Collaboration Part Four: The Choreographer

I met Karma Camp (is there a better name out there?) in 1998 when I came down to Signature for the first time to direct the world premiere of Norman Allen's play Nijinsky's Last Dance. It was the first regional gig for me, so I was given my design team and my choreographer. I didn't have a problem with it. In fact I was excited to have new voices join the conversation. Happily the whole experience was blissful and I learned many new things from my new colleagues. Karma swears to this day that I was more than a little standoff-ish at our first meeting, which I don't find hard to believe. When I'm nervous or feel intimidated or out of my element, my defense mechanisms can be decidedly chilly. Luckily for me Karma is one of the most charming people you could ever meet. It's literally disarming, and we soon found ourselves getting along famously. I'm not the kind of director who calls in the choreographer the minute that music starts playing. I like to do my own musical staging on certain numbers, and my shows tend to be pretty physical. That can be tricky with a choreographer because in the end you really don't want to see where the director's work ends and where the choreographer's work takes over. Karma and I always have intensive discussions about the story of each number and where we need to get to by the end of it in regards to story. It's never about the steps. It's about story. It's Karma's mantra which is just one more reason I love her. It's a collaboration I treasure. Once again ego never gets in the way. I know, and I'm pretty sure that Karma would agree, that we depend on each other's critical eye to assess each other's work. And I really love when we stage a number or sequence together, getting inspired by one another's ideas. And honestly, it just makes life easier during a show LOL. When I do all the staging on a show, it's just more exhausting obviously. This morning I realized on the way to rehearsal that Karma was staging two numbers all morning which allowed me to be out of the rehearsal room doing script work. Whew. Breathe. She also has become one of my dearest friends-- family really. That reminds me of another lovely benefit of working in the theatre. Each show we work on, we get a kind of new insta-family and usually, at least for me, one person from each project sticks around, becoming an integral part of my life. 

Below is a picture of Karma and me from one of our most enjoyable working experiences together. We worked on a wonderful piece called Twice Charmed: an original twist on the Cinderella story that was done for Disney on one of their cruise ships. Well give me a deck chair and some sun, and I'm happy. This picture was taken on Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. The Disney Magic is behind us.