Three years ago, I began an Artist in Residency program at my home in Costa Rica. Slowly the residency has built from three sessions (a total of seven artists) the first year (based only on my own mailing list) to nine residencies this year with three artists here at a time. I will again be offering nine next year. The word is out, and it is now listed in several writers’ newsletters. Last summer it was sent to alumni of a musical theatre MFA program. Several graduates of musical theatre programs have attended, which has added an extra delight to my hosting, as I have loved musical theatre since I was a child. It is fun having residents here who are developing scripts, working on both the libretto and music. The first group here donated a portable keyboard they had brought. Music will often drift out of the casita or from the porch, reminding me of the halls of Juilliard.
My introduction to musical theatre began with dancing to recordings in my friend Regina’s living room. I’ve written about it in an earlier blog sharing how much fun we had dancing to musicals of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Here’s a link to that blog.
In 1956, my Dad had a business meeting in NYC and decided to take my mom and me along. Knowing how much I loved musicals, he got us tickets to see My Fair Lady with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison, and Gypsy with Ethel Merman. If I wasn’t hooked before that trip I certainly was after it. I loved seeing the musicals on stage, not just listening to the records. And of course, as an enthusiastic 13-year-old, I insisted on waiting at the stage door to get autographs. Julie Andrews was so sweet, inviting me to stand under her umbrella (it was lightly drizzling) as she signed my autograph. The night before, Ethel Merman wouldn’t even stop to acknowledge me. Oh well… I still loved her performance in Gypsy.
From then on, Mom and I regularly went to see musicals at the Nixon Theatre in downtown Pittsburgh. One highlight was seeing Damn Yankees, with a cast member Al Checco. My Mom remembered him from when he would hang out at my grandparents’ house during the WWII. He and my uncle had not been drafted and were in school at the time, in a music and theatre program. My father had been drafted and so my Mom and I were living at my grandparents’ house. It was quite lively with my uncle’s friends often playing music and singing in the living room. At Damn Yankees, I asked if we could go backstage and of course we did. I had fun seeing the reunion between my Mom and Al, with Al being very kind to me, having remembered me as a toddler.
I’m not sure exactly how old I was then, but I was old enough to apply to be an usher at the Nixon Theatre for Saturday afternoons. I don’t think I got paid, and it must have been some special program they had for high schoolers to get to see more theatre. For at least two years I regularly ushered, and my favorite thing was when a show was there for more than one week and I could see it twice. When Can-Can came to town and was there for two weeks, I noticed that the person who had recreated Kidd’s original choreography, Socartes Birsky, was touring and performing in the production. I boldly went backstage after the show and introduced myself to him and invited him to come and visit my house on his day off and to see a piece I was choreographing to Ravel’s Bolero. He did come and was very polite and encouraging. He joined us for dinner and then one of my parents drove him back to the hotel where he was staying.
My choice for attending Perry-Mansfield was based on Helen Tamiris being the guest teacher for the first three weeks. She was a pioneer of modern dance as well as a choreographer of several Broadway shows. My experience of working with her for three weeks profoundly impacted my life. Here’s a blog where I have written about working with her.
When I realized how important it was to be a triple threat for a career in musical theatre, and my singing voice just couldn’t cut it, I put my performing focus on modern dance.
I did choreograph a high school production of The King and I and later directed community musical theatre. I have written about my experience directing Fiddler on the Roof. Here’s the link to see that blog.
Having graduates of musical theatre programs in residence working on original theatre pieces is a delight. We have lively conversations about favorite musicals. I learn about new trends and recommendations of books to read and where to find musicals online that I might not know about. I’ll be exploring that in Part II. I end this blog with a picture of the group currently in residence. They graduated from Berklee’s Theater Arts Collaborative in New York City last year. They are continuing to work on Coretta – The Musical that they started when a part of the program.
