Directing
A Director Gets to Play Every Role...on and off the stage!
I have directed for most of my life, but I began my journey in the theatre as an actress. I participated in playing ensemble roles, supporting roles, leading roles, and performed in summer stock. I had experience working backstage in scenic crews and have been a designer. I was a costumer, prop mistress, tech crew member, and follow spot operator. I participated as an usher and as a house manager. From black box theaters to mainstage theaters, I was fortunate to learn and get hands-on experience.
When directing a play, it isn't just a focus on guiding the actors. The director clearly understands every character and their motivation. From selection to conception, from read-through to production, the director has broad-scope visioning of everything from the set, costumes, blocking, props, choreography, lighting, sound and more. If there is a problem - it is the director's concern and responsibility.
The Early Days
My first opportunity to direct was as the director of my Senior Class Play in high school. Once in college I was selected to be a director and my training in that arena grew. After graduation I earned a teaching credential to teach drama where I worked with youth of all ages. I taught drama workshops and led after-school enrichment programs. I also connected with churches where I directed both musical productions and led drama ministry teams. Eventually, I partnered with the Newport Season of the Arts program in Bellevue, Washington and was a resident director and co-administrator of this community theater outreach for over 10 years, until it closed its curtain. Throughout my career my focus has been on multi-generational community theatre in non-profit organizations.
Writing and Directing Variety Shows and Cabarets
There were occasions that an organization would want to present a cabaret, or a variety show that followed a theme. I would collaborate to write a script with a golden thread then direct those events. These fun productions often included choral ensembles, acting sketches, and musical solos.
Directing Major Musicals
Though the traditional play format is where I cut my teeth, it is in directing musicals that I find the most pleasure. Collaborating with a Musical Director to produce a production with a live orchestra is the best! My first musical direction was Godspell. I directed it two additional times in my career. From shorter simpler dinner theater productions to main stage musicals, the emotion that is elicited from the music, the acting, and the choreography touches the heart. There are so many shows I would still like to direct... so many shows, so little time!
A Sampling of Photos from Musical Productions Directed
Camelot
Fiddler on the Roof
South Pacific
Camelot is a musical with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics and a book by Alan Jay Lerner. It is based on the legend of King Arthur as adapted from the 1958 novel The Once and Future King by T. H. White. It is a rich production that features elaborate costumes, timeless music, and the depths of human nature regarding faith, love, and morality all woven with magic and folklore. The musical bundles humor, drama, romance all the while it carries the message, "Watch out what you ask for, you might just get it...". This incredible production was with Newport Season of the Arts in Bellevue, Washington.
South Pacific
Fiddler on the Roof
South Pacific
South Pacific is a musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. It was based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific and combines elements of several of those stories.
The plot centers on an American nurse stationed on an island in the South Pacific during World War II, who falls in love with a middle-aged expatriate French plantation owner but struggles to accept his mixed-race children. A secondary romance, between a U.S. Marine lieutenant and a young Tonkinese woman, explores his fears of the social consequences should he marry his Asian sweetheart. The issue of racial prejudice is explored throughout the musical. I still think this musical produces the best cast camaraderie. (Newport Season of the Arts Production)
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein. It is set in a small settlement in Imperial Russia around 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Dairyman) and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The musical centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love. We double cast the leads and a few daughters in this production. (Newport Season of the Arts production)
Godspell
Cotton Patch Gospel
Fiddler on the Roof
Godspell is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with the book by John-Michael Tebelak. It features a group of people who help Jesus teach his lessons through a series of parables primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music and games all set in a creative contemporary setting. It is a wild ride for a creative director. There are so many ways it can be produced. (Newport Season of the Arts Production)
Sound of Music
Cotton Patch Gospel
Cotton Patch Gospel
The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. Set in Austria on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938, the musical tells the story of Maria, who takes a job as governess to a large family while she decides whether to become a nun. She falls in love with the children, and eventually their widowed father. The musical is filled with memorable music and is perfect for a multi-generational cast. (Newport Season of the Arts Production)
Cotton Patch Gospel
Cotton Patch Gospel
Cotton Patch Gospel
Cotton Patch Gospel is a musical by Tom Key and Russell Treyz, with music and lyrics written by Harry Chapin and produced by Philip M. Getter just after Chapin's death in 1981. Based on the book The Cotton Patch Version of Matthew and John by Clarence Jordan. The story retells the life of Jesus as if in modern day, rural Georgia. Using a southern reinterpretation of the gospel story from the Book of Matthew in the Bible, the musical can be performed in a one-man show format, a small ensemble, or a larger cast can also be used. It features an energetic collection of music in a bluegrass style. Whooee! (Newport Season of the Arts Production