate Copyright ©2001 New Mass. Media, Inc.

New Haven Advocate comes up with 3 entries when you do a search for Durand, one going:

"A Little to the Left, Y'all
Not since Miss B threw her back out of whack hiding under that dumbwaiter at the Pierre has she heard of such a fine front-end alignment.
Apparently, Adventures of Tom Sawyer leads Kristen Bell (Becky Thatcher) and Kevin Durand (Injun Joe) had some kinks and soreness last week, so severe that it almost kept them from hucking it up on stage. To the rescue came local Edge of the Woods-based masseuse Susan Green with her portable table and nimble fingers. After she gave the stars the once-over, they were fit as a fiddle to do what country folk do. You know, whittle or something. ..."

How utterly fascinating. Canadians... ;) The world-scale news was written by Colleen Van Tassell and was published 03/22/01.

The third is about the opening of Tom Sawyer, a very interesting review you'll probably want to read completely. Durand is mentioned in the penultimate paragraph if you only want to read what it says about him. A partial quote to wet the appetite: "Kevin Durand plays Joe with a dour deadpan grimace and deep voice that reminds me of Caiaphas in Jesus Christ Superstar."

The last one is a Talkin Broadway review with only a brief mention of Kevin.

Other than that it's hard to say anything about his theatre career. Quite frankly I'm amazed I was even able to find that Godspell link. I wasn't in Canada (or the States) when he was performing in the plays, nor for the raps, comedy or anything else. The fact I've never been to Canada in the first place may be the explanation for that, though. Hmmmmh... Need to remedy that eventually, especially as I also want to try and catch Karl Pruner, JR Bourne and possibly Pedro Salvin in a play or something one day.

Jan '99 newsletter entry about Kevin from Canadian College of Performing Arts. The Stepping Up section has the brief mention of KD and it looks as if he either trained there or something similar. They do the Spirit of the Nation stuff in any case, probably that as the connection.

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