On Saturday, July 17th, Encore is celebrating Susan A. Keady. This season marks her 25th year working with us. She has directed, choreographed, and worked as the artistic director for Encore Stage & Studio. In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, we sat down and had a good old fashioned interview about her time with Encore thus far. We talked about her most memorable shows, her motivations, and so much more. Alright, here we go! We’ll start at the very beginning. I hear it is a very good place to start.
Q1: What was your first show you directed with Encore?
My first show was in 1989, called Free to Be, adapted from the Ms. Magazine musical movie of the 1970’s. MS. Magazine gave me the freedom to adapt from their script, their music and their video to my individual production. I had already been adapting Shakespeare’s with editorial freedom, but this was my first project working with extant music, a book and a script.
It was very exciting because once I cast the show, I worked to discover the brilliant qualities that each actor brought to the cast and then the music director and I worked to weave the actors in and out the material – adapting the show to their individual talents.
Concurrently, I was hired to teach acting classes for Encore in Key Elementary school. So my first education and production experience were ongoing.
Let me just say that I was hired before there were navigation systems for cars, so I lived with an Arlington map in my front seat. I was zig-zagging daily all over Arlington county and the “location” perspective made my first experiences confusing. I was rehearsing in South Arlington in Gunston Middle School, where the all the Cultural Affair offices were located, teaching at Key Elementary in Roslyn but the show performed in Kenmore Middle School about mid county. Then, I met with the volunteer board at Jamestown Elementary periodically to update my progress in North Arlington.
Once I figured out how to criss-cross the county efficiently, I relaxed and began to enjoy the experience.
Q2: How did you first become introduced to Encore?
In the spring of 1989, I was directing at Kiss Me Kate at Rockville High School and Midsummer Nights Dream at Paint Branch High School in Maryland. Eventually, I was the drama and technical director for both schools. One night two Encore volunteers, Celeste Groves and Sherry Gainer attended a performances of Kiss Me Kate. They saw an extraordinarily talented cast of over 50 students, a crew of 20 and a full orchestra of over 30 students in the pit perform. After the show, they introduced themselves, asked if I would teach an after school acting class that autumn and direct Free to Be. They also asked if I would commit to directing the Stage Door the following summer. Celeste and Sherry were happy to see so many students actively engaged on stage, and they enthusiastically laughed and said “Oh, you will be able to handle Stage Door” The Stage Door Director, Patricia Tully-Hawkridge was a fellow alumni from George Washington University, leaving to start a family in Rhode Island, with her husband, Alan Hawkridge, who directed Act III, our summer Shakespeare production at LubberRun. Marian DiJulio, another GWU alumni, took Alan Hawkridge’s position as director of Act III (Encore’s summer shows) and eventually, she became the Encore Education director.
Q3: What are the roles/responsibilities you’ve had working with Encore Stage & Studio?
I have worked in every artistic, educational and practical production capacity possible, except stage lighting. It has been quite an adventure and if there was a job I didn’t know how to do, I called experts at Folger, Arena, National Theatre, university friends and faculty and they lead me to sources to learn how to do the job. Eventually I morphed into the administration area and boy – there was so much to be learned that I was convinced I would need to go after a second Master’s Degree to develop business skills for theatre.
Q4: What are your top three memorable shows at Encore and why?
The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1997. This was my first show as artistic director and ACT III director in 1997 posed a huge challenge in Gunston Theatre 2. We had a very large and detailed set that I thought was amazing, but our strike lasted until 4am with cast and crew entire families, including my own. I decided to never do that again! Also, I had so many community adults audition, I used them all, proving another challenge, as I worked to integrate a large cast of 40 plus people i ages 15 through 70. The large cast of experienced adults and recent college graduates and only a small number of high school students. We only had three crew members come out for that show; one of whom was my son who was 10 and, as he had already performed in three Shakespeares, he was confident as he worked as a props person, dressed as an urchin, entering an exiting with props or scenery as a tiny member of the cast. We also had two large dogs in the show and he took care of the dogs offstage. This show marked my first of dozens of creative collaborations with Matthew Heap, who is the current musical director of Shrek.
Winnie The Pooh, 1998. This was the show that turned Encore around with respect to audience size and financial solvency and also marks my first collaboration with Debra Leonard, as costume designer and she has worked all but one show since Pooh. It was another family affair for me with my dad, brother, husband, son and even my 2 year old daughter helping me build the set.
West Side Story, 1999 and My Fair Lady, 2000 tie as favorites due to the talented cast, crew, staff, and amazing sets. I sat through show after show and show. I loved to watch and listen night after night. I was very sad when both shows ended those summers. The shows had a special quality and continued through the run to draw large houses and sell many tickets. They were exciting.
Monster in the Closet, 2005 was a great opportunity to create many extra interesting roles, like the dream weavers. The “dream weavers” were a small group of cast members, who carried out my vision to incite imagination and create beautiful a dream-like stage, and they remain a favorite group of cast members.
Beauty and the Beast, 2009 pushed our boundaries with the set in a way that West Side and Fair Lady had challenged us and it had a large, fascinating and intricate set with a competent crew and talented cast. I never tired of watching and listening to the cast.
As You Like It, Narnia, Twelve Dancing Princesses, Alice in Wonderland, Free to Be You and Me, Charlie Brown, Sleepy Hollow, Hansel and Gretel, Brother’s Grim, Stuart Little, Three Musketeers, Kiss Me Kate, Suessical, Oklahoma, Legally Blonde, and now Shrek were all unique and wonderful experiences with great casts, crews and production staffs. The longer I think about each production, the harder it becomes to separate just 5 favorites!
Q5: What motivates you to continue working in the performing arts?
I began working on stage when I was cast as Guinevere in Camelot when I was 11 years old! I was an avid reader of all the King Arthur stories and I was so excited I had my lines memorized by the first rehearsal. By the end of the week I had everyone else’s lines memorized! To this day, I am still friends with many of my elementary school friends who were involved in the show. My next role was 9th grade as Juliet and I fell in love with Shakespearean roles. I auditioned for any Shakespearean role in any college in the area when I graduated high school, just for fun.
The stage incited a spark and an enthusiasm inside of me that never fades as I grow older. I sit and watch our productions and I feel like I experience the magic I felt when I was 11 years old. When I am watching a good production, sometimes I forget to exhale.
Although I continued to nurture other interests, theatre remained in my life as I grew up. In college I found that I continued to return to theatre over and over and, in fact, my theatre time interrupted any major I tried to follow. I finally gave in and now I hold a Bachelor of Theatrical Arts and a Masters Degree in Acting. I branched out into tv, radio and film to earn a living but my passion remains on the stage.
Q6: Students have learned so many skills through Encore and have grown in this organization, how has Encore Stage & Studio or the students participating impact you?
The children, students and young adults teach and inspire me, and children are, frankly, amazing. Each child has their own brilliance and, when given a chance, children shine brighter than we can imagine. Children never disappoint me with their creative impulses. Because of the children who come to auditions, my growth has been impacted through a series of iterative skill sets, especially, as a casting director. Casting a show to perfection is a skill that can only develop after working on hundreds of shows and auditioning thousands of children. Encore has given me this valuable experience.
I also credit to the Encore adults and parents who have nurtured, mentored and taught me. Encore consistently has a generous and wonderful group of adults who participate as Board of Director volunteers and a prolific production staff who have professional lives in other careers. They are driven by their hearts, to give back through theatre. They have been a pivotal resource for me, since I began, to create the infrastructure for production, education and live theatre. I continue to learn from all of the adults and especially, the production staff members all of whom have more technical knowledge than I.
In many ways, my first 20 years were fledgling as we created our theatre productions and our education classes. Presently, as Encore continues to grow through the administrative staff & guest artists, the resources grow and the opportunities are there for cast, crew or students to try just about anything they want to in theatrical arts. It remains an exciting adventure.
Q7: What do you enjoy most about being an artistic director for Encore?
I enjoy sitting in the dark theatre and hearing children laugh the most. Directing the vision of the theatre to remain appealing and true to the heart of a child is what I enjoy most. I still love casting, rehearsing, and directing. I especially enjoy the creative collaboration with the production staff as we develop how to make the next production more perfect than the last production.
Susan, thank you so much for all you have already done for Encore. We are eternally grateful. Here’s to the next 25 years.
Photos by Larry McClemons