10.03.2015 Views

Download a PDF - Stage Directions Magazine

Download a PDF - Stage Directions Magazine

Download a PDF - Stage Directions Magazine

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

School Spotlight<br />

Teachers Make the School<br />

Tony-nominated director Marcia Milgrom Dodge talks about why she<br />

and other successful professionals teach at AMDA<br />

All photography courtesy of AMDA<br />

Marcia Milgrom Dodge started her career as a choreographer,<br />

moving to New York City in 1977 to pursue<br />

her dream. After numerous choreography credits in<br />

regional theatre and Off-Broadway she added directing to<br />

her résumé in the mid-‘90s. Her directing and choreography<br />

work on several productions at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag<br />

Harbor, New York, caught the attention of playwright Terrence<br />

McNally, who suggested she direct and choreograph the 2009<br />

Kennedy Center revival of Ragtime. When the show transferred<br />

to Broadway Marcia made her Broadway debut and was nominated<br />

for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical.<br />

In the late ‘90s she started teaching at the American Musical<br />

and Dramatic Academy. We asked her why, with all her success,<br />

she still makes it a top priority to teach at AMDA.<br />

Q What is it about teaching that keeps you coming back?<br />

A Marcia Milgrom Dodge: Well, I think it’s a necessity for<br />

me on some level because it gets me back to basics in terms<br />

of really paying attention to actors and what their process is.<br />

Acting is a different kind of animal—I mean acting is a process,<br />

and as I started out directing, I knew what I wanted from<br />

actors, but I was never really sure how to get it from them. So<br />

once I started studying methods and learning acting technique<br />

myself, by teaching it, I became a much more patient<br />

director and much more willing to take the journey with the<br />

actor. I continue to teach because I love it. I’m able to have an<br />

effect on new members of the theatrical community, young<br />

performers who are going to take steps to become professionals,<br />

and to be there at that inception is very exciting. As you<br />

work with students and cultivate them, they become stronger<br />

and more effective and they sort of surpass you in their ability<br />

to make choices about roles. I try to inspire my students to<br />

really understand who they are playing and why they do what<br />

they are doing, and that comes with them being well-rounded<br />

human beings as well. It’s a fascinating journey, and it’s about<br />

people struggling to achieve their dream. So it’s a great place<br />

to be; it’s a very positive place to be.<br />

Q How does AMDA create that environment?<br />

A Well, I think we have an amazing faculty, and what’s great is<br />

that a majority of the faculty are all professionals. Sometimes in<br />

universities you have faculty members that are academics, but<br />

at AMDA you have faculty members that are professionals—and<br />

the work ethic you need to succeed as a professional performer<br />

is passed on to the students. I think the fact that you have<br />

devoted professionals teaching really sets AMDA apart. Every<br />

single faculty member that I work with is a professional. Really,<br />

I think schools are their teachers, and I think that AMDA has the<br />

best teachers in all areas of theatre.<br />

Q And what can those teachers give students?<br />

A<br />

What AMDA does is create people with an appreciation for<br />

the theatre, and what goes into making theatre. And they have<br />

incredible facilities to do this. They’re in a space that used to be<br />

the Alvin Ailey building in New York City and they’ve completely<br />

Marcia Milgrom Dodge<br />

“I think the fact that you have<br />

devoted professionals teaching<br />

really sets AMDA apart.”<br />

—Marcia Milgrom Dodge<br />

40 October 2010 • www.stage-directions.com

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!