A legacy of civic engagement
Matilda Manning Kunin’s love of theatre began on a riverboat trip down the Mississippi at around age four, when she won a talent contest by offering an impromptu telling of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. By age 12, living in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, she was directing productions in her backyard. Her mom and dad took turns driving her to see performances at the Cleveland Playhouse.
Matilda knew she wanted to explore theatre in education. Attending Northwestern University, she performed in student productions and graduated in 1956 with a BS and MS in Speech and Education. Moving to New York City, she volunteered on the psychiatric ward of Cornell Medical Center and landed a job at New York Telephone Company, working her way into a managerial position.
She married Richard Kunin, on his way to becoming a doctor. They lived in Minneapolis for a year or so, then headed west in 1962 after Dick passed his board exams and was offered a job at Stanford.
In San Francisco, Matilda began a remarkable run of civic engagement and public service. While giving talks at public schools about dramatic arts, she met Gretchen de Baubigny, a volunteer storyteller, and together (in 1963) they founded San Francisco School Volunteers. It grew into a juggernaut that brought thousands of parent volunteers into more than 100 schools throughout the community, providing students with individualized attention and supporting teachers inside and outside the classroom.
An inspirational presence, Kunin raised funds and volunteered for the San Francisco’s Boys Chorus, Meals on Wheels, San Francisco Medical Society Auxiliary, Little Jim Club of Children’s Hospital and the San Francisco Ballet. She traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent Arts in California alongside Henry Fonda. As head of the drama department at the Town School for Boys, where she worked for 28 years, Matilda directed multiple shows annually, often with scripts she herself authored or adapted.
Matilda Kunin in 2016
© Amal Bisharat Photography
In 1983, she founded Young Performers Theatre to honor the memory of her young son Anthony and provide instruction for kids as well as entertainment the entire family could experience together. Under her leadership and with the support of her family and friends, YPT became a mainstay of the Bay Area arts scene — offering participation in fully staged repertory productions free of charge and expanding its programming into schools and community centers to serve youth who lacked access to theatre arts-based enrichment opportunities. After retiring in 2016, Matilda was succeeded by her protégé and longtime artistic director, Stephanie Holmes.
“She thought the arts complete the child,” Matilda’s surviving son, Gregory, told the San Francisco Chronicle after her passing in 2018. “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.”